{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24569/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24569","id":"gutenberg_24569","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24569","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Eskimos -- Folklore","Folklore"],"text":"Produced by Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    A TREASURY OF\n\n    ESKIMO TALES\n\n\n    BY\n\n\n    CLARA K. BAYLISS\n\n    _Author of \"A Treasury of Indian Tales,\"\n    \"Old Man Coyote,\" etc._\n\n\n    ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR BY\n    GEORGE CARLSON\n\n\n    NEW YORK\n    THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY\n    PUBLISHERS\n\n    COPYRIGHT, 1922,\n    By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY\n    Second Printing\n\n    Printed in the U. S. A.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: HE SUMMONED HIS MASCOT WHICH WAS A HUGE WHITE BEAR]\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe Central Eskimo live away up north in that great American\narchipelago which lies between Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay, and the Arctic\nOcean; an archipelago in which the islands are so large, so numerous,\nand so irregular in outline that, as one looks at a map of them, he\ncould fancy they were \"chunks\" of the continent which had been broken\nto pieces by some huge iceberg that bumped into it.\n\nThe land is ice-bound during so much of the year that the inhabitants\ncannot depend upon getting a living by the cultivation of the soil,\nand have to subsist almost entirely upon meat which they get from\nreindeer, seal, bear, whale, and walrus.\n\nIn summer their clothing is of sealskin and fishskin; and in winter it\nis of the thicker reindeer hides. Their life is a hard one owing to\nthe rigorous climate, and they make it harder by their superstitions,\nfor diseases are supposed to be cured by charms and incantations of\nthe shaman or priest; and everything in the way of hunting, fishing,\ncooking, or of clothing themselves must be done in a prescribed way or\nit is \"taboo\" or \"hoodoo\" as the negroes say. When you read \"The Baby\nEskimo\" you will see just a tiny bit of the hardships, but I should\nnot like to tell you how much more terrible a time he might have had,\nif he had happened to be a girl baby.\n\nBy referring to the Table of Contents you will note that the first\ngroup of tales were told by the Central Eskimo. The second group were\nderived from the Eskimo living along Bering Strait, to the west; and\nit is interesting to compare many of these folk tales along similar\nsubjects.\n\nThe writer is indebted to the Sixth Ethnological Report, issued by the\nU. S. Government, for many of the legends found in the Central Eskimo\ngroup; and to the Eighteenth Report for many of those from Bering\nStrait. She wishes to express her thanks for this invaluable and\nunique material.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER                                                    PAGE\n\n  _CENTRAL ESKIMO TALES_\n\n       I. THE BABY ESKIMO                                       1\n\n      II. KIVIUNG                                               3\n\n     III. THE GIANT                                            12\n\n      IV. KALOPALING                                           14\n\n       V. THE WOMAN MAGICIAN                                   18\n\n      VI. THE BIRD WIFE                                        23\n\n     VII. THE SPIRIT OF THE SINGING HOUSE                      28\n\n    VIII. THE TORNIT                                           30\n\n      IX. THE FLIGHT TO THE MOON                               33\n\n       X. WHAT THE MAN IN THE MOON DID                         37\n\n      XI. THE GUEST                                            41\n\n     XII. THE ORIGIN OF THE NARWHAL                            43\n\n\n  _BERING STRAIT TALES_\n\n    XIII. WHAT THE ESKIMO BELIEVES                             49\n\n     XIV. THE FIRST MAN                                        52\n\n      XV. THE FIRST WOMAN                                      57\n\n     XVI. OTHER MEN                                            61\n\n    XVII. MAN'S FIRST GRIEF                                    65\n\n   XVIII. UP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY, AND DOWN\n          TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA                             69\n\n     XIX. TAKING AWAY THE SUN                                  76\n\n      XX. THE DWARF PEOPLE                                     82\n\n     XXI. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LONE WOMAN\n          OF ST. MICHAEL                                       85\n\n    XXII. WHY THE MOON WAXES AND WANES                         87\n\n   XXIII. CHUNKS OF DAYLIGHT                                   90\n\n    XXIV. THE RED BEAR                                         95\n\n     XXV. THE LAST OF THE THUNDERBIRDS                         99\n\n    XXVI. RAVEN MAKES AN OCEAN VOYAGE                         103\n\n   XXVII. THE RED SKELETON                                    108\n\n  XXVIII. THE MARMOT AND THE RAVEN                            111\n\n    XXIX. ORIGIN OF THE WINDS                                 114\n\n     XXX. RAVEN AND THE GEESE                                 120\n\n    XXXI. EVEN A GRASS PLANT CAN BECOME\n          SOMEONE IF IT TRIES                                 127\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n  He summoned his mascot which was a huge\n      white bear (7)                               _Frontispiece_\n\n                                                             PAGE\n\n  He lifted the boulder as if it had been a pebble             39\n\n  He whipped on his magic coat and became a raven              93\n\n  A gale swept in bringing reindeer, trees and bushes         117\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE BABY ESKIMO\n\n\nThe little Eskimo away up in the northern part of British America has\na pretty hard time of it, as you may know when you think how cold it\nis there.\n\nHe is born in a snow hut, and when he is but a few hours old he is\ncarried on his mother's back out upon the ice, and around and around\nin circles and after a while through deep snow back to the hut. If\nthat does not kill him, the names he gets are enough to do it; for he\nis given the names of all the people who have died in the village\nsince the last baby was born. He sometimes has a string of names long\nenough to weigh any baby down. Worse than that, if one of his\nrelatives dies before he is four years old, that name is added to the\nrest and is the one by which he is called.\n\nWorse still, if he falls sick he is given a dog's name, so that the\ngoddess Sedna will look kindly upon him. Then, all his life, he must\nwear a dog's harness over his inner jacket. If he should die, his\nmother must rush out of the house with him at once. If she does not do\nso, everything in the house must be thrown away or destroyed, just as\nis done when a grown person dies in a furnished house.\n\nFor a whole year his mother must wear a cap if she steps outside her\ndoor, and she must carry his boots about with her. After three days\nshe goes to his tomb and walks around it three times, going around to\nthe left, because that is the way the sun travels. While she walks,\nshe talks to the dead child and promises to bring him food. A year\nafter his death she must do this again, and she must do the same thing\nwhenever she happens to pass near the grave.\n\nNow we shall tell you some of the tales which the Eskimo mothers\nrelate to their children. The first one is about Kiviung, the Rip Van\nWinkle of the Eskimos.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nKIVIUNG\n\n\nAn old woman lived with her grandson in a small hut. She had no\nhusband to take care of her and the boy, and they were very poor. The\nlad's clothing was made of the skins of birds which they caught in\nsnares. Whenever the boy came out of the hut to play, the other boys\nwould call, \"Here comes the bird boy! Fly away, birdie!\" and the men\nwould laugh at him and tear his clothes.\n\nOnly one man whose name was Kiv-i-ung, was kind to the boy and tried\nto protect him from the others, but they would not stop. The lad often\ncame to his grandmother crying, and she would console him and promise\nhim a new garment, as soon as they could get the skins.\n\nShe begged the men to stop teasing the child and tearing his clothes,\nbut they only laughed at her. At last she became angry and said to the\nboy, \"I will avenge you on your tormentors. I can do it by making use\nof my power to conjure.\"\n\nShe poured water on the mud floor and said, \"Step into this puddle,\nand do not be frightened at anything that happens.\"\n\nHe stepped into it, and immediately the earth opened and he sank out\nof sight, but the next moment he rose near the beach and swam about as\na young seal with a wonderfully smooth, shining skin.\n\nSome one saw him and called out that there was a yearling seal close\nto shore. The men all ran to their kayaks eager to secure the\nbeautiful creature. But the boy-seal swam lustily away as his\ngrandmother had told him to do, and the men continued to pursue him.\nWhenever he rose to the surface to breathe, he took care to come up\nbehind the kayaks, where he would splash and dabble in order to lure\nthem on. As soon as he had attracted their attention and they had\nturned to pursue him, he would dive and come up farther out in the\nsea. The men were so interested in catching him that they did not\nobserve how they were being led far out into the ocean and out of\nsight of the land.\n\nIt was now that the grandmother put forth her powers. Suddenly a\nfierce gale arose; the sea foamed and roared and the waves upset their\nfrail vessels and plunged them under the surface. When they were\ndrowned, the little seal changed back into a boy and walked home over\nthe water without wetting his feet. There was no one left now to\ntorment him.\n\nKiv-i-ung, who had never abused the boy, had gone out with the rest,\nbut his kayak did not capsize. Bravely he strove against the wild\nwaves, and drifted far away from the place where the others had gone\ndown. There was a dense fog and he could not tell in which direction\nto go.\n\nHe rowed for many days not knowing whither he was going, and then one\nday he spied through the mists a dark mass which he took to be land.\nAs he pulled toward it the sea became more and more tempestuous, and\nhe saw that what he had supposed to be a rocky cliff on an island was\na wild, black sea with a raging whirlpool in the midst of it.\n\nHe had come so close that it was only by the utmost exertion he\nescaped being drawn into the whirlpool and carried down. He put forth\nall his strength and at last got away where the waves were less like\nmountains. But he had to be constantly on the alert, for at one moment\nhis frail craft was carried high up on the crest of billows and the\nnext it was plunged into a deep trough of the sea.\n\nAgain he saw a dark mass looming up, and rowed toward it hoping to\nfind land, but again he was deceived, for it was another whirlpool\nwhich made the sea rise in gigantic waves. At last the wind subsided,\nand the sea became less rough, though the whitecaps still frothed\naround him. The fog lifted, and at a great distance he saw land, real\nland this time.\n\nHe went toward it, and after rowing along the coast for some distance\nhe spied a stone house with a light in it. You may be sure he was\ndelighted to come near a human habitation again. He landed and entered\nthe house. There was no one in it but one old woman. She received him\nkindly and helped him to pull off his boots, and she hung his wet\nstockings on the frame above the lamp. Then she said:\n\n\"I will make a fire in the next room and cook a good supper.\"\n\nKiviung thought she was a very good woman, and he was so hungry that\nhe could scarcely wait for the supper. It seemed to him that she was a\nlong time preparing it. When his stockings were dry he tried to take\nthem from the frame in order to put them on. But as soon as he touched\nthe frame it rose up out of his reach. He tried in vain several times,\nand each time the frame rose up. He called the woman in and asked her\nto give him his stockings.\n\n\"Take them yourself,\" she said. \"There they are; there they are,\" and\nwent out again.\n\nKiviung was surprised at the change in her manner. He tried once more\nto take hold of his stockings, but with no better result. Calling the\nwoman in again, he explained his difficulty and said:\n\n\"Please hand me my boots and stockings; they slip away from me.\"\n\n\"Sit down where I sat when you entered my house; then you can get\nthem,\" she replied, and left the room.\n\nHe tried once more, but the frame arose as before and he could not\nreach it. He knew now that she was a wicked woman, and he suspected\nthat the big fire she had made was prepared so she could roast and eat\nhim.\n\nWhat should he do? He had seen that she could work magic. He knew that\nhe could not escape unless he could surpass her in her own arts. He\nsummoned his mascot, which was a huge white bear. At once there was a\nlow growl from under the house. The woman did not hear it at first,\nbut Kiviung kept on conjuring the spirit and it rose right up through\nthe floor roaring loudly. Then the old witch rushed in trembling with\nfear and gave Kiviung what he had asked for.\n\n\"Here are your boots,\" she cried; \"here are your slippers; here are\nyour stockings. I will help you put them on.\"\n\nBut Kiviung would not stay any longer with the horrid creature, and\ndared not wait to put on his stockings and boots. He rushed out of the\nhouse and had barely gotten out of the door when it clapped violently\ntogether, catching the tail of his jacket, which was torn off. Without\nstopping to look behind, he ran to his kayak and paddled away.\n\nThe old woman quickly recovered from her fear and came out swinging a\nglittering knife which she attempted to throw at him. He was so\nfrightened that he nearly upset his kayak, but he steadied it and\narose to his feet, lifting his spear.\n\n\"I shall kill you with my spear,\" he cried.\n\nAt that the old woman fell down in terror and broke her knife which\nshe had made by magic out of a thin slab of ice.