nd mother made search for them in vain, for the girls
kept hiding themselves; they had grown to be true mountain dwellers,
keeping far from the places of men. Only the reindeer hunters saw them
now and again, but the girls always refused to go back to their kin.

And when at last the time came when they must die of hunger, they
turned into evil spirits, and became thunder.

When they shake their dried boot skin, then the gales come up, the
south-westerly gales. And great fire is seen in the heavens whenever
they strike their fire stone, and the rain pours down whenever they
shed tears.

Their father held many spirit callings, hoping to make them return. But
this he ceased to do when he found that they were dead.

But men say that after those girls had become spirits, they returned
to the places of men, frightening many to death. They came first
of all to their father and mother, because of the trouble they had
made. The only one they did not kill was a woman bearing a child on
her back. And they let her live, that she might tell how terrible
they were. And tales are now told of how terrible they were.

When the thunder spirits come, even the earth itself is stricken with
terror. And stones, even those which lie on level ground, and not on
any slope at all, roll in fear towards men.

Thus the thunder comes with the south-westerly gales; there is a noise
and crackling in the air, as of dry skins shaken, and the sky glows
from time to time with the fire from their firestone. Great rocks,
and everything which stands up high in the air, begin to glow.

When this happens, men use to take out a red dog, and cut its ear until
the blood comes, and then lead the beast round about the house, letting
the blood drip everywhere, for then the house will not take fire.

A red dog was the only thing they feared, those girls who were turned
to thunder.

NERRIVIK

A bird once wished to marry a woman. He got himself a fine sealskin
coat, and having weak eyes, made spectacles out of a walrus tusk,
for he was greatly set upon looking as nice as possible. Then he
set off, in the shape of a man, and coming to a village, took a wife,
and brought her home.

Now he began to go out catching fish, which he called seal, and
brought home to his wife.

Once it happened that he lost his spectacles, and his wife, seeing
his bad eyes, burst out weeping, because he was so ugly.

But her husband only laughed. "Oho, so you saw