they lay there, they were awakened by many men coming, and heard them jumping about on the roof.
"Then Qitdlarssuaq sprang out on the floor, and they heard only the cries of the fleeing men outside.
"Then they slept the night there, and next day travelled home.
"Another time Qitdlarssuaq was hunting with an orphan. They were bear-hunting. They drove a long way out to sea, and had lost sight of land; and while they were far out, suddenly there arose a gale that split the ice up into floating floes. Nowhere was there even one narrow bridge to the land. And the gale was driving them out to sea.
"'Lie down in the sledge and shut your eyes!' called out Qitdlarssuaq to the orphan. 'If you open them even once, we are both dead men.'
"And the orphan lay down in the sledge, and his eyelids were as if they had been glued together. And, as he lay there, he suddenly noticed that the sledge and the dogs were moving rapidly in towards land. And they were going along at a furious pace. Then the orphan grew curious, and raised his left eyelid just a very little. And behold! Qitdlarssuaq had turned himself into a bear, and he was trotting along, pursued by his own dogs, and wherever he trod, the sea became ice which bore the sledge and the dogs. All at once the one runner sank through the ice and the orphan was all but drowned, and he made haste, and no mistake, to shut his eyes again.
"Thus they drove on for a long time; then suddenly the dogs stopped.
"'Get up and look about you,' said Qitdlarssuaq, and he was standing in his own shape by the side of the sledge, on land.
"But when the boy looked out where they had driven, it was all foaming sea. So great a power had Qitdlarssuaq when he was a young man. But you, Merqusâq, do you tell what it was you wished to say. Or I could easily talk you to sleep with tales about the great man, my grandfather. And the sun is still high in the heavens!" concluded Panigpak.
