THE VISITOR.

An old hag lived in a house with her grandson. She was a very bad woman

who thought of nothing but playing mischief. She was a witch and tried

to harm everybody by witchcraft. Once upon a time a stranger came to

visit some friends who lived in a hut near that of the old woman. As the

visitor was a good hunter and procured plenty of food for his hosts, she

envied them and resolved to kill the new comer. She made a soup of

wolf’s and man’s brains, which was the most poisonous meal she could

prepare, and sent her grandson to invite the stranger. She cautioned him

not to say what she had cooked, as she knew that the visitor was a great

angakoq, who was by far her superior in wisdom.

The boy went to the neighboring hut and said: “Stranger, my grandmother

invites you to come to her hut and to have there a good feast on a

supper she has cooked. She told me not to say that it is a man’s and a

wolf’s brains and I do not say it.”

Though the angakoq understood the schemes of the old hag he followed the

boy and sat down with her. She feigned to be very glad to see him and

gave him a dish full of soup, which he began to eat. But by help of his

tornaq the food fell right through him into a vessel which he had put

between his feet on the floor of the hut. This he gave to the old witch

and compelled her to eat it. She died as soon as she had brought the

first spoonful to her mouth.

The Central Eskimo Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-1885, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 399-670 · 第 55 / 146 题