Page:The Netsilik Eskimos (1931).djvu/290

If only I could get up on that hill.

On the very top

And sit down.

Do you forget it was 1 who gave you the breast,

I who had you on my lap.

And never did your piss become sour in your trousers.

Do you forget that I licked you clean, clean?"

"Aningâ, licked you clean, clean!" the mother shouted every time she came up before disappearing again in the sea. At last they quite lost sight of her. Then the brother and sister left their village and wandered in over the land, ashamed at having killed their mother.

They walked and kept on walking in over the land. At last they came to nuna ikualArtǝq: a burning land; a kind of belt of fire was running over the earth, and this fire pursued them wherever they turned. It was the dead Agtulg-rârnân trying to take revenge on them. At last, when they could not get round it the brother jumped over the fire and the sister followed him. Her ako, the flap of her coat, was burned, but otherwise she got over unharmed.

They went on, and continued to go on and on. Then they came to aglun Ersautit: seal thongs stretched out for athletic exercises; they entirely barred their way, and besides they were as if alive; for every time they attempted to go round them the thongs kept on moving in front of them. It was the dead Agtulg-rârnân who wanted to revenge herself. At last, as they could not evade them, the brother jumped up on to the thongs and climbed over. His sister did the same, and in that way they got over.

They came to trolls with claws like seals'. They went on and kept on going. And they came to trolls who lived in holes in the ground; they were not real humans and they lived inside the earth (nunäp iluane inugluit). The brother was very thirsty and asked his sister to get some water for him.

"My brother is thirsty and asks for water," she cried in to them.

"Here is the water-vessel (po'gutaq), take your coat off and come in," they replied.

They were trolls with claws like seals' (mitqe' ja'titluit näcErtut kukiglit). She went in to them after taking her coat off, and at once they fell upon her and were about to pull her to pieces. But her brother came to her aid and killed them all. An old troll, doubtless