as from the bladder float, and this although there was no one there. This thing the old man did not like at all.
When the winter was coming near, the old man said one day to Qujâvârssuk:
"Now that time will soon be here when the whales come in to the coast."
One night Qujâvârssuk had gone out of the house, when he heard a sound of deep breathing from the west, and this came nearer. And because this was the first time he had heard so mighty a breathing, he went in and told the matter in a little voice to his wife. And he had hardly told her this, when the old man, whom he had thought asleep, said:
"What is that you are saying?"
"Mighty breathings which I have heard, and did not know them, and they do not move from that side where the sun is." This said Qujâvârssuk.
The old one put on his boots, and went out, and came in again, and said:
"It is the breathing of a whale."
In the morning, before it was yet light, there came a sound of running, and then one came and called through the window:
"Qujâvârssuk! I was the first who heard the whales breathing."
It was the strong man, who wished to surpass him in this. 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[1] 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 got it full of water, and drew it up again on to the shore, and turned the stem in towards land and poured the water out, and for the second time he drew it down into the water. And not until now did he begin to look about for rowers. They went out, and when they could see ahead, the strong man of Amerdloq was already far away. 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,
- ↑ Umiak: a large boat, as distinct from the small kayak.
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