Ailaq.

And so it was our fathers used to tell: when any man killed his fellow
without good cause, a monster would come and strike him dead with fear,
and leave no part whole in all his body.

The people of old times thought it an ill thing for men to kill
each other.

This story I heard from the men who came to us from the far side of
the great sea.

PATUSSORSSUAQ, WHO KILLED HIS UNCLE

There lived a woman at Kugkat, and she was very beautiful, and Alataq
was he who had her to wife. And at the same place lived Patussorssuaq,
and Alataq was his uncle. He also had a wife, but was yet fonder of
his uncle's wife than of his own.

But one day in the spring, Alataq was going out on a long hunting
journey, and made up his mind to take his wife with him. They were
standing at the edge of the ice, ready to start, when Patussorssuaq
came down to them.

"Are you going away?" he asked.

"Yes, both of us," answered Alataq.

But when Patussorssuaq heard thus, he fell upon his uncle and killed
him at once, for he could not bear to see the woman go away.

When Patussorssuaq's wife saw this, she snatched up her needle and
sewing ring, and fled away, following the shadow of the tent, over
the hills to the place where her parents lived. She had not even
time to put on her skin stockings, and therefore her feet grew sore
with treading the hills. On her way up inland she saw people running
about with their hoods loose on their heads, as is the manner of the
inland folk, but she had no dealings with them, for they fled away.

Then, coming near at last to her own place, she saw an old man,
and running up, she found it was her father, who was out in search
of birds. And the two went gladly back to his tent.

Now when Patussorssuaq had killed his uncle, he at once went up to
his own tent, thinking to kill his own wife, for he was already weary
of her. But she had fled away.

Inside the tent sat a boy, and Patussorssuaq fell upon him, crying:

"Where is she? Where is she gone?"

"I have seen nothing, for I was asleep," cried the boy, speaking
falsely because of his great fear. And so Patussorssuaq was forced
to desist from seeking out his wife.

And now he went down and took Alataq's wife and lived with her. But
after a little time, she died. And thus he had but little joy of the
woman he had won by misdeed. And he himself was soon to suffer in
another way.

At the beginning of the summer, many people were g