enly the walls and frame of the house
began to shake, and next moment a crowd of ghosts came tumbling into
the house, one after the other, and the last was one whom he knew,
for it was his sister, who had died but a little time before.

And now the ghosts sat about on the floor and began playing; they
wrestled, and told stories, and laughed all the time.

At first Qalaganguase was afraid of them, but at last he found it a
pleasant thing to make the night pass. And not until the villagers
could be heard returning did they hasten away.

"Now mind you do not tell tales," said the ghost, "for if you do as we
say, then you will gain strength again, and there will be nothing you
cannot do." And one by one they tumbled out of the passage way. Only
Qalaganguase's sister could hardly get out, and that was because
her brother had been minding her little child, and his touch stayed
her. And the hunters were coming back, and quite close, when she
slipped out. One could just see the shadow of a pair of feet.

"What was that," said one. "It looked like a pair of feet vanishing
away."

"Listen, and I will tell you," said Qalaganguase, who already felt
his strength returning. "The house has been full of people, and they
made the night pass pleasantly for me, and now, they say, I am to
grow strong again."

But hardly had the boy said these words, when the strength slowly
began to leave him.

"Qalaganguase is to be challenged to a singing contest," he heard
them say, as he lay there. And then they tied the boy to the frame
post and let him swing backwards and forwards, as he tried to beat the
drum. After that, they all made ready, and set out for their singing
contest, and left the lame boy behind in the house all alone. And
there he lay all alone, when his mother, who had died long since,
came in with his father.

"Why are you here alone?" they asked.

"I am lame," said the boy, "and when the others went off to a singing
contest, they left me behind."

"Come away with us," said his father and mother.

"It is better so, perhaps," said the boy.

And so they led him out, and bore him away to the land of ghosts,
and so Qalaganguase became a ghost.

And it is said that Qalaganguase became a woman when they changed
him to a ghost. But his fellow-villagers never saw him again.

ISIGALIGARSSIK

Isigaligarssik was a wifeless man, and he was very strong. One of
the other men in his village was a wizard.

Isigalig