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And a second time Anarteq swam quickly up to the umiak. Again the father tried to draw in his paddle when the son took hold of it, but this time he could not move it. But then at last he drew it quite slowly to the surface, in such a way that he drew his son up with it. And then Anarteq became a man again, and hunted for many years to feed his kin.
The brothers' house was just below the hillside where she was, and as soon as she came home, they fled away with her. But at the same moment, the whale came out from the passage way of its house, and rolled down into the sea. The umiak dashed off, but it seemed as if it were standing still, so swiftly did the whale overhaul it.
In Samoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted to the women, it is taboo for a man to engage in any part of the process. Among the Andamanese the performance of most of the domestic duties falls to the lot of the women and children. Only in cases of stern necessity will the husband procure wood or water. An Eskimo even thinks it an indignity to row in an umiak, the large boat used by women.
Asalôq, men say, had a foster-brother. Once when he had come home after having been out in his kayak, his foster-brother had disappeared. He sought for him everywhere, but being unable to find him, he built a big umiak, and when it was built, he covered it with three layers of skins. Then he rowed off southwards with his wife. And while they were rowing, they saw a black ripple on the sea ahead.
At last they came out, and walked and walked and came farther on. And it was now beginning to be light. As soon as they came to the place, they cut the moorings of the umiak, and hastily made all ready, and rowed out to the farthest islands. They had just moved away from land when they saw a number of people opposite the house.
And then they began pulling arms. And now Asalôq began mightily pulling the arms of all the men there, until the skin was worn from his arm, leaving the flesh almost bare. And when he had straightened out all their arms, he went out of that house the strongest of all, and went out to his umiak and rowed away southwards with his wife.
Qujâvârssuk said nothing, as was his custom, but the old man said: "Qujâvârssuk heard that while it was yet night." And they heard him laugh and go away. The strong man had already got out the umiak into the water to row out to the whale. And then Qujâvârssuk came out, and they had already rowed away when Qujâvârssuk got his boat into the water.
He had a wife, and she was the only living being in the place beside himself. One day his wife was out looking for stones to build a fireplace, and looking out over the sea, she saw many enemies approaching. "An umiak and kayaks," she cried to her husband. And he was ill at ease on hearing this, for he lay in the house with a bad leg. "My arrows bring my arrows!" he cried.
Before he had come up to where he was, Qujâvârssuk told his rowers to stop and be still. But they wished to go yet farther, believing that the whale would never come up to breathe in that place. Therefore he said to them: "You shall see it when it comes up." Hardly had the umiak stopped still, when Qujâvârssuk began to tremble all over.
Abel in this brief interval had left the splitting table and had ascended the sloping rock a little way, where she now stood, shading her eyes with her right hand and gazing intently seaward. Suddenly she began gesticulating wildly, and shouting, and over the water to Abel came the words: "Umiak! Umiak!" Abel arose deliberately in his skiff, and looking in the direction in which Mrs.
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