ld think that they,
too, had arisen and were dressing.

When it had come full daylight next morning the men of Exaluq wondered
why the young man did not come back to them, and presently they went
to find out. They peeked into the spy-hole of the window and saw the
lamps burning, but no people inside the hut. They discovered the body
of the dead man, and then when they looked they saw the tracks of
sledges.

They wondered very much how the women could have gone away on sledges,
since they had no dogs, and they feared some other people had helped
them to get off. They hastily harnessed their own dogs and started in
pursuit of the fugitives.

The women whipped their dogs and journeyed rapidly, but the pursuers
had older and tougher animals and were likely to overtake them soon.
They became very much frightened, fearing that they would all be
killed in revenge for the death of the young man.

When the sledge of the men drew near and the women and children saw
that they could not escape, the boy who had slain the man said to the
old woman:

"The spirits of our murdered men are calling to us to cut the ice.
Cannot you cut it?"

"I think I can," she answered, and she slowly drew her first finger
across the path of the pursuers, muttering a magic charm as she did
so.

The ice gave a terrific crack, and the water came gushing through the
crevasse. They sped on, and presently she drew another line with her
finger, and another crack opened and the ice between the two cracks
broke up and the floe began to move.

The men, dashing ahead with all speed, could scarcely stop their dog
team in time to escape falling into the open water. The floe was so
wide and so long that it was impossible for them to cross, and thus
the women and children were saved by the art of their conjurer.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The actual statement both here and on page 39 is that the woman
and the Man in the Moon beat the pups and the boy with sticks to make
them grow. Is not our birthday beating, "one for each year and one to
grow on" a survival of this ancient superstition?

VI

THE BIRD WIFE

Itajung, one of the Inuit tribe, was vexed because a young woman would
not marry him, so he left his home and traveled far away into the land
of the birds. He came to a small lake in which many geese were
swimming. On the shore he saw a great many boots. He cautiously crept
near and stole a pair and hid them.

Presently the birds came out of th