\n\nHe traveled on for many days, always keeping near the shore. At last\nhe came to another hut, and again a lamp was burning inside. His\nclothing was wet and he was hungry, so he landed and went into the\nhouse. There he found something very strange: a woman living all alone\nwith her daughter! Yet the daughter was married and they kept the\nson-in-law in the house. But he was a log of driftwood which they had\nfound on the beach. It had four branches like legs and arms. Every day\nabout the time of low water they carried it to the beach and when the\ntide came in, it swam away. When night came it returned with eight\nlarge seals, two being fastened to each bough.\n\nThus the log provided food for its wife, her mother, and Kiviung, and\nthey lived in abundance. Kiviung became rested and refreshed after his\nweary travels, and he enjoyed this life so well that he remained for a\nlong time. One day, however, after they had launched the log as they\nhad always done, it floated away and never came back.\n\nThen Kiviung went sealing every day for himself and the women, and he\nwas so successful that they wished him to remain with them always. But\nhe had not forgotten the home he had left long ago, and meant to\nreturn to it. He was anxious to lay in a good stock of mittens to keep\nhis hands warm on the long journey, and each night he pretended to\nhave lost the pair he wore, and the women would make him another pair\nfrom the skin of the seals he brought home. He hid them all in the\nhood of his jacket.\n\nThen one day, he, too, floated off with the tide and never came back.\nHe rowed on for many days and nights, always following the shore.\nDuring the terrible storm he had been out of sight of land all he ever\ncared to be.\n\nAt last he came again to a hut where a lamp was burning, and went to\nit. But this time he thought it would be well to see who was inside\nbefore entering. He therefore climbed up to the window and looked\nthrough the peep-hole. On the bed sat a woman whose head and whose\nhands looked like big yellow-and-black spiders. She was sewing; and\nwhen she saw the dark shadow before the window she at first thought it\nwas a cloud, but when she looked up and beheld a man, she grasped a\nbig knife and arose, looking very angry. Kiviung waited to see no\nmore. He felt a sudden longing for home, and hastily went on his way.\n\nAgain he traveled for days and nights. At last he came to a land which\nseemed familiar, and as he went farther he recognized his own country.\nHe was very glad to see some boats ahead of him, and when he stood up\nand waved and shouted to them they came to meet him. They had been on\na whaling excursion and were towing a large dead whale to their\nvillage.\n\nIn the bow of one of the boats stood a stout young man who had\nharpooned the whale. He looked at Kiviung keenly and Kiviung looked at\nhim. Then, of a sudden, they recognized each other. It was Kiviung's\nown son whom he had left a small boy, but who was now become a grown\nman and a great hunter.\n\nKiviung's wife was delighted to see him whom she had supposed dead. At\nfirst she seemed glad and then she seemed troubled. She had taken a\nnew husband, but after thinking it over she returned to Kiviung, and\nthey were very happy.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE GIANT\n\n\nIn days of old an enormous man lived with other members of the Inuit\ntribe in a village beside a large inlet. He was so tall that he could\nstraddle the inlet, and he used to stand that way every morning and\nwait for the whales to pass beneath him. As soon as one came along he\nused to scoop it up just as easily as other men scoop up a minnow. And\nhe ate the whole whale just as other men eat a small fish.\n\nOne day all the natives manned their boats to catch a whale that was\nspouting off the shore; but he sat idly by his hut. When the men had\nharpooned the whale and were having a hard time to hold it and keep\ntheir boats from capsizing, he rose and strolled down to the shore and\nscooped the whale and the boats from the water and placed them on the\nbeach.\n\nAnother time when he was tired of walking about, he lay down on a high\nhill to take a nap.\n\n\"You would better be careful,\" said the people, \"for a couple of huge\nbears have been seen near the village.\"\n\n\"Oh, I don't care for them. If they come too near me, throw some\nstones at me to waken me,\" he said with a yawn.\n\nThe bears came, and the people threw the stones and grabbed their\nspears. The giant sat up.\n\n\"Where are they? I see no bears. Where are they?\" he asked.\n\n\"There! There! Don't you see them?\" cried the Inuit.\n\n\"What! those little things! They are not worth all this bustle. They\nare nothing but small foxes.\" And he crushed one between his fingers,\nand put the other into the eyelet of his boot to strangle it.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nKALOPALING\n\n\nKa-lo-pa-ling is a strange being who lives in the northern seas. His\nbody is like that of a man except that his feet are very large and\nlook like sealskin muffs. His clothing is made of the skins of eider\nducks and, as their bellies are white and their backs are black, his\nclothes are spotted all over. He cannot speak, but cries all the time,\n\"Be, be! Be, be!\"\n\nHis jacket has an enormous hood which is an object of fear to the\nInuit, for if a kayak upsets and the boatman is drowned, Ka-lo-pa-ling\ngrabs him and puts him into the hood.\n\nThe Inuit say that in olden times there were a great many of these\ncreatures, and they often sat in a row along the ice floes, like a\nflock of penguins. Their numbers have become less and less, till now\nthere are but a few left.\n\nAnyone standing on shore may see them swimming under water very\nrapidly, and occasionally they rise to the surface as if to get air.\nThey make a great noise by splashing with their feet and arms as they\nswim. In summer they like to come out and bask on the rocks, but in\nwinter they sit along the edge of the ice or else stay under water.\n\nThey often chase the hunters, so the most courageous of the men try to\nkill them whenever they can get near enough. When the Kalopaling sits\nsleeping, the hunter comes up very cautiously and throws a walrus\nharpoon into him. Then he shuts his eyes tight until the Kalopaling is\ndead, otherwise the hunter's boat would be capsized and he be drowned.\nThey dare not eat the flesh of the creatures, for it is poisonous; but\nthe dogs eat it.\n\nOne time an old woman and her grandson were living alone in a small\nhut. They had no men to hunt for them and they were very poor. Once in\na while, but not often, some of the Inuit took pity on them and\nbrought them seal's meat, and blubber for their lamp.\n\nOne day the boy was so hungry that he cried aloud. His grandmother\ntold him to be quiet, but he cried the harder. She became vexed with\nhim and cried out, \"Ho, Kalopaling, come and take this fretful boy\naway!\"\n\nAt once the door opened and Kalopaling came hobbling in on his clumsy\nfeet, which were made for swimming and not for walking. The woman put\nthe boy into the large hood, in which he was completely hidden. Then\nthe Kalopaling disappeared as suddenly as he had come.\n\nBy and by the Inuit caught more seals than usual and gave her plenty\nof meat. Then she was sorry that she had given her grandson away, and\nwas more than ever sorry that it was to Kalopaling she had given him.\nShe thought how much of the time he must have to stay in the water\nwith that strange man-like animal. She wept about it, and begged the\nInuit to help her get him back.\n\nSome of them said they had seen the boy sitting by a crack in the ice,\nplaying with a whip of seaweed, but none of them knew how to get him.\nFinally one of the hunters and his wife said, \"We may never succeed,\nbut we will see what we can do.\"\n\nThe water had frozen into thick ice, and the rise and fall of the tide\nhad broken long cracks not far from the shore. Every day the boy used\nto rise out of the water and sit alongside the cracks, playing, and\nwatching the fish swim down below.\n\nKalopaling was afraid someone might carry the boy away, so he fastened\nhim to a string of seaweed, the other end of which he kept in his\nhand. The hunter and his wife watched for the boy to come out, and\nwhen they saw him they went toward him. But the boy did not want to go\nback to live with his grandmother, and as they came near he called\nout:\n\n\"Two men are coming; one with a double jacket, the other with a\nfoxskin jacket.\"\n\nThen Kalopaling pulled on the string and the boy disappeared into the\nwater.\n\nSome time after this the hunter and his wife saw the boy again. But\nbefore they could lay hold of him the lad sang out:\n\n\"Two men are coming.\"\n\nAnd again Kalopaling pulled the string and the boy slipped into the\nwater.\n\nHowever, the hunter and his wife did not give up trying. They went\nnear the crack and hid behind the big blocks of ice which the tide had\npiled up. The next time when the boy had just come out they sprang\nforward and cut the rope before he had time to give the alarm. Then\naway they went with him to their hut.\n\nAs the lad did not wish to return to his grandmother, he stayed with\nthe hunter, and as he grew to be a man he learned all that his new\nfather could teach him, and became the most famous hunter of the\ntribe.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nTHE WOMAN MAGICIAN\n\n\nLong ago, in Aggo, a country where nobody lives nowadays, there were\ntwo large houses standing far apart. In each of these houses many\nfamilies lived together. In the summer the people in the two houses\nwent in company to hunt deer and had a good time together. When fall\ncame they returned to their separate houses. The names of the houses\nwere Quern and Exaluq.\n\nOne summer it happened that the men from Quern had killed many deer,\nwhile those from Exaluq had caught but a few. The latter said to each\nother, \"They are not fair; they shoot before we have a chance;\" and\nthey became very angry.\n\n\"Let us kill them,\" said one.\n\n\"Yes, let us kill them, but let us wait till the end of the season,\nand then we can take all the game they have in their storehouse,\" said\nthe others. For the game was packed in snow and ice and was taken home\non dog sledges when the hunting was over.\n\nWhen it came time to go home both parties agreed to go on a certain\nday to the storehouses and pack up the game ready to start early in\nthe morning. This was the time for which the men of Exaluq had been\nwaiting.\n\nThey started off all together with their sledges, but when they got a\nlong distance from the camp and very near to the storehouse, those\nfrom Exaluq suddenly fell upon the others and slew them, for the men\nfrom Quern had never suspected that there was any ill-feeling.\n\nFearing that if the dogs went back to camp without their masters, the\nwomen and children would guess what had happened, they killed the dogs\nalso. When they returned, they told the women that their husbands had\nseparated from them and had gone off over a hill, and they did not\nknow what had become of them.\n\nNow one of the young men had married a girl from Quern, and he went to\nher house that night as usual, and she received him kindly, for she\nbelieved what she had heard about the men of her party straying off.\nShe and all the other women thought the men would soon find their way\nback, as they had hunted in these parts so long that they knew the\nland.\n\nBut in the house was the girl's little brother who had seen the\nhusband come in; and after everybody was asleep he heard the spirits\nof the murdered men calling and he recognized their voices. They told\nhim what had happened, and asked the boy to kill the young man in\nrevenge for their deaths. So he crept from under the bed and thrust a\nknife into the young man's breast.\n\nThen he awakened all the women and children in the great row of huts\nand told them that the spirits of the dead men had come to him and\ntold of their murder, and had ordered him to avenge them by killing\nthe young man.\n\n\"Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do?\" they cried. \"They have\nkilled our men and they will kill us!\" They were terribly frightened.\n\n\"We must fly from here before the men from Exaluq awaken and learn\nthat the young man is slain in revenge,\" said one of the old women.\n\n\"But how can we fly? Our dogs are dead, and we cannot travel fast\nenough to escape.\"\n\n\"I will attend to that,\" said the old woman. In her hut was a litter\nof pups, and as she was a conjurer, she said to them, \"Grow up at\nonce.\" She had no fairy wand to wave over them, but she waved a stick,\nand after waving it once the dogs[1] were half-grown. She waved it\nagain, saying, \"Be full-grown instantly;\" and they were.\n\nThey harnessed the dogs at once, and in order to deceive their enemies\nthey left everything in the huts and even left their lights burning,\nso that when the men arose in the morning they would think that they,\ntoo, had arisen and were dressing.\n\nWhen it had come full daylight next morning the men of Exaluq wondered\nwhy the young man did not come back to them, and presently they went\nto find out. They peeked into the spy-hole of the window and saw the\nlamps burning, but no people inside the hut. They discovered the body\nof the dead man, and then when they looked they saw the tracks of\nsledges.\n\nThey wondered very much how the women could have gone away on sledges,\nsince they had no dogs, and they feared some other people had helped\nthem to get off. They hastily harnessed their own dogs and started in\npursuit of the fugitives.\n\nThe women whipped their dogs and journeyed rapidly, but the pursuers\nhad older and tougher animals and were likely to overtake them soon.\nThey became very much frightened, fearing that they would all be\nkilled in revenge for the death of the young man.\n\nWhen the sledge of the men drew near and the women and children saw\nthat they could not escape, the boy who had slain the man said to the\nold woman:\n\n\"The spirits of our murdered men are calling to us to cut the ice.\nCannot you cut it?\"\n\n\"I think I can,\" she answered, and she slowly drew her first finger\nacross the path of the pursuers, muttering a magic charm as she did\nso.\n\nThe ice gave a terrific crack, and the water came gushing through the\ncrevasse. They sped on, and presently she drew another line with her\nfinger, and another crack opened and the ice between the two cracks\nbroke up and the floe began to move.