float, and this although there was no one there. This thing
the old man did not like at all.

When the winter was coming near, the old man said one day to
Qujavarssuk:

"Now that time will soon be here when the whales come in to the coast."

One night Qujavarssuk had gone out of the house, when he heard a sound
of deep breathing from the west, and this came nearer. And because
this was the first time he had heard so mighty a breathing, he went in
and told the matter in a little voice to his wife. And he had hardly
told her this, when the old man, whom he had thought asleep, said:

"What is that you are saying?"

"Mighty breathings which I have heard, and did not know them, and they
do not move from that side where the sun is." This said Qujavarssuk.

The old one put on his boots, and went out, and came in again,
and said:

"It is the breathing of a whale."

In the morning, before it was yet light, there came a sound of running,
and then one came and called through the window:

"Qujavarssuk! I was the first who heard the whales breathing."

It was the strong man, who wished to surpass him in this. Qujavarssuk
said nothing, as was his custom, but the old man said:

"Qujavarssuk heard that while it was yet night." And they heard him
laugh and go away.

The strong man had already got out the umiak [3] into the water to
row out to the whale. And then Qujavarssuk came out, and they had
already rowed away when Qujavarssuk got his boat into the water. He
got it full of water, and drew it up again on to the shore, and turned
the stem in towards land and poured the water out, and for the second
time he drew it down into the water. And not until now did he begin to
look about for rowers. They went out, and when they could see ahead,
the strong man of Amerdloq was already far away. Before he had come up
to where he was, Qujavarssuk told his rowers to stop and be still. But
they wished to go yet farther, believing that the whale would never
come up to breathe in that place. Therefore he said to them:

"You shall see it when it comes up."

Hardly had the umiak stopped still, when Qujavarssuk began to tremble
all over. When he turned round, there was already a whale quite near,
and now his rowers begged him eagerly to steer to where it was. But
Qujavarssuk now saw such a beast for the first time in his life. And
he said:

"Let us look at it."

And his rowers had to stay still. When the strong man of Amerdloq heard