the breathing of the whale, he looked round after it, and there lay
the beast like a great rock close beside Qujavarssuk. And he called
out to him from the place where he was:

"Harpoon it!"

Qujavarssuk made no answer, but his rowers were now even more eager
than before. When the whale had breathed long enough, it went down
again. Now his rowers wished very much to go farther out, because
it was not likely that it would come up again in that way the next
time. But Qujavarssuk would not move at all.

The whale stayed a long time under the water, and when it came up again
it was still nearer. Now Qujavarssuk looked at it again for a long
time, and now his rowers became very angry with him at last. Not until
it seemed that the whale must soon go down again did Qujavarssuk say:

"Now row towards it."

And they rowed towards it, and he harpooned it. And when it now
floundered about in pain and went down, he threw out his bladder float,
and it was not strange that this went under water at once.

And those farther out called to him now and said:

"When a whale is struck it will always swim out to sea. Row now to
the place where it would seem that it must come up."

But Qujavarssuk did not answer, and did not move from the place where
he was. Not until they called to him for the third time did he answer:

"The beasts I have struck move always farther in, towards my house."

And now they had just begun laughing at him out there, when they heard
a washing of water closer in to shore, and there it lay, quite like a
tiny fish, turning about in its death struggle. They rowed up to it
at once and made a tow line fast. The strong man rowed up to them,
and when he came to where they were, no one of them was eating. Then
he said:

"Not one of you eating, and here a newly-killed whale?"

When he said this, Qujavarssuk answered:

"None may eat of it until my mother has first eaten."

But the strong man tried then to take a mouthful, although this had
been said. And when he did so, froth came out of his mouth at once. And
he spat out that mouthful, because it was destroying his mouth.

And they brought that catch home, and Qujavarssuk's mother ate of
it, and then at last all ate of it likewise, and then none had any
badness in the mouth from eating of it. But the strong man sat for a
long time the only one of them all who did not eat, and that because
he must wait till his mouth was well again.

And the strong man of A