THE VERY OBSTINATE MAN
THERE was once an Obstinate Man—no one in the world could be as obstinate as he. And no one dared come near him, so obstinate was he, and he would always have his own way in everything.
Once it came about that his wife was in mourning. Her little child had died, and therefore she was obliged to remain idle at home; this is the custom of the ignorant, and this we also had to do when we were as ignorant as they.
And while she sat thus idle and in mourning, her husband, that Obstinate One, came in one day and said:
"You must sew the skin of my kayak."
"You know that I am not permitted to touch any kind of work," said his wife.
"You must sew the skin of my kayak," he said again. "Bring it down to the shore and sew it there."
And so the woman, for all her mourning, was forced to go down to the shore and sew the skin of her husband's kayak. But when she had been sewing a little, suddenly her thread began to make a little sound, and the little sound grew to a muttering, and louder and louder. And at last a monster came up out of the sea; a monster in the shape of a dog, and said:
"Why are you sewing, you who are still in mourning?"
"My husband will not listen to me, for he is so obstinate," she said.
And then the mighty dog sprang ashore and fell upon that husband.
But that Obstinate One was not abashed; as usual, he thought he would get his own way, and his way now was to kill the dog. And they fought together, and the dog was killed.
But now the owner of the dog appeared, and he turned out to be the Moon Man.
56
