[Footnote 14: See foot-note on p. 616.]
[[Footnote 9: “.... The full text will be found in the
Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie,
Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Berlin, 1888.”]]
In days of yore, an enormous man, whose name was Inugpaqdjuqdjualung,
lived in company with many other Inuit in a village on a large fjord.
He was so tall that he could straddle the fjord. He used to stand thus
every morning and wait for whales to pass beneath him. As soon as one
came along he stooped and caught it, just as another man would scoop up
some little thing that had fallen into the water, and he ate it as other
men eat a small piece of meat.
One day all the natives had manned their boats to hunt a whale.
Inugpaqdjuqdjualung at the time was sitting lazily near his hut, but
when he saw the efforts of the men he scooped both whale and boats from
the water and placed them upon the beach.
At another time, being tired from running about, he lay down on a high
hill to take a nap. The Inuit told him that a couple of huge bears had
been seen near the village, but he said he didn’t care, and told his
friends to rouse him by throwing large stones upon him if they should
see the bears coming. They did so and Inugpaqdjuqdjualung, suddenly
starting up, cried: “Where are they? Where are they?” When the Inuit
pointed them out he said: “What! those little things? Those are not
worth the bustle; they are small foxes, not bears,” and he crushed one
between his fingers, while he put the other into the eyelet of his boot
and strangled it there.