"It is
related of a man and his wife
that they began to beat each
other. At last, while they were
beating each other, he stabbed
his wife in the foot-soles with
a knife. Now she would no longer
stay in the house, but fled from
her home as a mountain walker,
crawling along in the moonshine.
When she
had got up into the country, she
sat down there in the bright
moonshine, and there she now
remained. At last she began to
say: 'Moon, come down to me!'
And the she again remained
sitting for some time. To be
sure, it now began to darken.
The Moon was darkened, it began
to grow quite dark.
At last
she could begin to hear a
tremendous rumbling, something
that rumbled tremedously. It was
the Moon coming down to her, the
great man in the Moon. He began
to open his great sledge-skins,
beautiful, large bear-skins.
Only the lower one he left where
it was. Then he said to the poor
beaten woman: 'Please, now only
sit down here.'
She sat
down on his sledge, and when she
had sat down, he covered her
with the other skins. Then they
drove off. The Moon carried her
away with him. They drove and
drove. After some time, the
sledge ceased making a noise; it
could be heard no longer to have
firm ground under it. When she
realized that, she discharged
her spittle. When she had done
so, it did not last long before
they could again be heard to
make a noise. But now the Moon
said to her: 'For the time being
thou must let be spitting!'
Then again
they drove for a little while,
and it did not take long, before
they could again be felt not to
have firm ground under them,
because the sledge now made no
noise. Thus they kept on driving
along. At last they seemed to
have stopped, and the Moon began
to open the many sledge-skins,
and when he had removed them
all, she indeed opened her eyes
wide. On the large meat platform
she could see the animals
moving; they were alive, both
bears and other great animals.
When she
now came up beside him, he, the
Moon, invited his (new) wife to
enter, saying: 'Please enter,
but take care not to look into
the side-house, for my little
sister is apt to singe all that
is strange to her!' Thus the
Moon said to her. She now went
in, and she was on the point of
glancing towards the side-house,
but alas one side of the border
of her hood was singed.
Then she
sat down on the sleeping
platform and for the time being
remained sitting there. At the
front wall of the house she
caught sight of some poor human
beings, their faces were one
broad grin - they had no
entrails. Thus she now sat
there. At last, after some time,
the Moon entered, and he now
said: 'Look at those poor
fellows there without entrails,
they are those my cousin has
deprived of their entrails!'
He had
given one of them something to
chew, but as usual it fell down
through him, where the entrails
had been removed. Whenever they
swallowed something, they had
chewed a little, it fell right
through them. The Moon now said
to her: 'Look here! My poor
cousin, the entrail-snatcher, he
will surely come in to take away
thy entrails, but now listen how
to act. Thou must begin to blow
and at the same time to thrust
thy hands in under the front
flap of thy fur coat, holding
them so that they resemble a
bear, then he must take himself
off. Do thus, whenever thou art
on the point of smiling!' Thus
he told her to act.
Finally,
at one time, he could really be
heard to enter to them, he, the
poor cousin of the Moon, the
entrail-snatcher, carrying a
dish and a large knife, in order
to try to snatch the entrails of
the human being. And look! At
the window his wife stood and
kept on saying: 'She smiles!'
The entrail-snatcher began to
dance a drum dance, with
ridiculous movements, and they
only looked at him, while he
sang:
My little
dogs, I get them food, / My
little dogs, I get them food, /
ha-ahing, ha-ahing, ha-ahing.
While he
acted thus, his poor wife all
along stood at the window
saying: 'She smiles, she smiles,
she smiles!' She was
tremendously busy telling her
husband that she smiled. At last
she could hardly let be smiling
when looking at him, but she
placed her hands under the front
part of her fur coat and blew
violently, as the Moon had told
her to do. And indeed he took
himself off, the
entrail-snatcher, over there,
saying: 'One with blubber (i.e.,
a bear) is heard!'
Then he
disappeared, and the Moon took
his dish and flung it violently
into the window platform. There
it now lay, while the
entrail-snatcher took himself
off. When he had taken himself
off, it did not last long before
he attempted to send for it.
'His dish, it is said, can he
have it?' 'He may fetch it
himself', said the Moon. 'Let
him fetch it himself!' 'His
dish, it is said!' Thus they
continued for a long time. But
when the Moon only kept on
saying that he himself should
fetch it, then the other one
said at last: 'The
entrail-snatcher is going to
overturn the great mountain, it
is said!'
