One day when he returned home after dark unsuccessful again, his wife looked into the quiver that he had left outside the house. There she saw four arrows tipped with the nails from four little fingers, which she immediately recognized as her brothers’. She wept over them for a time, then wiped her eyes and went inside without letting her husband know what she had discovered. In the morning, when she arose to cook the breakfast as usual, she sharpened her big knife, saying to herself, “My husband is sound asleep, presently I shall kill him.” She went into the kitchen (iγa) for a while, and when she came back her husband was still sleeping, so she picked up her knife and cut his throat; then she crossed the river to her brothers’ home and went inside.

    There were her brothers all stretched out dead; dead too were their wives and children and the woman’s father; her husband had slain them every one, and taken the little finger nails from all the men. She wept, then gathered up their quivers, their beads, their wolverine and wolf skins and everything that was of value, for they had been very prosperous. She packed them all into a kayak and started off down stream. All day she travelled, carried along by the swirling waters.

    Towards evening she heard a voice calling “My grandchild, my grandchild, come and look at me;” so she turned the kayak ashore and landed, drawing her boat up on to the bank. Climbing the bluff, she looked all around, but saw nothing. She heard the voice again, this time saying, “My grandchild, you almost stepped on me.” Then she noticed a small mound of turf and, kicking off the top, found a man’s head underneath. It said to her, “My grandchild, you see that big village downstream there at the first point? Those people are very wicked; they never hunt caribou or any other kind of game, but feed on men all the time. By and by you will see them. But at the second point beyond them is another large village, and there the people are good; they eat caribou and never kill men. Start out in the night, and when the first people are about to seize and kill you, think of me. I have a sister at the second village living with her grandchild, and she has a large dog of which these near villagers are afraid.”

    So the woman set out about midnight and kept close to the bank, holding on to the trees to check the speed of her kayak. The wicked people were asleep, all except one man who came out of his house and saw her passing. He gave the alarm, and the people rushed out and pursued her. They had almost overtaken her when she thought of her grandfather—the skull which was buried in the ground. Immediately she fell into a profound sleep, and when she awoke she found herself lying alongside of him. “Ah, my grandchild,” he said to her, “You were very slow in thinking about me.” “Yes,” she said, “I was.” “Well then,” he continued, “Start out again at midday. By and by, when you are safe, you will plant a stick in the ground and fasten to it a little blubber and a deer-skin and some beads. That is all that I want.”

    So she started out at midday, keeping this time to the middle of the stream, and passed the first village unseen. She saw the inhabitants there lead a man up to a great fire, and, gathering round him, slay him with a horn and dismember him, broiling the pieces over the fire and licking up the blood; but she herself passed unseen and reached the second village.

    There she landed near a small hill in which there was a cave. Placing the kayak with all that it contained within the cave, she approached a house which stood not far away. Lying on the roof of the passage was a large dog which pricked up its ears at her approach. She was very frightened. “This must be my grandmother’s dog,” she thought, and ran hurriedly into the house. Finding a very old woman inside, she exclaimed, “Oh, my grandmother!” The old woman answered, “Why, my granddaughter, where have you come from?” “From far up the river,” she replied. “My husband killed my father and all my brothers;” and forthwith she related all that had happened to her.

    Some of the people in the village had noticed her arrival and a woman came into the house with her sons. The old grandmother was lying on the sleeping platform. She said to her grandchild, the young widow: “There is someone coming. You had better hide behind my back.” So the young woman climbed up and concealed herself. The visitor entered the house and said to the old woman: “Where is your daughter?” I want her to marry one of my sons.” But the old womin apswered “I have no daughter, only a grandson whom you know already.” Thus she got rid of her visitor. As soon as she had gone the old woman turned to the young widow and said, “That woman wanted to take you away and marry you to one of her sons.” But her granddaughter replied, “I don’t want to marry anyone but this grandson of yours.”

    So the young widow married the old woman’s grandson. She told her husband about the kayak and the other things that she had hidden in the cave, and they set out with the dog to bring them in. The man placed the kayak and all that it contained in one of the dog’s ears, while he himself and his wife climbed into the other. Away galloped the dog, and very soon they were home again. Then the dog said to them: “Tomorrow we shall go and look for caribou.”

    So on the morrow the man placed his bow and arrows in one ear, and climbed with his wife into the other. Soon they sighted two caribou. The dog lay down while the man jumped out and shot them both with his bow and arrows. Then the dog sprang up and ran to where the dead animals were lying. The man put the two caribou with his bow and arrows inside the one ear, climbed into the other again, and all returned home.

    Not long afterwards he sought out a stick, and he and his wife set it up in the ground on top of the hill. They strung a little blubber and a deerskin and some beads to the top of the stick. Next morning when they went to look at it, the stick was still there, but everything they had hung upon it had disappeared—their grandfather had taken them away. After that the two lived for many years; they became rich and had many children.