113. MANIK

113. MANIK was a great seal-hunter, but his mother in vain urged him to take a wife. He continued a bachelor, till one day he suddenly ordered his mother to make ready the boat for removing from the place. As soon as she had made all ready, he hastened up to the house of the chief hunter, who at the time was absent, and carried away his daughter, crying and struggling in vain to be released. Having placed her on the boat he at once pushed off, and made for the north with all speed. At the first inhabited place they came past he again carried away a woman; and this continued until he had got a complete boat's crew of rowing girls. He continued his voyage the whole season, till at length, having reached the far north, the frost set in, and for the time obliged him to take up his quarters there. While wintering here, and making excursions into the country, he once came to a solitary house, where he had an adventurous meeting with the ghost of a deceased woman; and from there he came to another, where he found the people feasting upon various meats, which they kept hauling from the ground by help of magic lays. The next year he set out for his own country, returning to their relatives all the women, excepting only the first one, whom he kept for his wife.