THE INSECTS THAT WOOED A WIFELESS MAN

There was once a wifeless man.

Yes, that is the way a story always begins.

And it was his custom to run down to the girls whenever he saw
them out playing. And the young girls always ran away from him into
their houses.

And when the time of great hunting set in, and the kayak men lived
in plenty, it always happened that he shamefully overslept himself
every time he had made up his mind to go out hunting. He did not wake
until the sun had gone down, and the hunters began to come in with
their catch in tow.

One day when he awoke as usual about sunset, he got into his kayak
all the same, and rowed off. Hardly had he passed out of sight of
the houses, when he heard a man crying:

"My kayak has upset, help me."

And he rowed over and righted him again, and then he saw that it was
one of the Noseless Ones, the people from beneath the earth.

"Now I will give you all my hide thongs with ornaments of walrus tusk,"
said the man who had upset.

"No," said the wifeless man; "such things I am not fit to receive;
the only thing I cannot overcome is my miserable sleepiness."

"First come in with me to land," said the Fire Man. And they went
in together.

When they reached the place, the Noseless One said:

"This is the man who saved my life when I was near to death."

"I happened to save you because my course lay athwart your own,"
said the wifeless man. "It is the first time for many days that I
have been out at all in my kayak."

"One beast and one only you may choose when you are on your homeward
way. And be careful never to tell what you have seen, or it will go
ill with your hunting hereafter."

Those were the Fire Man's words. And then the wifeless man rowed home.

But when the time for his expected return had come, he was nowhere to
be seen, and the young girls began to rejoice at the misfortune which
must have befallen him. For they could not bear the sight of that man.

But then suddenly he came in sight round the point, and at once
all cried:

"Here comes one who looks like the wifeless man."

And then all the young unmarried girls ran into their houses.

"And the wifeless man has made a catch," one cried.

And hardly had the evening begun to fall when the wifeless man went
to rest, and hardly had the light appeared when the wifeless man went
out hunting, long before his fellows. Hardly had the sun appeared in
the sky, when the wifeless man came h