And then, as often happens in time of dearth, there came many poor people wandering over the ice, from the south, wishing to get some good thing of all that Qujâvârssuk caught. Once there came also two old men, and they were his mother's kinsmen. They came on a visit. And when they came, his mother said to them:
"Now you have come before I have got anything cooked. It is true that I have something from the cooking of yesterday; eat that if you will, while I cook something now." Then she set before them the kidney part of a black seal, with its own blubber as dripping. Now one of the two old men began eating, and went on eagerly, dipping the meat in the dripping. But the other stopped eating very soon.
Then Qujâvârssuk came home, as was his custom, with two seals, and said to his mother:
"Take the breast part and boil it quickly."
For this was the best part of the seal. And she boiled it, and it was done in a moment. And then she set it on a dish and brought it to those two.
"Here, eat."
And now at last the one of them began really to eat, but the other took a piece of the shoulder. When Qujavarssuk saw this, he said:
"You should not begin to eat from the wrong side."
And when he had said that, he said again:
"If you eat from that side, then my catching of the seals will cease." But the old man became very angry in his mind at this order.
Next morning, when they were about to set off again southward, Qujâvârssuk's mother gave them as much meat as they could carry. They went home southward, over the ice, but when they had gone a little way, they were forced to stop, because their burden was so heavy. And when they had rested a little, they went on again. When they had come near to their village, one said to the other:
"Has there not wakened a thought in your mind? I am very angry with Qujâvârssuk. Yesterday, when we came there, they gave us only a kidney piece in welcome, and that is meat I do not like at all."
"Hum," said the other. "I thought it was all very good. It was fine tender meat for my teeth."
At these words, the other began again to speak:
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