ll sick. And among them was
Navssarssuaq. The sickness killed him, and thus the avenging spirit
was not able to tear him in pieces.

ARTUK, WHO DID ALL FORBIDDEN THINGS

A man whose name was Artuk had buried his wife, but refused to remain
aloof from doings which those who have been busied with the dead are
forbidden to share. He said he did not hold by such old customs.

Some of his fellow-villagers were at work cutting up frozen meat for
food. After watching them for a while as they worked at the meat with
their knives, he took a stone axe and hacked at the meat, saying:

"That is the way to cut up meat."

And this he did although it was forbidden.

And on the same day he went out on to the ice and took off his inner
coat to shake it, and this he did although it was forbidden.

Also he went up on to an iceberg and drank water which the sun had
melted there, knowing well that this was likewise forbidden.

And all these things he did in scorn of that which his fellows
believed. For he said it was all lies.

But one day when he was starting out with his sledge, fear came upon
him, and he dared not go alone. And as his son would not go with him
willingly, he took him, and bound him to the uprights of the sledge,
and carried him so.

He never returned alive.

Late in the evening, his daughter heard in the air the mocking laughter
of two spirits. And she knew at once that they were laughing so that
she might know how her father had been punished for his ill-doing.

On the following day, many sledges went out to search for Artuk. And
they found him, far out on the ice, torn to pieces, as is the way
with those whom the spirits have punished for refusing to observe
the customs of their forefathers. And the son, who was bound to the
sledge, had not been touched, but he had died of fright.

THE THUNDER SPIRITS

Two sisters, men say, were playing together, and their father could
not bear to hear the noise they made, for he had but few children,
and was thus not wont to hear any kind of noise. At last he began to
scold them, and told them to go farther away with their playing.

When the girls grew up, and began to understand things, they desired
to run away on account of their father's scolding. And at last they
set out, taking with them only a little dogskin, and a piece of boot
skin, and a fire stone. They went up into a high mountain to build
themselves a house there.

Their father a