\n\nThe men, dashing ahead with all speed, could scarcely stop their dog\nteam in time to escape falling into the open water. The floe was so\nwide and so long that it was impossible for them to cross, and thus\nthe women and children were saved by the art of their conjurer.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The actual statement both here and on page 39 is that the woman\nand the Man in the Moon beat the pups and the boy with sticks to make\nthem grow. Is not our birthday beating, \"one for each year and one to\ngrow on\" a survival of this ancient superstition?\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nTHE BIRD WIFE\n\n\nItajung, one of the Inuit tribe, was vexed because a young woman would\nnot marry him, so he left his home and traveled far away into the land\nof the birds. He came to a small lake in which many geese were\nswimming. On the shore he saw a great many boots. He cautiously crept\nnear and stole a pair and hid them.\n\nPresently the birds came out of the water, and finding a pair of boots\ngone they were alarmed, and quickly forming into two long lines with\ntheir leader at the point where the lines met, they flew away crying,\n\"_Honk! Honk! Honk!_\"\n\nBut one of the flock remained behind crying, \"I want my boots! I want\nmy boots!\"\n\nItajung came forth from his hiding-place and said, \"I will give you\nyour boots if you will become my wife.\"\n\n\"That I will not do,\" she replied.\n\n\"Very well,\" he said, and turned around to go away.\n\n\"I don't want to, but I will be your wife if you will bring back my\nboots,\" she called.\n\nHe came back and gave her the boots, and when she put them on she was\nchanged into a woman.\n\nThey walked away together, and wandered down to the seaside and, as\nshe liked to live near the water, they settled in a large village by\nthe sea. Here they lived for several years and had a son. Itajung\nbecame a highly respected man, for he was by far the best whaler in\nall the Inuit tribe.\n\nOne day they killed a whale and were busy cutting it up and carrying\nthe meat and blubber to their homes. Many of the women were helping,\nbut though Itajung was working very hard, his wife stood lazily\nlooking on.\n\n\"Come and help us,\" he called to her.\n\n\"My food is not from the sea,\" she replied. \"My food is from the land.\nI will not eat the meat of a whale; neither will I help.\"\n\n\"You must eat it; it will fill your stomach,\" said he.\n\nShe began to cry, and said, \"I will not eat it. I will not soil my\nnice white clothing.\"\n\nShe went to the beach and searched for feathers. When she found some,\nshe put them between her fingers and the fingers of her child. They\nwere both turned into geese and flew away. When the Inuit saw this\nthey cried, \"Itajung, your wife is flying away.\"\n\nItajung became very sad. He no longer cared for the meat and blubber,\nnor for the whales spouting near the shore. He followed in the\ndirection his wife had taken, and went over all the land in search of\nher.\n\nAfter traveling for many weary months, he came to a river where a man\nwith a large axe was chopping chips from a piece of wood, and as fast\nas he chopped them they were turned into salmon and slipped out of the\nman's hands into the river and swam down to a large lake near by. The\nname of the man was Small Salmon.\n\nAs Itajung looked at the man he was frightened almost to death; for\nthe back of the man was entirely hollow, and Itajung could see right\nthrough him and out at the other side. He was so scared that he kept\nvery still and crept back and away out around him. He wanted to ask if\nthe man had seen his wife, for that was what he asked everyone he came\nto. So he went around and came from the opposite direction, facing the\nman.\n\nWhen Small Salmon saw him approaching he stopped chopping and asked,\n\"Which way did you approach me?\"\n\n\"I came from that direction,\" said Itajung, pointing in the way he had\nlast approached.\n\n\"That is lucky for you, for if you had come the other way and had seen\nmy back, I should have killed you at once with my hatchet.\"\n\n\"I am glad I don't have to die,\" said Itajung. \"But haven't you seen\nmy wife? She left me and came this way.\"\n\n\"Yes, I saw her. Do you see that little island in the large lake? That\nis where she lives now, and she has taken another husband.\"\n\n\"Oh, I can never reach her,\" said Itajung in despair. \"I have no boat\nand do not know how to reach the island.\"\n\n\"I will help you,\" said Small Salmon kindly. \"Come down to the beach\nwith me. Here is the backbone of a salmon. Now shut your eyes. The\nbackbone will turn into a kayak and carry you safely to the island.\nBut mind you keep your eyes shut. If you open them the kayak will\nupset.\"\n\n\"I will obey,\" said Itajung.\n\nHe closed his eyes, the backbone became a kayak, and away he sped over\nthe water. He heard no splashing and was anxious to know if he really\nwas moving, so he peeped open his eyes a trifle.\n\nAt once the boat began to swing violently, but he quickly shut his\neyes, and it went on steadily, and he soon landed on the island.\n\nThere he saw a hut and his son playing on the beach near it. The boy\non looking up saw and recognized him, and ran to his mother, crying:\n\n\"Mother, Father is here and is coming to our hut.\"\n\n\"Go back to your play,\" she said; \"your father is far away and cannot\nfind us.\"\n\nThe lad went back, but again he ran in, saying:\n\n\"Mother, Father is here and is coming to our hut.\"\n\nAgain she sent him away; but he soon returned, saying: \"Father is\nright here.\"\n\nHe had scarcely said it when Itajung opened the door. When the new\nhusband saw him he said to his wife, \"Open that box in the corner of\nthe hut.\"\n\nShe did so, and a great quantity of feathers flew out and stuck fast\nto them. The hut disappeared. The woman, her new husband, and the\nchild were transformed into geese and flew away, leaving Itajung\nstanding alone.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF THE SINGING HOUSE\n\n\nThe singing house of an Eskimo village is used also for feasting and\ndancing, and always has a spirit owner who is supposed to remain in it\nall the time. Once a woman was curious about this spirit and wanted to\nsee it. For a long time she had wanted to know more about this spirit\nof the singing house, but the villagers warned her that she would meet\nwith a terrible fate if she persisted in trying to see it.\n\nOne night she could wait no longer, and went into the house when it\nwas quite dark so the villagers would not see her go. When she had\nentered she said:\n\n\"If you are in the house, come here.\"\n\nAs she could see and hear nothing, she cried, \"No spirit is here; he\nwill not come.\"\n\n\"Here I am; there I am,\" said a hoarse whisper.\n\n\"Where are your feet?\" she asked, for she could not see him.\n\n\"Here they are; there they are,\" said the voice.\n\n\"Where are your shins?\" she asked.\n\n\"Here they are; there they are,\" it whispered.\n\nAs she could not see anything, she felt of him with her hands to make\nsure he was there, and when she touched his knees she found that he\nwas a bandy-legged man with knees bent outward and forward. She kept\non asking, \"Where are your hips? Where are your shoulders? Where is\nyour neck?\" And each time the voice answered, \"Here it is; there it\nis.\"\n\nAt last she asked, \"Where is your head?\"\n\n\"Here it is; there it is,\" the spirit whispered, hoarsely.\n\nBut as the woman touched the head, all of a sudden she fell dead. _It\nhad no bones and no hair._\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nTHE TORNIT\n\n\nIn olden times the Inuit were not the only tribe living in the Eskimo\ncountry. Around Cumberland Sound there lived some very large, strong\npeople called the Tornit. They were on good terms with the Inuit and\nshared the same hunting ground, but lived in separate villages. They\nwere much taller than the Inuit and had very long legs and arms, but\ntheir eyes were not as good.\n\nThey were so strong that they could lift large boulders which were far\ntoo heavy for the Inuit, though the latter were much stronger in those\ndays than they now are. Some of the stones which they used to throw\nare lying about the country still, and the toughest of the men now\nliving cannot lift them, much less swing and throw them. Some of their\nstone houses also remain. They generally lived in these houses all\nwinter, and did not cover them with snow to make them warmer.\n\nThe principal part of their winter dress was a long, wide coat of\ndeerskins, reaching to the knees and trimmed with leather straps. They\nate walrus, deer, and seal, and when they went sealing in the winter\nthey fastened the lower edge of their coat to the snow by means of\npegs. Under the coat they carried a small lamp, over which to melt\nsnow when they were thirsty, and over which to roast some of the seal\nmeat. They sat around a hole in the ice and watched for their prey,\nand when a seal blew in the hole they whispered, \"I shall stab it.\"\nSometimes in their eagerness they forgot the lamp and upset it as they\nthrew the harpoon, and thus got burned.\n\nTheir strength was so great that they could hold a harpooned walrus as\neasily as the Inuit could hold a seal. These weaker men did not like\nto play ball with them, for they did not realize how rough they were\nand often hurt their playfellows severely. This the playfellows tried\nto take in good part, and the two lived on friendly terms except for\none thing. For some reason the Tornit did not make kayaks for\nthemselves, although they saw how convenient they were for hunting\nwhen the ice broke up in the spring. Every little while they would\nsteal a boat from the Inuit, who did not dare fight for their\nproperty because the thieves were so much stronger.\n\nThis rankled in the hearts of the Inuit and they would talk among\nthemselves and threaten to take vengeance on the robbers. They debated\nwhat they should do either to get rid of the Tornit or to make them\ncease their depredations. This state of affairs had gone on till the\nInuit were at fever heat, when one day a young Tornit took the boat of\na young Inuit without asking, and in sealing with it, he ran it into\nsome blocks of floating ice which stove in the bottom. The owner\nnursed his wrath until night, and then when the thief was asleep he\nslipped into the tent and thrust his knife into the Tornit's neck.\n\nThe Tornit tribe had been aware of the growing dislike, and when at\nlast one of the Inuit took revenge, they feared that others might do\nthe same and in similar secret fashion; so they decided to leave the\ncountry. In order to deceive their neighbors, they cut off the tails\nof their long coats and tied their hair in bunches that stuck out\nbehind to look like a strange people as they fled.\n\nThen they stole away, and the Inuit were so glad they were gone that\nthey made no effort to pursue them.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nTHE FLIGHT TO THE MOON\n\n\nA powerful conjurer, who had a bear for his mascot, thought he would\nlike to go to the Moon. He had his hands tied up and a rope fastened\naround his knees and neck. Then he sat down at the rear of his hut\nwith his back to the lamps and had the light extinguished.\n\nHe called for his mascot, and the bear at once appeared and he mounted\nits back. Up it carried him, above the village, above the mountains,\nup and up till they reached the Moon. To his surprise, the Moon was a\n_house_ which was covered with beautiful white deerskins. Now white\ndeer are strange and sacred and are hatched from long white eggs\nburied deep in the soil. There is mystery and magic in white deer,\nwhite buffalo, and in all albino animals. The Man in the Moon dried\nthese white deerskins and fastened them over his house, which, as I\nsaid, is the Moon itself.\n\nOn each side of the door to the house was the upper part of an\nenormous walrus. The beasts were alive, and they threatened to tear\nthe visitor in pieces. It was very dangerous to try to pass the fierce\nanimals, but the conjurer told his mascot to growl as loud as it\ncould, and that startled the walruses for an instant, and in that\ninstant the man slipped in.\n\nIt must be chilly in the Moon, for the house had a passageway to keep\nout the cold, just as the Eskimo houses have. In this passageway was a\nred-and-white spotted dog, the only dog which the Man in the Moon\nkeeps. The man went on past this dog and into the inner room. There at\nthe left he saw a door into another building in which sat a beautiful\nwoman with a lamp before her. As soon as she saw the stranger she blew\non her fire and made it flash up, and she hid behind the blaze; but he\nhad seen enough so that he knew she was the Sun.\n\nThe Man in the Moon rose from his seat on the ledge and came over to\nshake hands with the visitor and welcome him. Behind the lamps there\nwas a great heap of venison and seal meat, but the Man in the Moon did\nnot offer his guest any of it, which is not the way the Eskimo and\nIndians treat their guests. The Man in the Moon seemed to have a\ndifferent idea of hospitality, for he immediately said:\n\n\"My wife, Ulul, will soon be here and we will have a dance. Mind you\ndon't laugh, or she will slice you in two with her knife and feed you\nto my ermine which is in yon little house outside.\"\n\nBefore long a woman entered carrying an oblong chopping-bowl in which\nlay her chopping-knife. She set it down and stooped forward, turning\nthe bowl as if it were a whirligig. Then she commenced dancing; and\nwhen she turned her back toward the stranger he saw that she was\nhollow. She had no back, backbone, or insides, but only lungs and\nheart.\n\nHer husband presently joined in the dance, and their attitudes and\ngrimaces were so ludicrous that the stranger could scarcely keep from\nlaughing. He did not wish to be impolite, so he kept turning his face\naside and pretending to cough. Fortunately for him, just as he thought\nhe would surely explode with laughter, he recalled the warning the man\nhad given him and rushed out of the house. The Man guessed what was\nthe matter with him, and called out:\n\n\"Better call your white bear mascot!\"\n\nHe did so, and escaped unhurt.\n\nHowever, he went into the house another day and succeeded in keeping\nhis face straight, so when their performance was ended the Man in the\nMoon was very friendly to him and showed him all around the house and\nlet him look into a small building near the entrance.