But the
Moon only answered: 'All right,
let him overturn it!' And indeed
the other answered: 'All right,
it is said, let them only look
on!' The great Moon went
outside, and there the
entrail-snatcher sat, facing the
mountain and beginning to move
his feet. The large mountain
indeed began to move a little.
'Give it him, give it him!' the
Moon said at last. 'Give it him,
give it him.' Finally he gave it
him, and then the
entrail-snatcher took himself
off for home.
When he
had now returned home, and
evening fell, the Moon and the
woman went to bed, but they had
difficulty in sleeping. All
along she could hear something
groaning. Then the Moon took it
and threw it away from the
platform - it was the thigh-bone
of a seal. His little wife - she
was very jealous indeed. He only
threw her away.
Thus she
now lived there, and the Moon at
last began to go out hunting and
always stayed away long. One day
when cleaning the house, she
caught sight of the
shoulder-blade of a reindeer
behind the lamp. She removed it,
and what did she see? A large
hole, deep, deep down. Thus they
now lived there.
Sometimes,
it is told, when the Moon was
out hunting and stayed away
long, the Sun used to come and
peep in. It wore men's kamiks,
and its hams were bleeding
violently. One day it said to
her: 'I have wounds on the hind
parts of my thighs, because thy
children make string figures,
while the Sun shines, at the
time of the year when it rises
higher in the sky!'
At last,
one day, it is told, the Moon
opened the reindeer
shoulder-blade over there at the
wall behind the lamp and said to
the woman: 'Peep down there!' It
was dark. 'They are down there,
thy relatives!' And then he
closed it again. And thus they
now lived there all along. One
day the Moon began to whittle a
walrus tusk; he whittled
violently at it, and at last he
let his whitting fall down
through the hole and closed it
again. After some time he opened
it again a little, and he again
said to her: 'Peep down there!'
She again
began to peep down, and now she
saw her family, her two
children, who were out in the
open. Her husband stood at the
entrance of the store-house with
his hands in his sleeves,
looking at his two children
playing. When she saw him
standing thus, looking with his
hands in his sleeves (because it
was cold), she pitied them. Then
the Moon again closed the hole
and said to her: 'If there is
anything special thou desirest
to eat (during thy pregnancy),
then I will bring it thee!' And
she ever remained there.
Then at
long last she really became
pregnant. She really became with
a child, the Moon having her as
his wife. Then one day they went
on a visit to the
entrail-snatcher: 'Let us go to
pay a visit to my cousin!' The
poor dogs of the
entrail-snatcher were crawling
on the floor and in under the
sleeping platform: they were
quite hairless. She looked at
them: 'How horrible they are!'
When they had been there for a
little while, they left them
again and went out. Thus she now
lived there, while the Moon ever
went out hunting.
At last
she had become pregnant indeed,
and the man in the Moon made up
his mind to take her away. When
she began to be desirous of
eating special things, because
she was with child, he brought
her down to her relatives, and
when he had taken her home, he
said to her: 'I will always
provide thee with food!' The
Moon took her home on his
sledge. Now at last she was
again at home with her
relatives. When he had brought
her down from up there, she
immediately went to see her
little children, and from then
onwards she remained at home
with her husband.
Indeed,
she sometimes heard something
falling down, and being now very
near her time, she used to go
out in order to take the things
which were meant for her to eat.
Also her lamp was always amply
provided with blubber, coming
down from the drying frame. Of
what her husband caught she
never ate. Then, at last, she
gave birth to a large boy. Her
husband said that she should eat
from what he had caught, but she
kept on eating from what the
Moon dropped to her, never
wanting to eat from what her
husband had caught.
However,
her large boy now began to grow
older. At last an old woman once
gained a march upon her and took
that which had fallen down
outside the house, and then the
Moon ceased to drop things.
Neither was her lamp any more
provided with blubber. Thus she
was at last obliged to eat from
what her husband had caught. Her
large boy now grew fast, and
having once begun to go out
hunting, he soon became a very
able hunter. All kinds of
animals he caught which were
sent to him by the generous man
in the Moon. Whenever he drove
on a sledge towards the
icebergs, a large bear used to
emerge from them. Her large son
often caught bear, when he grew
older, and thus he ever went
on." (Told by Amaunalik
as recorded by Erik Holtvid,
1951 - Arctic Sky)
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