9. THE BROTHERS VISIT THEIR SISTER.

9.
THE BROTHERS VISIT THEIR SISTER.

[This tale is very popular in Greenland. Traces of it are also found mixed up with other tales from Greenland, and with one from Labrador. Here the text is very nearly a literal translation from a single manuscript, by a native of South Greenland.]

A MAN had three children; the eldest was a daughter. She married a man from a far-away place in the south while her brothers were still little children. In their boyhood they were not aware of their having a sister, because their father purposely never mentioned it to them. At last they had become quite grown up, and began to catch seals, and still they had never heard of their sister, until one day the mother said, "I think ye don't even know that ye have got a sister!" Upon which they immediately began asking about her place of abode; to which the mother replied, "Look there; do you see the high mountains yonder to the south of us? Beyond these is the winter station of your sister, whose hair, strange to say, is quite white on one side. However, ye p. 129 must not think of going there, for the people she is living among are all cannibals." On hearing this the eldest brother changed his mind, and gave up the idea of going; but the younger one still longed as much as before to see his sister. The mother tried to dissuade him, but he wanted to go more than ever. The following day the brothers set out on their journey, but the parents warned them, saying, "If ye reach the country yonder in the day-time ye must wait the fall of night, and not go near them until they are all asleep, lest ye should be murdered by them." And when they had gone away the parents gave them up for lost. The travellers reached the high mountains in the south, and began to examine the land below, in order to discover houses. At length the eldest brother said, "When people are found to be living at the foot of the mountains, the ravens will be sure to be soaring in the air above." At last they observed a craggy hill, above which a great number of ravens were flying. The brothers now turned away from the frozen sea and made for the shore, where they at length secured their sledges, and waited the fall of night. But when it had become quite dark, and when they supposed the inhabitants to have gone to bed, they again drew nearer. They were now in sight of many houses, the first of which had three windows; and having gone close up to it, they cautiously mounted the roof and looked down the vent-hole; and saw a nasty-looking man sitting in front of the lamp beside his wife, who seemed in the act of picking the lice off him, and who appeared to be quite white on one side of her head. The eldest brother now got up and said, "Were we not told that our sister was to be white-haired on one side of her head? do come and see!" The younger brother now looked down, and perceiving her, exclaimed in great consternation, "Why, that must surely be our sister sitting down there! Just spit down through the hole, before the lamp, and when they notice that, some one will probably p. 130 come out." The moment he spat down, the woman gave the man a push, and said, "Somebody must have come from afar to see us; do make haste and get up!" On which he instantly rose, took up his bow, and went outside. When they saw him emerge from the house-passage, carrying the bow ready bent in his hand, the eldest brother accosted him before he had set eyes upon them, saying, "We have come here to visit our sister, and have been told that she is quite white on one side of her head." The other answered him in a whisper, "Your sister is within; please go in." On entering he at once played the part of a brother-in-law to them, and ordered a meal to be prepared. The wife put on her boots, and told some of the children to assist her; and the guests soon understood that the only housemates of their sister were her children. The beams for boot-drying were hung all over with boots and skin-stockings, according to their several sizes, the biggest outermost. Sometime afterwards a large tub of berries mingled with blubber was set before them, and their sister asked them to partake of the meal. The brothers were almost beginning to feel at ease, and were just going to help themselves, when suddenly, in the bottom of the tub, they caught sight of a human hand, cut off at the wrist, clutching the berries, and very much shrunk. They merely said, "We don't eat such food as this;" but she only drew the tub closer to herself, and began to eat along with the children. When she took hold of the hand, and had taken a bite of the thumb, the children all cried, "Mother, do let us have some too!" The eldest brother now got up, and went close beside her, saying, "Hast thou also turned cannibal?" and giving her husband a pull, she answered, "This nasty fellow has made me one." Meanwhile the brother-in-law ordered something separate to be cooked for them on the lamp, but cautiously added, "Mind ye don't let it burn p. 131 too high, lest our neighbours should detect us, and make a row about it." Suspending the pot above the lamp, and at the same time addressing her brothers, his wife now put in, "When our people caught a whale last winter, and it was brought ashore to be cut up and flensed, a man happened to have a fall, and was cut up with it." Before the meal was ready the host whispered to his children, "Go out and cut asunder all the lashings of our neighbours' sledges, but beware of making a noise." The children all went out immediately, and when they came back he inquired of them, "Have ye done as I told ye to all of them?" "Yes," they answered, "we have." But still they had forgotten one of them. When the meat was boiled, and they had commenced eating, the host said, "As soon as ye have finished I shall accompany you a little way off; but as soon as ye have left the mainland I'll give a shout, and ye'll just see what will happen." On their departure, after supper, he addressed them, saying, "Ye now know our place of abode; do come back and visit your sister." Upon which he saw them off in their sledges, and away they fled; but as soon as they turned out upon the ice he gave a great shout, and cried out aloud, "The visitors are setting off—the visitors are going to leave!" and when they looked around, the place was black with people, crowding the doorways and windows. Some had just caught hold of their clothes, and others were quite naked, and in this state they all hastened off to their sledges; but when they were about to start, the sledges all broke down. Meanwhile the travellers had taken fright, and urged on their dogs as fast as possible; but turning round they perceived one sledge to be following them, and apparently gaining upon them. The brother-in-law having likewise observed it, hastened to pursue it, and killed the driver, besides a number of the other people, and afterwards filled his sledge with human limbs; and thus p. 132 freighted, he returned to his house. But the brothers reached home late at night, and reported how their sister had turned a cannibal, and how they had barely escaped death through the aid of their brother-in-law. But they never saw their sister again.