\n\nIn this building there were large herds of deer which seemed to be\nroaming over vast plains. The Man in the Moon said, \"You may choose\none of these for your own,\" and as soon as he did so the animal fell\nthrough a hole and alighted on the earth right by the conjurer's hut.\n\nIn another building there were many seals swimming in an ocean, and he\nwas allowed to choose one of these, which also fell down to his hut.\n\n\"Now you have seen all I can show you, and you may go home,\" said the\nMoon Man. So the conjurer called his mascot and rode down through the\nair to his hut.\n\nThere his body had lain motionless while his spirit was away, but now\nit revived. The cords with which his hands and knees had been bound\ndropped off, though they had been tied in hard knots. The conjurer\nfelt quite exhausted from his trip, but when the lamps were lighted he\ntold his eager neighbors all that he had seen during his flight to the\nMoon.\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nWHAT THE MAN IN THE MOON DID\n\n\nLong ago there was a poor little orphan boy who had no home and no one\nto protect him. All the inhabitants of the village neglected and\nabused him. He was not allowed to sleep in any of the huts, but one\nfamily permitted him to lie outside in the cold passage among the dogs\nwho were his pillows and his quilt. They gave him no good meat, but\nflung him bits of tough walrus hide such as they gave to the dogs, and\nhe was obliged to gnaw it as the dogs did, for he had no knife.\n\nThe only one who took pity on him was a young girl, and she gave him a\nsmall piece of iron for a knife. \"You must keep it hidden, or the men\nwill take it from you,\" she said.\n\nHe did not grow at all because he had so little food. He remained poor\nlittle Quadjaq, and led a miserable life. He did not dare even to join\nin the play of the boys, for they called him a \"poor little shriveled\nbag of bones,\" and were always imposing upon him on account of his\nweakness.\n\nWhen the people gathered in the singing house he used to lie in the\npassage and peep over the threshold. Now and then a man would take him\nby the nose and lift him into the house and make him carry out a jar\nof water. It was so large and heavy that he had to take hold of it\nwith both hands and his teeth. Because he was so often lifted by his\nnose, it grew very large, but he remained small and weak.\n\nAt last the Man in the Moon, who protects all the Eskimo orphans,\nnoticed how the men ill-treated Quadjaq, and came down to help him. He\nharnessed his dappled dog to his sledge and drove down. When he was\nnear the hut he stopped the dog and called, \"Quadjaq, come out.\"\n\nThe boy thought it was one of the men who wanted to plague him, and he\nsaid, \"I will not come out. Go away.\"\n\n\"Come out, Quadjaq,\" said the Man from the Moon, and his voice sounded\nsofter than the voices of the men. But still the boy hesitated, and\nsaid, \"You will cuff me.\"\n\n\"No, I will not hurt you. Come out,\" said the Moon Man.\n\n[Illustration: HE LIFTED THE BOWLDER AS IF IT HAD BEEN A PEBBLE]\n\nThen Quadjaq came slowly out, but when he saw who it was he was even\nmore frightened than if it had been one of the men standing there. The\nMoon Man took him to a place where there were many large boulders and\nmade him lie across one as if he were to be paddled. Quadjaq was\nscared but he did not dare disobey.\n\nThe Man from the Moon took a long, thin ray of moonlight and whipped\nthe boy softly with it.\n\n\"Do you feel stronger?\" he asked.\n\n\"Yes, I feel a little stronger,\" said the lad.\n\n\"Then lift yon boulder,\" said the Man.\n\nBut Quadjaq was not able to lift it, so he was whipped again.\n\n\"Do you feel stronger now?\" asked the Man.\n\n\"Yes, I feel stronger,\" said Quadjaq.\n\n\"Then lift the boulder.\"\n\nBut again he was not able to lift the stone more than a foot from the\nground, and he had to be whipped again. After the third time he was so\nstrong that he lifted the boulder as if it had been a pebble.\n\n\"That will do now,\" said the Man from the Moon. \"Rays of light even\nfrom the Moon give you strength. To-morrow morning I shall send three\nbears. Then you may show what power you have.\"\n\nThe Man then got into his sledge and went back to his place in the\nMoon.\n\nEvery time a moonbeam had hit Quadjaq he had felt himself growing. His\nfeet began first and became enormously large, and when the Man left\nhim, he found himself a good-sized man.\n\nIn the morning he waited for the bears, and three bears did really\ncome, growling and looking so fierce that the men of the village ran\ninto their huts and shut the doors. But Quadjaq put on his boots and\nran down to the ice where the bears were. The men peering out through\nthe window holes said, \"Can that be Quadjaq? The bears will soon eat\nthe foolish fellow.\"\n\nBut he seized the first one by its hind legs and smashed its head on\nan iceberg near which it was standing. The next one fared no better.\nBut the third one he took in his arms and carried it up to the village\nand let it eat some of his persecutors.\n\n\"That is for abusing me!\" he cried. \"That is for ill-treating me!\"\n\nThose that he did not kill ran away never to return. Only a few who\nhad been kind to him when he was a poor skinny boy were spared. Among\nthem, of course, was the girl who had given him the knife, and she\nbecame his wife.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nTHE GUEST\n\n\nAn old hag lived in a house with her grandson. She was a very bad\nwoman who thought of nothing but playing mischief. She was a witch and\ntried to harm everybody with witchcraft.\n\nOne time a stranger came to visit some friends who lived in a house\nnear the old woman. The visitor was a fine hunter and went out with\nhis host every morning and they brought home a great deal of game. It\nmade the old woman envious to see her neighbor have so much to eat,\nwhile she had little, and she determined to kill the visitor.\n\nShe made a soup of wolf's and man's brains, which was the most\npoisonous food she could think of. Then she sent her grandson to\ninvite the stranger to eat supper at her house.\n\n\"Tell him that I desire to be polite to the guest of my neighbor, but\nbe sure you do not tell him what I have cooked.\"\n\nThe boy went to the neighboring hut and said, \"Stranger, my\ngrandmother invites you to come to her hut and have a good feast on a\nsupper that she has cooked. She told me not to say that it is a wolf's\nand a man's brains, and I do not say it.\"\n\nThe man thought a moment, and then replied, \"Tell your grandam that I\nwill come.\"\n\nHe went to the hut where the old woman pretended to be very glad to\nsee him. They sat down at the table and while she was placing a large\ndish of soup before him, he put a bowl on the floor between his feet.\nHe excused himself for putting his hand before his mouth because his\nfront teeth were gone, and every time he poured the spoonful into the\nbowl.\n\nWhen he had finished he said, \"It is the custom in my tribe to bring\nyour hostess a bit of some delicious food to show that you appreciate\nher hospitality. Here is a bowl of rare food which I give to you, but\nit will not be good unless you eat it at once.\"\n\nHe gave the soup to the old witch, and the moment she tasted the broth\nshe herself had prepared she fell down dead.\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF THE NARWHAL\n\n\nA long, long time ago a widow lived with her young son and daughter in\na small hut. They had a hard time to get enough to eat. But the boy\nwas anxious to do all he could, and while he was still quite small he\nmade a bow and arrows of walrus tusks which he found under the snow.\nWith these weapons he shot birds for their food.\n\nHe had no snow goggles and one day when the sun shone bright and he\nwas hunting, he became utterly blind. He had a hard time finding his\nway back to the hut and when he got there without any game, his mother\nwas so disappointed that instead of pitying him for his blindness she\nbecame angry with him.\n\nFrom that time she ill-treated him, never giving him enough to eat. He\nwas a growing boy and needed a great deal of food, and she thought he\nwanted more than his share, so she gave him less, and would not allow\nher daughter to give him anything. So the boy lived on, half\nstarving, and was very unhappy.\n\nOne day a polar bear came to the hut and thrust his head right through\nthe window. They were all much frightened, and the mother gave the boy\nhis bow and arrows and told him to kill the animal.\n\n\"But I cannot see the window and I shall miss the bear. Then it will\nbe furious and will eat us,\" he said.\n\n\"Quick, brother! I will level the bow,\" said his sister.\n\nSo he shot and killed the bear, and the mother and sister went out and\nskinned it and buried the meat in the snow.\n\n\"Don't you dare to tell your brother that he killed the bear,\" said\nthe mother. \"We must make this meat last all winter.\"\n\nWhen they went back into the hut she said to her son, \"You missed the\nbear. He ran away as soon as he saw you take your bow and arrow. We\nhave been following him a long way into the woods.\"\n\nThe sister did not dare to tell her brother. She and her mother lived\non the meat for a long time while the boy was nearly starving. But\nsometimes when the mother was away, the girl gave him meat, for she\nloved her brother dearly and used to weep because she knew he was\nhungry.\n\nOne day a loon flew over the hut, and, seeing the poor blind boy at\nthe door, resolved to restore his eyesight. The bird perched on the\nroof and kept calling, \"_Quee moo! Quee moo!_\" which sounded to the\nlad like \"Come here! Come here!\"\n\nHe went out and followed the bird to the water. There the loon took\nthe boy on its back and dived with him to the bottom. The loon is a\ngreat diver and can stay for a long time under water, but it knew the\nboy could not. So it came to the surface soon and asked, \"Can you see\nanything?\"\n\n\"No, I cannot see anything as yet,\" answered the boy.\n\nThey dove again and remained a longer time. Again when they came up\nthe loon asked, \"Can you see now?\"\n\n\"I can see a dim shimmer,\" replied the boy.\n\n\"Take a long, long breath and hold it while we go down,\" said the\nloon. \"When you can hold it no more, let it come out very gradually.\nAs soon as the bubbles of air begin to rise I will know that you must\ncome to the surface and will bring you.\"\n\nThe third time they remained a long while under water, and when they\nrose to the surface the boy could see as well as ever. He thanked the\nloon very heartily, and it said to him:\n\n\"Go to your home now; but promise me never again to shoot a bird.\"\n\nHe gladly promised, and then ran away to his hut. There he found the\nskin of the bear he had shot hanging up to dry. He was so angry that\nhe tore it down and, entering the hut, demanded of his mother, \"Where\ndid you get the bearskin that is hanging outside the house?\"\n\nHis mother perceived that he had recovered his sight and that he\nsuspected the truth about the bear. She was frightened at his anger\nand sought to pacify him.\n\n\"Come here,\" she said, \"and I will give you the best I have. But I\nhave no one to support me and am very poor. Come here and eat this. It\nis very good.\"\n\nThe boy did not go near. Again he asked, \"Where did you get the\nbearskin that I saw hanging outside the door?\"\n\nShe was afraid to tell him the truth, so she said, \"A boat came here\nwith many men in it and they gave me the skin.\"\n\nThe boy did not believe her story. He was sure that it was the skin\nof the bear he had shot. But he said nothing more. His mother was\nanxious to make peace with him, and offered him food and clothing,\nwhich he refused to take.\n\nHe went to the other Inuit who lived in the same village and made a\nspear and a harpoon of the same pattern as they used. Then he watched\nthem throw the harpoons, and in a short time he became an expert\nhunter and could catch many white whales.\n\nBut he could not forget his anger at his mother. He said to his\nsister, \"I will not come home while our mother lives in the house. She\nabused me while I was blind and helpless, and she mistreated you for\npitying me. We will not kill her, but we will get rid of her and then\nlive together. Will you do what I have planned?\"\n\nShe agreed. Then he went to hunt white whales. As he had no kayak he\nstood on shore, winding the end of the harpoon string around his body,\nand taking a firm footing so he could hold the whale until it quieted\ndown and died. Sometimes his sister went along to help him hold the\nline.\n\nOne day his mother went to the beach, and he tied the string around\nher body and told her to take a firm footing. She was a trifle nervous\nfor she had never done the thing before, and she said, \"Harpoon a\nsmall dolphin, else I may not be able to hold it, if it is large\nenough to make a strong pull.\"\n\nAfter a short time a young animal came up to breathe, and she cried,\n\"Kill that one. I can hold it.\"\n\n\"No, that one is too large,\" he said.\n\nAgain a small dolphin came near, and the mother shouted, \"Spear that.\"\nBut he said, \"No, it is too large and strong.\"\n\nAt last a huge animal arose quite near, and immediately he threw his\nharpoon, taking care to wound but not to kill it, and at the same time\npushing his mother into the water.\n\n\"That is because you abused me,\" he cried, as the white whale dragged\nher into the sea.\n\nWhenever she came to the surface to breathe she cried \"_Louk! Louk!_\"\nand gradually she became transformed into a narwhal.\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\nWHAT THE ESKIMO BELIEVES\n\nHOW MEN WERE CREATED\n\n\nThe first human beings who appeared on the Diomede Islands were a man\nand a woman who came down from the sky. These two lived on the island\nfor a long time, but had no children.\n\nAt last the man took some ivory from a walrus and carved out five\nimages from it. Then he took some wood and carved five more images,\nand set all of them aside. The next morning the ten images had turned\ninto people. Those from the ivory dolls were men, hardy and brave;\nthose from the wood were women, soft and timid.\n\nFrom these ten people came the inhabitants of the islands.