Qaudjaqdjuq

He did not even dare to join the plays of the other children, as they also maltreated and abused him on account of his weakness.

When the inhabitants assembled in the singing house Qaudjaqdjuq used to lie in the passage and peep over the threshold. Now and then a man would lift him by the nostrils into the hut and give him the large urine vessel to carry out. It was so large and heavy that he was obliged to take hold of it with both hands and his teeth. As he was frequently lifted by the nostrils they grew to be very large, though he remained small and weak.

At last the man in the moon, [the protector of orphans] who had seen how badly the men behaved towards Qaudjaqdjuq, came down to help him. He harnessed his dog. Tirie’tiang to his sledge and drove down.

When near the hut he stopped and cried, “Qaudjaqdjuq, come out.” Qaudjaqdjuq answered, “I will not come out. Go away!” But when he had asked him a second and a third time to come out, he complied, though he was very much frightened. Then the man in the moon went with him to a place where some large boulders were lying about and, having whipped him, asked, “Do you feel stronger now?” Qaudjaqdjuq answered: “Yes, I feel stronger.” “Then lift yon boulder,” said he. As Qaudjaqdjuq was not yet able to lift it, he gave him another whipping, and now all of a sudden he began to grow, the feet first becoming of an extraordinary size. Again the man in the moon asked him: “Do you feel stronger now?” Qaudjaqdjuq answered: “Yes, I feel stronger;” but as he could not yet lift the stone he was whipped once more, after which he had attained a very great strength and lifted the boulder as if it were a small pebble. The man in the moon said: “That will do. Tomorrow morning I shall send three bears; then you may show your strength.” He returned to the moon, but Qaudjaqdjuq, who had now become Qaudjaqdjuaq (the big Qaudjaqdjuq) returned home tossing the stones with his feet and making them fly to the right and to the left. At night he lay down again among the dogs to sleep. Next morning he awaited the bears, and. indeed, three large animals soon made their appearance, frightening all the men, who did not dare to leave the huts.

Then Qaudjaqdjuaq put on his boots and ran down to the ice. The men who looked out of the window hole said, “Look here, is not that Qaudjaqdjuq? The bears will soon make way with him.” But he seized the first by its hind legs and smashed its head on an iceberg, near which it happened to stand. The other one fared no better; the third, however, he carried up to the village and slew some of his persecutors with it. Others he pressed to death with his hands or tore off their heads, crying: “That is for abusing me; that is for your maltreating me.” Those whom he did not kill ran away, never to return. Only a few who had been kind to him while he had been poor little Qaudjaqdjuq were spared, among them the girl who had given him the knife. Qaudjuqdjuaq lived to be a great hunter and traveled all over the country, accomplishing many exploits.

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