Читать книгу Animal Stories from Eskimo Land. Adapted from the Original Eskimo Stories Collected by Dr. Daniel S. Neuman онлайн
17 страница из 23
“No, no!” they shouted loudly. “We do not want to pull him out. He is not good to us at all, but very wicked and cruel. Let us burn him up!” and they all ran to bring more wood and oil, much more than before and made a great fire themselves and threw it into the pit before Ivango could stop them.
Ivango and the brothers and their little sister hurried down to the sea, where the woman was waiting for them with the boat, and started off for home as fast as they could paddle.
This time they passed through the moving cliffs without fear or trouble, but no sooner had the cliffs closed together behind them, than a big white whale rose to the top of the water and pursued them.
Although they could make the boat go as fast as the swiftest bird, the whale was faster than they and was getting very close. Just as the monster rose beside them, the woman cut off the right flipper from the seal they had brought with them and threw it to the whale, which stopped to eat. This gave them time to get quite far ahead; but after the whale had finished eating he soon caught up with them. Then the woman threw out the left flipper. Again the whale stopped to eat, and again caught up with them, but they were nearly home, so they threw over the rest of the seal and paddled to shore. When they landed the whale hurried after them so fast that he swam right up on the beach, where they killed him and cut him up for meat.