\n\n\nTHE FLOOD\n\nIn the first days that people can remember there was a flood which\ncovered all the earth except one very high peak in the middle. The\nwater rose up from the sea and covered all the land except the top of\nthis mountain, and the only animals that were not drowned were a few\nthat went up this mountain. A few people escaped by going into their\nboats and living on the fish they caught until the water subsided.\n\nAfter the waters lowered, these people went to live upon the\nmountains, and when the land was dry they came down to the coast. The\nanimals also came down and eventually the earth was refilled with\nanimals and people.\n\nIt was during the flood that the waves and currents of water cut the\nland into hollows and ridges. Then the water ran back into the sea\nleaving the mountains and valleys as they are today. All the Eskimo\nalong the northern part of North America have heard their old people\ntell of the flood.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere are reindeer which came from the sky and which have teeth like\ndogs. They were once common and anyone could see them, but now only\nthe priests can see them. They live on the plains, and have a large\nhole through the body back of the shoulders. If the people, who can\nsee them, mistake them for common reindeer and shoot at them, the\narrow falls harmless, for no ordinary weapon can kill them.\n\nThe Aurora Borealis is a group of boys playing football. Sometimes\nthey use the skull of a walrus for the ball. The swaying movement of\nthe lights shows that the players are struggling with each other and\ntugging back and forth. If the Aurora fades away and you utter a low\nwhistle, the boys will come back as if answering to applause.\n\nThe Milky Way is the snow that fell from the Raven's snowshoes when he\nwalked across the sky, during one of his journeys while he was\ncreating the inhabitants of earth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFrom Puget Sound at the northern border of the United States all along\nthe coast to Bering Strait, both Indians and Eskimo believe that the\neagle, the raven, the goose, and perhaps any bird, can push up its\nbeak making it the visor of a cap and thus become a man, and that by\npulling it down he can become a bird again.\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\nTHE FIRST MAN\n\n\nIn the time before there were any people on earth, a large pea-vine\nwas growing on the beach, and in the pod of this pea the first man lay\ncoiled up for four days. On the fifth day he stretched out his feet\nand that bursted the pod. He fell to the ground, where he stood up, a\nfull-grown man.\n\nHe had never seen anything that looked like him, and he did not know\nwhat to make of himself. He looked around, and then at himself; then\nhe moved his arms and hands and was surprised that he could do it. He\nmoved his neck and his legs, and examined himself curiously.\n\nLooking back, he saw the pod from which he had fallen still hanging to\nthe vine, with a hole at the lower end out of which he had dropped. He\nwent up and looked in through the hole to see if there were any more\nlike him in the pod. Then he looked about him again, and saw that he\nwas getting farther away from the place where he started, and that\nthe ground seemed very soft and moved up and down under his feet.\n\nAfter a while he had an unpleasant feeling in his stomach, and stooped\ndown to take water in his mouth from a small pool at his feet. The\nwater ran down into his stomach and he felt better. When he looked up\nagain, he saw a big dark object coming through the air with a waving\nmotion. It came on until it was just in front of him when it stopped\nand, standing on the ground, looked at him.\n\nThis was a Raven, and as soon as it stopped it raised one of its\nwings, pushed up its beak like a mask, to the top of its head, and\nchanged at once into a man. Before he raised his mask, the Raven had\nstared at the Man and now he stared more than ever, moving about from\nside to side to obtain a better view. At last he said:\n\n\"What are you? Where did you come from? I have never seen anything\nlike you.\"\n\nHe looked again and said, \"You are so much like me in shape that you\nsurprise me.\"\n\nPresently he said, \"Walk away a few steps so that I may see you more\nclearly. I am astonished at you! I have never before seen anything\nlike you. Where did you come from?\"\n\n\"I came from the pea-pod,\" said Man pointing to the plant from which\nhe came.\n\n\"Ah!\" exclaimed Raven, \"I made that vine, but did not know that\nanything like you would ever come out of it. Come with me to the high\nground over there. This ground I made later and it is still soft and\nthin, but it is harder and thicker over there.\" They came to the\nhigher ground which was firm under their feet.\n\n\"Have you eaten anything?\" Raven asked Man.\n\n\"I took some soft stuff into me at one of the pools,\" replied Man.\n\n\"Ah! you drank water,\" said Raven. \"Now wait for me here.\"\n\nHe drew down the mask over his face, changing again into a bird, and\nflew far up into the sky where he disappeared. Man waited where he had\nbeen left until the fourth day, when Raven returned, bringing four\nberries. Pushing up his mask, Raven became a man again and held out\ntwo salmonberries and two heathberries.\n\n\"Here is what I made for you to eat. I wish them to be plentiful over\nthe earth. Now eat them.\"\n\nMan took the berries and placed them in his mouth one after the other,\nand they satisfied his hunger which had made him feel uncomfortable.\nRaven then led Man to a small creek near by and left him till he went\nto the edge of the water and molded two pieces of clay into the form\nof a pair of mountain sheep. He held them in his hand till they were\ndry and then called Man to show him what he had done.\n\n\"Those are very pretty,\" said Man.\n\n\"Close your eyes for a little while,\" said Raven.\n\nAs soon as Man's eyes were closed Raven drew down his mask and waved\nhis wings four times over the images, when they came to life and\nbounded away as full-grown mountain sheep.\n\nRaven then raised his mask and said, \"Look! Look quick!\" When Man saw\nthe sheep moving away full of life he cried out with pleasure. Seeing\nhow pleased he was, Raven said, \"If these animals are numerous,\nperhaps people will wish very much to get them.\"\n\n\"I think they will,\" said Man.\n\n\"Well, it will be better for them to have their home in the high\ncliffs,\" said Raven, \"and there only shall they be found, so that\neveryone cannot kill them.\"\n\nThen Raven made two animals of clay and gave them life when they were\ndry only in spots; and they remained brown and white, and were the\ntame reindeer with mottled coats.\n\n\"Those are very handsome,\" exclaimed Man, admiring them.\n\n\"Yes, but there will not be many of these,\" said Raven.\n\nThen he made a pair of wild reindeer and let them get dry only on\ntheir bellies before giving them life; and to this day the belly of\nthe wild reindeer is the only white part about it.\n\n\"These animals will be very common and people will kill many of them,\"\nsaid Raven.\n\n\n\n\nXV\n\nTHE FIRST WOMAN\n\n\n\"You will be very lonely by yourself,\" said Raven to Man one day. \"I\nwill make you a companion.\"\n\nHe went to a spot some distance from where he had made the animals,\nand, looking now and then at Man as an artist looks at his model, he\nmade an image very much like Man. He took from the creek some fine\nwater grass and fastened it on the back of the head for hair. After\nthe image had dried in his hands, he waved his wings over it as he had\ndone with all the live things, and it came to life and stood beside\nMan, a beautiful young woman.\n\n\"There is a companion for you!\" cried Raven. \"Now come with me to this\nknoll over here.\"\n\nIn those days there were no mountains far or near, and the sun never\nceased to shine brightly. No rain ever fell and no winds blew. When\nthey came to the knoll Raven found a patch of long, dry moss and\nshowed the pair how to make a bed in it, and they slept very warmly.\nRaven drew down his mask and slept near by in the form of a bird.\nWakening before the others, Raven went to the creek and made three\npairs of fishes: sticklebacks, graylings, and blackfish. When they\nwere swimming about in the water, he called to Man, \"Come and see what\nI have made.\"\n\nWhen Man saw the sticklebacks swimming up the stream with a wriggling\nmotion, he was so surprised that he raised his hands suddenly and the\nfish darted away.\n\n\"Look at these graylings,\" said Raven; \"they will be found in clear\nmountain streams, while the sticklebacks are already on their way to\nthe sea. Both are good for food; so, whether you live beside the water\nor in the upland, you may find plenty to eat.\"\n\nHe looked about and thought there was nothing on the land as lively as\nthe fish in the water, so he made the shrew-mice, for he said, \"They\nwill skip about and enliven the ground and prevent it from looking\ndead and barren, even if they are not good for food.\"\n\nHe kept on for several days making other animals, more fishes, and a\nfew ground birds, for as yet there were no trees for birds to alight\nin. Every time he made anything he explained to Man what it was and\nwhat it would do.\n\nAfter this he flew away to the sky and was gone four days, when he\nreturned bringing a salmon for Man and his wife. He thought that the\nponds and lakes seemed silent and lonely, so he made insects to fly\nover their surfaces, and muskrats and beavers to swim about near their\nborders. At that time the mosquito did not bite as it does now, and he\nsaid to Man:\n\n\"I made these flying creatures to enliven the world and make it\ncheerful. The skin of this muskrat you are to use for clothing. The\nbeaver is very cunning and only good hunters can catch it. It will\nlive in the streams and build strong houses, and you must follow its\nexample and build a house.\"\n\nWhen a child was born, Raven and Man took it to the creek and rubbed\nit with clay, and carried it back to the stopping-place on the knoll.\nThe next morning the child was running about pulling up grass and\nother plants which Raven had caused to grow near by. On the third day\nthe child became a full-grown man.\n\nRaven one day went to the creek and made a bear, and gave it life; but\nhe jumped aside very quickly when the bear stood up and looked\nfiercely about. He had thought there ought to be some animal of which\nMan would be afraid, and now he was almost afraid of the bear himself.\n\n\"You would better keep away from that animal,\" he said. \"It is very\nfierce and will tear you to pieces if you disturb it.\"\n\nHe made various kinds of seals, and said to Man, \"You are to eat these\nand to take their skins for clothing. Cut some of the skins into\nstrips and make snares to catch deer. But you must not snare deer yet;\nwait until they are more numerous.\"\n\nBy and by another child was born, and the Man and Woman rubbed it with\nclay as Raven had taught them to do, and the next day the little girl\nwalked about. On the third day she was a full-grown woman, for in\nthose days people grew up very fast, so that the earth would be\npeopled.\n\n\n\n\nXVI\n\nOTHER MEN\n\n\nRaven went back to the pea-vine and there he found that three other\nmen had just fallen from the pod out of which the first one had\ndropped. These men, like the first, were looking about in wonder not\nknowing what to make of themselves and the world about them.\n\n\"Come with me,\" said Raven; and he led them away in an opposite\ndirection from the one in which he had led the first Man, and brought\nthem to solid land close to the sea. \"Stop here, and I will teach you\nwhat to do and how to live,\" said he.\n\nHe caused some small trees and bushes to grow on the hillside and in\nthe hollows, and he took a piece of wood from one of these, and a\ncord, and made a bow and showed them how to shoot game for food. Then\nhe taught them to make a fire with a fire-drill. He made plants, and\ngulls, and loons, and other birds such as fly about on the seacoast.\n\nThen he made three clay images somewhat resembling the men, and waved\nhis wings over them and brought them to life, and led each one of\nthese women to one of the men, and then led each pair to a dry bank,\nand had three families started on three hilltops.\n\n\"Go down to the shore,\" he said to the three men and the three women,\n\"and bring up the logs that the tide has brought in, and I will show\nyou how to make houses.\"\n\nThey brought the drift logs, and he showed them how to lay them up for\nwalls, and how to make a roof of branches covered with earth. Seals\nhad now become numerous, and he taught them how to capture them, and\nwhat use to make of their skins. He helped them to make arrows and\nspears, and nets to capture deer and fish, and other implements of the\nchase. He showed them how to make kayaks by stretching green hides\nover a framework of ribs, and letting the hides dry.\n\n\"I have not made as many birds and animals for you as I made for First\nMan and his wife, but I have made you so many more plants and trees\nthat it isn't quite fair to him. I must go back and fix up his land a\nbit,\" said Raven.\n\nSo he went over to where First Man and his children were living, and\ntold them all he had done for the three men who had come out of the\npea-pod, and how well he had them fixed up.\n\n\"I must have you live as well as they do,\" he said. \"Your land looks\nrather barren, and you have no houses.\"\n\nThat night while the people slept he caused birch, spruce, and\ncottonwood trees to spring up in the low places, and when the people\nawoke in the morning they clapped their hands in delight, for the\nbirds were singing in the tree-tops and the green leaves with the\nsunlight flickering through them made it seem like a fairy land. And\nthey were delighted with the shade of the trees in which they could\nsit and watch the quivering lights and shadows which the fluttering of\nthe leaves made.\n\nThen Raven taught these people how to build houses out of the trees\nand bushes, and how to make fire with a fire-drill, and to place the\nspark of tinder in a bunch of dry grass and wave it about until it\nblazed, and then put dry wood upon it. He showed them how to put a\nstick through their fish and hold it in the fire, till it was a\nthousand times more delicious than when raw. He took willow twigs and\nstrips of willow bark, and made traps for catching fish; and, best of\nall, he taught them to look out for the future, by catching more\nsalmon than they needed, when salmon were running, and drying them for\nuse when they could catch none.