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The other replied, "Thou mayst
rejoice that thou hast already got a husband; I will have a whale for
mine." Instantly a whale was seen to spout out at sea.
And the eagle took one girl up and flew away with her, and the whale took
the other down to the bottom of the sea, having first made her eyes and
ears impenetrable, so that the water could not enter. The eagle carried
his bride to the top of a steep cliff, and brought her different sorts of
little birds for food; but she gathered all the sinews of the birds'
wings, and knotted them together, in order to make a string of them. One
day, when the eagle was away, she tried the length of it, and found that
it reached down to the level of the sea. Another day she saw a kayaker
rowing along the shore; and when he came just below, she called out to him
to send a boat to rescue her.
Soon afterwards the boat appeared, and she went sliding down by her string
of sinews, and got back to her parents. But the eagle, who missed his
mate, soared above the houses beating his wings; and one of the
inhabitants of the place cried out to him, "If thou wantest to show thou
hast been married into our family, spread out thy wings"; but when the
eagle did so they shot him through the body.
The other girl who had been stolen by the whale was secured to the bottom
of the sea by a rope; and when he was at home, she had nothing to do but
to sit picking the lice from off his body. She had two brothers living
close by, and both set about building a boat of immense swiftness, in
which they intended to deliver their sister; but when the boat was
finished it could not match a bird in speed, and was therefore broken to
pieces, and another begun. This boat proved a match for a flying bird, but
was nevertheless discarded, and they again built a new one, in which they
tried to overtake a gull; and on finding that this one even outdid the
bird, they started from home to fetch back their sister. On becoming aware
of their approach she loosened the cord that held her, and twisting it
round the stone, she left with the boat.
When the whale on his return drew the cord to get hold of her, and
discovered that she was gone, he hurried after her. But when he came quite
close to the boat she threw her outer jacket into the water to him. Having
snapped at it he let it go, and again pursued her; and when he had got
quite close up with them, she flung her inner jacket at him, which again
detained the whale; but he soon reached them for the third time. Then she
threw her long jacket, and before he could overtake them again they had
already landed; but when the whale reached the shore he was transformed
into a piece of whale-bone.
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