AN OLD MAN LOST HIS ONLY SON

122. AN OLD MAN LOST HIS ONLY SON when they were both reindeer-hunting up the country. After returning home he often used to visit his son's grave. Kayaking up the firth with this view, he once right before him saw an inlander pulling himself through the water without any kayak ("using the fog as kayak"), and after some angry words, he killed the inlander. Another time, when he was again visiting the grave, he was surprised at the sight of an inlander, who questioned him as to the cause of his grief. "Yonder wretched heap of stones is the only object of my distress," he answered. The inlander then told him how he also had, some time ago, lost a son who had been seal-hunting. The old man made out that it must have been the one he had killed; on which he pretended to be expected home, pushed off in his skiff, and never more visited the grave of his son.