\n\n\"Now you are pretty well fixed,\" he said one day; \"it will take you\nsome time to practice on all the things I have taught you; so I will\ngo back and see how my coast men are coming on.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVII\n\nMAN'S FIRST GRIEF\n\n\nAfter Raven had gone, Man and his son went down to the sea to try some\nof the ways they had been taught. They made rather bad work of it, but\nthe son caught a seal and held it. They tried to kill it with their\nhands, but couldn't do it until, finally, the son struck it a hard\nblow on the head with his fist. Then the father took off the skin with\nhis hands alone, and tore it into strips which they dried. With these\nstrips they set snares for reindeer.\n\nWhen they went to look at the snare next morning, they found the cords\nbitten in two; for in those days the reindeer had sharp teeth like\ndogs. They stood looking at the ruined snare for a few minutes, and\nthen the son said:\n\n\"Let us go farther down along the deer trail and dig a pit and set our\nsnare just at the first edge of the pit, with a heavy stone fastened\nin it. Then when the deer puts his head in the snare the stone will\nfall down into the pit and drag the deer's head down and hold it.\"\n\nNext morning when they went to the woods and down the reindeer trail\nthey found a deer entangled in the snare. Taking it out, they killed\nand skinned it, carrying the skin home for a bed.\n\nThe women cried, \"Oh, let us hold some of the flesh in the fire as we\ndid the fish!\" And of course they found it good.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne day Man went out alone hunting seal along the seashore. There were\nmany seals out of the water sunning themselves on the rocks. He crept\nup to them cautiously, but just as he thought he had his hands on\nthem, one after another slipped into the water. Only one was left on\nthe rocks. Now you will not wonder at what happened, if you remember\nthat, although Man was full-grown, he was still quite young, for he\nhad become a man so suddenly. Only one seal was left on the rocks, and\nMan was very hungry. He crept up to it more cautiously than before,\nbut it slipped through his fingers and escaped.\n\nThen Man stood up and his breast seemed full of a strange feeling, and\nwater began to run in drops from his eyes and down his face. He put up\nhis hand and caught some of the drops to look at them and found that\nthey were really water. Then, without any wish on his part, loud cries\nbegan to break from him, and the tears ran down his face as he went\nhomeward.\n\nWhen his son saw him coming he called to his wife and mother to see\nMan coming along making such a strange noise. When he reached them\nthey were still more surprised to see water running down his face.\nAfter he told them the story of his disappointment about the seals,\nthey were all stricken with the same ailment and began to wail with\nhim,--and in this way people first learned to cry.\n\nA while after this the son killed another seal and they made more\nreindeer snares from its hide. When the deer caught this time was\nbrought home, Man told his people to take a splint bone from its\nforeleg and to drill a hole in the large end of it. Into this they put\nstrands of sinew from the deer and sewed skins to keep their bodies\nwarm when winter came, for Raven had told them to do this; and the\nfresh skins shaped themselves to their bodies and dried on them.\n\nMan then showed his son how to make bows and arrows and to tip the\narrows with points of horn for killing deer. With these the son shot\nhis first deer, which was easier than snaring them. After he had cut\nup this deer, he placed its fat upon a bush and then fell asleep. When\nhe awoke he was very angry to find that the mosquitoes had eaten all\nof it. Until this time mosquitoes had never bitten people; but Man\nscolded them for what they had done, and said: \"Never eat our meat\nagain; eat men,\" and since that day mosquitoes have always bitten\npeople.\n\nWhere First Man lived there had now grown a large village, for the\npeople did everything as Raven had directed, and as soon as a child\nwas born it was rubbed with clay and thus grew to its full stature in\nthree days.\n\n\n\n\nXVIII\n\nUP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY, AND DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA\n\n\nOne day Raven came back and, sitting beside Man, talked of many things\nas if they were brothers. After a little Man said, \"I understand that\nyou have made a land in the sky.\"\n\n\"Yes, I have a fine land there,\" answered Raven. \"I made that land\nwith all its people and animals, before I made this one.\"\n\n\"I wish you would take me to see it,\" said Man.\n\n\"Very well, I will do so,\" replied Raven.\n\nThey started toward the sky, where they arrived in a short time, and\nMan found himself in a beautiful country with a climate much better\nthan that on earth; but the people who lived there were very small.\nWhen they stood beside Man, their heads reached only to his hips. As\nthey walked along, Man looked about and saw many animals that were\nstrange to him, and noticed that the country was much finer than the\none he had left.\n\nThe people living there wore handsome fur garments nicely made and\nembroidered with ornamental patterns such as people on earth now wear.\nMan got the patterns, and when he came back to earth he showed his\npeople how to make the handsome garments; and the patterns have been\nretained ever since.\n\nAfter a time they came to a large house and went in. A very old man\ncame from the place of honor opposite the door at the head of the room\nto welcome them.\n\n\"This is the first man I made in the sky land,\" said Raven, explaining\nwhy the man seemed so old.\n\nThe old man called to his people: \"We have here a guest from the lower\nland, who is a friend of mine. Bring food to refresh him after his\ntravels.\"\n\nThey brought boiled food of a more delicious kind than Man had ever\ntasted.\n\n\"That is the flesh of the spotted reindeer and the sheep that live in\nthese mountains,\" said Raven. \"When you have finished your meal we\nwill go on to see other things that I have made. But you must not\nattempt to drink from any of the lakes we may pass, for in them are\nanimals which would seize and kill anyone from the lower land.\"\n\nOn the way they came to a dry lake bed in which tall grass was growing\nvery thickly, and lying on the very tips of the grass was a large\nanimal, yet the grass did not bend with the weight. It was a\nstrange-looking animal with a long head and six legs, the two hind\nones unusually large; the forelegs short; and a small pair under its\nbelly. The hair around the feet was very long, but all over the body\nthere was fine, thick hair. From the back of the head grew short,\nthick horns which extended forward and curved back at the tips. The\nanimal had small eyes, and was of darkish color, almost black.\n\n\"These animals can sink right into the ground and disappear,\" said\nRaven. \"When the people want to kill one of them, they have to put a\nlog under it so it cannot sink. It takes many people to kill one, for\nwhen the animal falls on the lower log, other logs must be placed\nabove it and held down, while two men take large clubs and beat it\nbetween the eyes till it is dead.\"\n\nNext they came to a round hole in the sky with a ring of short grass\ngrowing around the border and glowing like fire.\n\n\"This is a star called the Moon-dog,\" said Raven.\n\n\"The tops of the grass blades have been cut away or have burned off,\"\nsaid Man.\n\n\"Yes, my mother took some, and I took the rest to make the first fire\ndown on earth,\" said Raven. \"I have tried to make some of this same\nkind of grass on earth, but it will not grow there.\n\n\"Now close your eyes and get upon my wings and I will take you to\nanother place,\" said Raven.\n\nMan did as he was told, and they dropped through the flame-bordered\nstar hole and floated down and down for a long time. They came to\nsomething that seemed denser than the air, and caused them to go more\nslowly, until they finally stopped.\n\n\"We are now standing on the bottom of the sea,\" said Raven. \"I came\ndown here to make some new kinds of water animals. Looking through the\nwater must look like a fog to you, but you must not walk about; you\nmust lie down, and if you become tired you may turn over upon the\nother side.\"\n\nRaven then left Man lying on one side, where he rested for a long\ntime. Finally he awoke feeling very tired, but when he tried to turn\nover, he could not.\n\n\"I wish I could turn over,\" he said to himself; and in a moment he\nturned very easily.\n\nBut as he did this, he was horrified to see that his body had become\ncovered with long, white hairs, and that his fingers had become long,\nsharp claws. However, he was so drowsy that he soon fell asleep again.\nAfter a long time he awoke and again felt tired from lying so long in\none position. He turned as before and fell asleep again for the third\ntime. When he awoke the fourth time Raven stood beside him.\n\n\"I have changed you into a white bear,\" said Raven. \"How do you like\nit?\"\n\nMan tried to answer but could not make a sound. Raven waved his magic\nwing over him and then he said:\n\n\"I do not wish to be a bear, for then I would have to live on the sea\nwhile my son would live on the shore, and I would be unhappy.\"\n\nRaven made one stroke of his wings and the bearskin fell from Man and\nlay on one side, while he sat up in his human form, thankful that he\ndid not have to spend the rest of his life as a polar bear.\n\nThen Raven pulled a quill from his tail and put it into the empty\nbearskin for a backbone, and after he had waved his wings over it a\nwhite bear arose and walked slowly away; and ever since that time\nwhite bears have been found on the frozen seas.\n\n\"How many times did you turn over?\" Raven asked.\n\n\"Four times,\" answered Man.\n\n\"That was four years. You slept there just four years,\" said Raven.\n\"Come now and I will show you some of the animals I made while you\nslept.\n\n\"Here is one like the shrew-mouse of the land; but this one always\nlives on the ice of the sea, and whenever it sees a man it darts at\nhim, entering the toe of his boot and crawling all over him. If the\nman keeps perfectly quiet, it will leave him unharmed. But if he is a\ncoward, and lifts so much as a finger to brush it away, it instantly\nburrows into his flesh going directly to his heart and causing death.\n\n\"Here is another, a large leather-skinned animal with four long,\nwide-spreading arms. This is a fierce animal, living in the sea, which\nwraps its arms around a man or a kayak and pulls them into the water.\nIf the man tries to escape by getting out of his kayak upon the ice\nand running away, it will dart underneath and break the ice under his\nfeet. Or if he gets on the shore and runs, it burrows through the\nearth as easily as it swims through the water. No one can escape if\nonce it pursues him.\"\n\n\"Why did you make such an animal?\" asked Man.\n\n\"This is like man's own misdeeds, from which he cannot escape,\"\nreplied Raven.\n\nRaven then showed Man several other animals: one somewhat like an\nalligator, another with a long scaly tail with which it could kill a\nman at one stroke; some walruses, and otter, and many kinds of fish.\nThey finally came to a place where the shore rose before them, and the\nripples on the surface of the water could be seen.\n\n\"Close your eyes and hold fast to me,\" said Raven.\n\nAs soon as he had done this, Man found himself standing on the shore\nnear his home, and was very much astonished to see a large village\nwhere he had left only a few huts. His wife had become an old woman\nand his son was an old man. The people saw him and welcomed him back,\nmaking him their Headman, and giving him the place of honor in their\ngatherings. He told them all he had seen and heard since he left them,\nand taught the young men many things about the sea animals.\n\n\n\n\nXIX\n\nTAKING AWAY THE SUN\n\n\nPeople were becoming such good hunters that they killed a great many\nanimals, more than Raven was willing to have killed, lest the animals\nbecome too few for the large number of people now on earth. For this\nreason, Raven took a grass basket and tied a long line to it and,\ngoing down to earth, caught ten reindeer which he took up to the\nskyland. The next night he let the reindeer down near one of the\nvillages and told them to run fast and break down the first house they\ncame to, and destroy the people in it.\n\nThe reindeer did so and ate up the people with their sharp, wolf-like\nteeth; then they returned to the sky. The next night they came down\nagain and destroyed another house and ate up the people.\n\n\"What shall we do?\" cried the people to one another. \"They will\ndestroy all of us if they keep on coming.\"\n\n\"I know what I am going to do,\" said the man who lived in the third\nhouse. \"They will come to my house the next time, and I'm going to\ncover it with deer fat and stick sour berries all over in the fat.\"\n\nWhen the reindeer came the third night, they got their teeth full of\nfat and sour berries, and ran off shaking their heads so hard that\ntheir long, sharp teeth fell out. Afterward small teeth, such as\nreindeer now have, came in their places, and these animals became\nharmless.\n\nBut Raven had not accomplished his purpose, for only two families had\nbeen destroyed, and there were still too many inhabitants left. He\nsaid, \"If something isn't done to stop people from killing so many\nanimals, they will keep on until they have killed everything I have\nmade. I believe I will take away the sun from them, so that they will\nbe in the dark and will die.\"\n\nHe took Man up to the sky with him, so that he would be safe from the\ntrouble to come. Then he said, \"You remain here while I go and take\naway the sun.\"\n\nHe went away and took the sun, and put it into his skin bag, and\ncarried it far off to a part of the skyland where his parents lived,\nthus making it very dark on earth. There in his father's village he\nstayed for a long time, keeping the sun carefully hidden in the bag.\n\nThe people on earth were terribly distressed when it remained dark so\nlong. They prayed to Raven and offered him rich presents of food and\nfurs, but he wouldn't bring back the sun. They kept on begging him,\nsaying at last: \"We have crept around in the darkness finding our\nstorehouses and getting the meat, till now it is almost gone, and we\nare likely to starve. Let us have light for a little time at least, so\nwe may get more food.\"\n\nSo Raven yielded a trifle and held up the sun in one hand _for two\ndays_ while all the people went hunting; then he put it back and\ndarkness returned. Another long time would pass and the people would\nmake many offerings before he would let them have light again. This\nwas repeated many times.[2]\n\nIn this same sky village with Raven and his parents lived an older\nbrother of Raven who thought the punishment of men was being carried\ntoo far. This brother felt sorry for the people on earth, but he\ndidn't say a word about it to anyone. He thought out a plan which he\nkept to himself.\n\nAfter a time he pretended to die, and was put away in a grave box in\nthe customary manner. As soon as the mourners left his grave, he arose\nand went out a short distance from the village, where he hid his raven\nmask and coat in a tree. Then he turned himself into a young boy and\nwent back to his father's house, where he skipped about in a lively\nmanner, and amused the parents so much that the father at last became\nvery fond of him.\n\nWhen he had gotten them in the habit of indulging him, he began to cry\nfor the sun as a plaything. He kept this up until the father went to\nthe bag and took out the sun and let him have it for a while, being\ncareful to see that it went back into the bag when anyone was coming,\nor when the boy was going out of doors.\n\nOne day the boy played with it for a time in the house, all the while\nwatching his chance, and when no one was looking, he ran outside, fled\nto the tree where he put on his raven coat and mask and flew away with\nit. When he was far up in the sky, he heard his father's voice,\nsounding faint and far below, saying:\n\n\"Don't hide the sun. If you will not bring it back, let it out of the\nbag sometimes. Don't keep us always in the dark, if you mean to keep\nthe sun for yourself.\"\n\nThe father went into the house, and the Raven boy flew on to the place\nwhere the sun belonged, and put the bag down. It was early dawn and he\nsaw the Milky Way leading far onward, and followed it to a hole\nsurrounded by short grass which glowed with light. He plucked some of\nthe grass and, standing close beside the edge of the earth just before\nsunrise time, he stuck it into the sky. It has stayed there ever since\nas the beautiful Morning Star.\n\nThen he went back and tore off the skin covering and put the sun in\nits place. Remembering that his father had called to him not to keep\nit always dark, but to make it partly dark and partly light, he caused\nthe sky to revolve so that it moved around the earth carrying the sun\nand stars with it, and making day and night.\n\nGoing down to earth he came to where the first people lived, and said\nto them, \"Raven, my uncle, was angry because you killed more animals\nthan you needed, and he took away the sun; but I have put it back and\nit will never be changed again.\"\n\nThe people welcomed him warmly when they knew what he had done for\nthem. As he looked around upon them he recognized the Headman of the\nsky-dwarfs.\n\n\"Why, what are you doing down here?\" he asked.\n\n\"I and some of my people thought we would like a change, and so we\ncame down to live on earth for a while,\" replied the dwarf.\n\n\"What has become of Man?\"\n\n\"Who is Man? I never heard of him,\" said Raven boy.\n\n\"He was the first person ever seen on earth. He was our Headman until\nhe went away with Raven,\" said the people.\n\n\"I will go into the skyland and find him,\" said Raven boy. He tried to\nfly, but could get up only a little way. He tried several times,\ngetting only a short distance above the ground. When he found that he\ncould not get back to the sky, he wandered off and finally came to\nwhere there were living the children of the three men who last dropped\nfrom the pea-vine. There he took a wife and lived for a long time\nhaving many children, all of whom were Raven people like himself and\ncould fly over the earth. But they gradually lost their magical\npowers, and were no longer able to turn themselves into men by pushing\nup their beaks. They became just ordinary ravens like those we see now\non the tundras or marshy plains.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] This story is probably the Eskimo's explanation of the very long\nnights in the far north during part of the year.\n\n\n\n\nXX\n\nTHE DWARF PEOPLE\n\n\nVery long ago, before the white people ever went into the land of the\nEskimo, there was a large village at Pik-mik-tal-ik. One winter day\nthe people living there were surprised to see a small man and a small\nwoman with a child coming down the river on the ice. The man was so\nlittle that he wore a coat made of a single white fox skin. The\nwoman's coat was made from the skins of two white hares; while two\nmuskrat skins clothed the child.\n\nThe father and mother were about two cubits high, and the boy not over\nthe length of one's forearm. Though he was so small, the man was\ndragging a sled much larger than those used by the villagers, and he\nhad on it a heavy load of various articles. He seemed surprisingly\nstrong, and when they came to the shore below the village, he easily\ndrew the sled up the steep bank, and taking it by the rear end raised\nit on the sled frame, a feat which would have required the strength of\nseveral of the villagers.\n\nThe couple entered one of the houses and were made welcome. This small\nfamily remained in the village for some time, the man taking his place\namong the other men and seeming entirely at home and friendly. He was\nvery fond of his little son; but one day when the latter was playing\noutside the house, he was bitten so badly by a savage dog that he\ndied. In his anger the father caught the dog up by the tail and struck\nit against a post so violently that the dog fell in halves.\n\nIn his great sorrow, the father made a handsome, carved grave-box for\nhis son and placed the child with his toys in it. Then he went into\nhis house and for four days he did no work and would see no one. At\nthe end of that time he took his sled, and with his wife returned up\nthe river on their old trail, while the villagers sorrowfully watched\nthem go, for they had come to like the pair very much.\n\nBefore this time the villagers had always made the body of their sleds\nfrom long strips of wood running lengthwise; but after they had seen\nthe dwarf's sled with many crosspieces, they adopted that model.\n\nBefore this time, too, they had always cast their dead out on the\ntundra to be devoured by the dogs and wild beasts; but after they had\nseen the dwarf people bury their son in a grave-box with toys placed\nabout him, they buried their dead in that way and observed four days\nof mourning as had been done by the dwarf; for they liked him and his\ngentle manners.\n\nAnd ever since that time the hunters coming home at dusk and looking\ntoward the darkening tundra, sometimes see dwarf people who carry bows\nand arrows, but who disappear into the ground if one tries to approach\nthem. They are harmless people, never attempting to do anyone an\ninjury. No one has ever spoken to these dwarfs since the time they\nleft the village; but deer hunters have often seen their tracks near\nthe foot of the mountains.\n\n\n\n\nXXI\n\nWHAT HAPPENED TO THE LONE WOMAN OF ST. MICHAEL\n\n\nThe women south of St. Michael are poor seamstresses but fine dancers,\nwhile those to the north are expert needlewomen but poor dancers; and\nthis is the way the Eskimo explain it.\n\nVery long ago there were many men living in the northland, but there\nwas no woman among them. Far away in the southland a single woman was\nknown to live. At last the shrewdest young man of the northland\nstarted and traveled southward till he came to the woman's house,\nwhere he stopped and became her husband.\n\nHe was very proud of himself for getting ahead of the other young men\nin the north. One day he sat in the house thinking of his former home,\nand he said, \"Ah, I have a wife, while even the son of the Headman has\nnone.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Headman's son had also set out to journey toward the\nsouth, and while the husband was talking thus to himself, the son\nstood in the entrance to the house and heard what he said. It angered\nthe son to hear the husband gloating over him. He hid in the passage\nand waited until the people inside were asleep, when he crept into the\nhouse and, seizing the woman by the shoulders, began dragging her\naway.\n\nJust as he reached the doorway he was overtaken by the husband who\ncaught the woman by her feet. The two held on like grim death and\ntugged and pulled until it ended in the woman being torn in two. The\nthief carried the upper half of the body away, while the husband was\nleft with the lower portion of his wife.\n\nEach man set to work to replace the missing parts from carved wood.\nAfter these parts were fitted on they came to life; and thus two women\nwere made from the halves of one.\n\nOwing to the clumsiness of her wooden fingers, the woman of the south\nwas a poor needlewoman, but was a fine dancer. The woman of the north\nwas very expert in needlework, but her wooden legs made her a poor\ndancer. Each of these women gave these traits to her daughters, so\nthat to the present time the same difference is noted between the\nwomen of the north and those of the south, \"thus showing that the\nstory is true.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXII\n\nWHY THE MOON WAXES AND WANES\n\n\nIn a certain village on the Yukon River there once lived four brothers\nand a sister. The sister's companion was the youngest boy, of whom she\nwas very fond. This boy was lazy and could never be made to work. The\nother brothers were great hunters and in the fall they hunted at sea,\nfor they lived near the shore. As soon as the Bladder feast in\nDecember was over, they went to the mountains and hunted reindeer. The\nboy never went with them, but remained at home with his sister, and\nthey amused each other.\n\nOne time, however, she became angry at him, and that night when she\ncarried food to the other brothers in the kashim or assembly house\nwhere the men slept, she gave none to the youngest brother. When she\nwent out of the assembly house she saw a ladder[3] leading up into the\nsky, with a line hanging down by the side of it. Taking hold of the\nline, she ascended the ladder, going up into the sky. As she was going\nup, the younger brother came out and, seeing her, at once ran back and\ncalled to his brothers:\n\n\"Our sister is climbing the sky! Our sister is climbing the sky!\"\n\n\"Oh, you lazy youngster, why do you tell us that? She is doing no such\nthing,\" said they.\n\n\"Come and see for yourselves! Come, quick!\" he cried, very much\nexcited.\n\nSure enough! Up she was going at a rapid rate.\n\nThe boy caught up his sealskin breeches and, being in a hurry, thrust\none leg into them and then drew a deerskin sock on the other foot as\nhe ran outside. There he saw the girl far away up in the sky and began\nat once to go up the ladder toward her; but she floated away, he\nfollowing in turn.\n\nThe girl became the sun and the boy became the moon, and ever since\nthat time he pursues but never overtakes her. At night the sun sinks\nin the west, and the moon is seen coming up in the east to go circling\nafter, but always too late. The moon, being without food, wanes slowly\naway from starvation until it is quite lost to sight; then the sun\nreaches out and feeds it from the dish in which she carried food to\nthe kashim. After the moon is fed and gradually brought to the full,\nit is permitted to starve again, thus producing the waxing and waning\nwhich we see every month.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[3] Probably the Milky Way.\n\n\n\n\nXXIII\n\nCHUNKS OF DAYLIGHT\n\n\nAt the northern part of the continent, in the land of the midnight\nsun, where in the long summer days the sun at midnight is just\nslipping below the northern horizon and immediately is seen coming up\nagain, and where in the long nights of winter there is scarcely any\ndaytime at all, it is not strange that the legends of the people often\ntreat of daylight and especially of darkness. The long nights become\noppressive, and the people have different theories as to the cause of\nit, which they weave into legends such as the following.\n\nIn the days when the earth was a child, there was light from the sun\nand moon as there is now. Then the sun and moon were taken away and\nthe people were left for a long time with no light but the shining of\nthe stars. The shamans, or priests, made their strongest charms to no\npurpose, for the darkness of night continued.\n\nIn a village of the lower Yukon there lived an orphan boy who always\nsat upon the bench with the humble people, over the entrance way of\nthe kashim or assembly house. The other people thought he was foolish,\nand he was despised and ill-treated by everyone. After the shamans had\ntried very hard to bring back the sun and moon and had failed, the boy\nbegan to ridicule them.\n\n\"What fine shamans you must be, not to be able to bring back the\nlight, when even I can do it,\" he said mockingly.\n\nAt this the shamans became very angry and beat him and drove him out\nof the kashim. The orphan was like any other boy until he put on a\nblack coat which he had, when he became a raven and remained in that\nform until he removed his coat. When the shamans drove him out, he\nwent to the house of his aunt in the village and told her what he had\nsaid, and how the shamans had beaten him and driven him out of the\nkashim.\n\n\"Tell me where the sun and moon have gone, for I am going after them,\"\nsaid he.\n\n\"They are hidden somewhere, but I don't know where it is,\" she\nreplied.\n\n\"I am sure you know where they are, for look what a neatly sewed coat\nyou wear, and you could not see to do that if you did not know where\nthe light is.\"\n\nAfter a great deal of persuasion the aunt said: \"Well, if you wish to\nfind the light you must take your snowshoes and go far, far to the\nsouthland, to the place you will know when you get there.\"\n\nThe boy put on his black coat, took his snowshoes, and at once set off\nfor the south. For many days he traveled, while the darkness always\nremained the same. When he had gone a very long way, he saw far ahead\nof him a single ray of light, and that cheered and encouraged him.\n\nAs he hurried on, the light showed again plainer than before and then\nvanished; and kept appearing and vanishing at intervals. At last he\ncame to a large hill, one side of which was in a bright light while\nthe other was in the blackness of night. Ahead of him and close to the\nhill he saw a hut with a man who was shoveling snow from the front of\nit.\n\nThe man was tossing the snow high in air, and each time he did this\nthe light was hidden, thus causing the changes from light to darkness\nwhich the boy had noticed as he approached. Close beside the house he\nsaw a great blazing ball of fire--the light he had come to find.\n\nThe boy stopped and began to plan how he could secure the light and\nthe shovel from the man. After a time he walked up to the man and\nasked, \"Why are you throwing up the snow and hiding the light from\nour village?\"\n\n[Illustration: HE WHIPPED ON HIS MAGIC COAT AND BECAME A RAVEN]\n\nThe man stopped his work, looked up and said, \"I am only clearing away\nthe snow from my door. I am not hiding the light. But who are you, and\nwhere do you come from?\"\n\n\"It is so dark at our village that I did not like to live there, so I\ncame here to live with you,\" said the boy.\n\n\"What? Will you stay all the time?\" asked the man in surprise.\n\n\"Yes,\" replied the boy.\n\n\"That is well; come into the house with me,\" said the man.\n\nHe dropped his shovel on the ground and, stooping down, led the way\ninto the underground passage to the house, letting the curtain fall in\nfront of the door as he passed, for he thought the boy was close\nbehind him.\n\nThe moment the door flap fell behind the man as he entered, the boy\ncaught up the ball of light and put it in the turned-up flap of his\nfur coat in front. Catching up the shovel in one hand, he ran away to\nthe north, running until his feet became tired. Then he whipped on his\nmagic coat and became a raven and flew as fast as his wings would\ncarry him. Behind he heard the frightful shrieks and cries of the old\nman, following fast in pursuit.\n\nWhen the old man found that he could not overtake the raven he cried\nto him, \"Never mind; you may keep the light, but give me my shovel.\"\n\n\"No; you made our village dark and you cannot have the shovel,\" called\nthe raven, and flew faster, leaving the man far in the rear.\n\nAs the raven boy traveled home, he tore out a chunk from the light\nball and threw it away, thus making a day. Then he went on for a long\nway in the darkness, and threw out another piece of light, making it\nday again. He continued to do this at intervals until he reached the\nkashim in his own village, where he dropped the rest of the ball.\n\nThen he went into the kashim and said, \"Now, you worthless shamans,\nyou see I have brought back the light, and hereafter it will be light\nand then dark, making day and night.\"\n\nAnd the shamans could not answer.\n\n\n\n\nXXIV\n\nTHE RED BEAR\n\n\nOn the tundra south of the mouth of the Yukon River an orphan boy once\nlived with his aunt. They were all alone with no house within sight;\nbut the boy had heard that there were people living farther up the\nriver. One summer day he got into his kayak and rowed up the river\nhoping to find other human beings. He traveled on until he came to a\nlarge village where he saw many people moving about. There he landed\nand began calling to the people expecting to make friends with them.\n\nBut instead of being friendly, they disliked all strangers and,\nrunning down to the shore, they seized him, broke his kayak to pieces,\ntore his clothing off him, and beat him badly. Then they took him up\ninto the village and kept him there all summer, beating and\nill-treating him very often. In the fall one of the men took pity on\nhim and made him a kayak, and helped him to escape. He went down the\nriver and arrived at home after a long absence.\n\nDuring the summer other people had built houses near the home of his\naunt and there was a small village instead of the one lone hut. He\nwalked among the buildings until he found his aunt's house; but when\nhe entered, he frightened her very much, for at first glance she\nthought it was a skeleton, he had been starved and beaten so long.\n\nWhen his aunt recognized him and had heard his story, she said, \"Oh,\nyou poor boy! What you must have suffered! I am full of rage at those\ncruel villagers. I shall find some way to revenge your wrongs!\"\n\nShe sat thinking a while and then said to him, \"Bring me a piece of a\nsmall log.\"\n\nHe brought the piece of wood and she whittled and rubbed it into the\nform of an animal with long teeth and long, sharp claws, and painted\nit white on the throat and red on the sides. Then they took the image\nto the edge of the stream and placed it in the water.\n\n\"Go now,\" she said to it, \"and kill everyone you find in the village\nwhere my boy was beaten.\"\n\nThe image did not move.\n\nShe took it out of the water and cried over it, letting her tears\nfall upon it; and the warm tears brought it to life and made it feel\nsorry for her and the boy. She put it back into the water.\n\n\"Now, go and kill the bad people who beat my boy,\" she said.\n\nAt this the image floated across the creek and crawled up on the other\nside, where it began to grow, soon becoming a large red bear. It\nturned and looked at the woman till she called out, \"Go, and spare no\none.\"\n\nThe bear went away and came to the village on the big river, the one\nto which the boy had gone. There the first one he met was a man going\nfor water. This one was quickly torn in pieces, and one after another\nof the villagers met the same fate; for the bear stayed near the\nvillage until he had destroyed one-half of the people, and the rest\nwere so terrified that they began moving away.\n\nThen he swam across the Yukon and went over the tundra to the farther\nside of another river, killing everyone he met. For he had become so\nbloodthirsty that the least sign of life seemed to fill him with fury\nuntil he had destroyed it.\n\nFrom there he turned back, and one day came to the place on the river\nwhere he had first come to life. Seeing the people on the opposite\nside he became furious, tearing the ground with his claws and\ngrowling, and starting to cross the river to get at them. When the\nvillagers saw this, they were much frightened, and ran about saying,\n\"Here is the old woman's dog! We shall all be killed!\" \"Tell the old\nwoman to stop her dog!\" They had never seen a bear and they thought it\nwas a dog she had made.\n\nThe woman went to meet the bear which did not try to hurt her, but was\npassing by her to get at the other people when she caught him by the\nhair on the back of his neck.\n\n\"Do not hurt these people,\" she said; \"they have been kind to me and\nhave given me food when I was hungry.\"\n\nShe led the bear into her house, and still holding on to him, she\ntalked to him kindly.\n\n\"You have done my bidding well, and I am pleased with you,\" she said;\n\"but you must not overdo it. Hereafter you must injure no one unless\nhe tries to hurt or injure you.\"\n\nWhen she had finished talking, she led him to the door and sent him\naway over the tundra. Before she made him there had never been any of\nhis kind, but since then there have always been red bears.\n\n\n\n\nXXV\n\nTHE LAST OF THE THUNDERBIRDS\n\n\nIn ancient times a great many giant eagles or thunderbirds lived in\nthe mountains; but in later years they had all disappeared except one\nsingle pair which made their home in the mountain top overlooking the\nYukon near Sabotnisky. The top of this mountain was round and the\neagles had hollowed out a great basin on the summit which they used\nfor a nest. Around the edge of it was a rocky rim from which they\ncould see far across the broad river, or could look down upon the\nvillage at the base of the mountain on the water's edge.\n\nFrom their perch on this rocky wall these great birds would soar away,\nlooking like a cloud in the sky, to seize a reindeer from a passing\nherd and bring it to their young. Or, again, they would circle out\nwith a noise like thunder from their shaking wings, and drop down upon\na fisherman in his kayak on the river, carrying man and boat to the\ntop of the mountain. There the man would be eaten by the young\nthunderbirds, and the kayak would lie bleaching among the bones and\nother refuse scattered along the border of the nest. Every fall the\nyoung birds would fly away to the northland, while the old ones would\nremain by the mountain.\n\nAfter many fishermen had been carried away by the birds, there came a\ntime when only the most daring would venture upon the river. One\nsummer day a brave young hunter was starting out to look at his fish\ntraps and he said to his wife, \"Don't go outside the house while I am\naway, for fear of the birds.\"\n\nAfter he was gone she noticed that the water tub was empty, and took a\nbucket to go to the river for water. As she bent over to fill the\nvessel a roaring noise like thunder filled the air, and one of the\nbirds darted down and seized her in its talons. The villagers saw the\nbird swoop down, and they wailed aloud in sorrow and terror as they\nwatched her being carried through the air to the mountain top.\n\nThe hunter came home and the villagers gathered about with many\nlamentations. \"Oh, pitiful! pitiful! your pretty wife was carried away\nby the thunderbirds! Too bad! Too bad! By this time she is torn to\npieces and fed to the young demons!\"\n\nNot one word did the husband utter. Going into his empty house he took\ndown his bow and his quiver of war arrows and started toward the\nmountain.\n\n\"Don't go! Don't go!\" cried the villagers; \"of what use is it? She is\ndead and devoured ere this. You will only add one more to their\nvictims.\"\n\nNot a word did the hunter reply. He strode on and on and they watched\nhim climbing up and up the mountainside till he was lost to view. At\nlast he gained the rim of the nest and looked in. The old birds were\naway, but the fierce young eagles greeted him with shrill cries and\nfiery, flashing eyes. The hunter's heart was full of anger and he\nquickly bent his bow, loosing the war arrows one after another till\nthe last one of the hateful birds lay dead in the nest.\n\nWith heart still burning for revenge, the hunter hid himself beside a\ngreat rock near the nest and waited for the parent birds. They came.\nThey saw their young lying dead and bloody in the nest, and their\ncries of rage echoed from the cliffs on the farther side of the great\nriver. They soared up into the air looking for the one who had killed\ntheir young. Quickly they saw the brave hunter beside the great stone,\nand the mother bird swooped down upon him, her wings sounding like a\ngale in a spruce forest. Swiftly fitting an arrow to the string, as\nthe eagle came down the hunter sent it deep into her throat. With a\nhoarse cry she turned and flew away over the hills far to the north.\n\nThe father bird had been circling overhead and came roaring down upon\nthe hunter, who, at the right moment, crouched close to the ground\nbehind the stone, and the eagle's sharp claws struck only the hard\nrock. As the bird arose, eager to swoop down again, the hunter sprang\nfrom his shelter and drove two heavy war arrows deep under its wing.\nUttering hoarse cries of rage, and spreading his broad wings, the\nthunderbird floated away like a cloud in the sky, far into the\nnorthland, and was never seen again.\n\nHaving taken blood vengeance, the hunter went down into the nest where\namong ribs of old canoes and other bones he found some fragments of\nhis wife, which he carried to the water's edge and, building a fire,\nmade food offerings and libations of water such as would be pleasing\nto her ghost.\n\n\n\n\nXXVI\n\nRAVEN MAKES AN OCEAN VOYAGE\n\n\nOne day Raven was sitting on a cliff near the sea when he saw a large\nwhale passing close along the shore.\n\n\"I have an idea!\" said he. \"I'm going to try something new.\" Then he\ncalled out to the whale, \"When you come up again, shut your eyes and\nopen your mouth wide, and I'll put something in it.\"\n\nThen he drew down his mask, put his drill for making fire under his\nwing, and flew out over the water. Very soon the whale came up again\nand did as he had been told. Raven, seeing the wide open mouth, flew\nstraight down the whale's throat. The whale closed his mouth, gave a\ngreat gulp, and down he went to the bottom of the sea.\n\nRaven stood up, pushed up his beak, and looking about, found himself\nat the entrance to a fine room, at one end of which burned a lamp. He\nwent in and was surprised to see a beautiful young woman sitting\nthere. The place was clean and dry, the roof being supported by the\nwhale's spine, while its ribs formed the walls. The lamp was supplied\nfrom a tube that extended along the whale's backbone, from which oil\nconstantly but slowly dripped into the lamp.\n\nWhen Raven stepped in, the woman started up in alarm and cried out,\n\"How came you here? You are the first man who ever came into my\nhouse.\"\n\n\"I came in through the whale's throat,\" said Raven as politely as he\nknew how, for the woman was young and fair to look upon. Moreover, he\nhad already guessed that she was the _inua_ or spirit of the whale. \"I\nshould like to stay a while.\"\n\n\"As you cannot get out at present, it seems that you will have to\nstay. Whether you like it, or whether I like it, you appear to be my\nguest, so I must prepare food for you.\"\n\nShe brought food which she served with berries and oil. \"These are\nberries which I gathered last summer,\" she said.\n\nFor four days he remained there as the guest of the whale's spirit,\nand found it a very pleasant experience; but he continually wondered\nwhat the tube was that ran along the roof of the house. Whenever the\nspirit woman left the room she said, \"You must on no account touch\nthat tube,\" and that only served to make him the more curious.\n\nOn the fifth day, when she left the room, he went to the lamp and\ncaught a drop of the oil which he licked up with his tongue. It tasted\nso sweet that he began to catch other drops as fast as they fell. This\nsoon became too slow to suit him, for he was hungry, so he reached up\nand tore a piece from the side of the tube and ate it. As soon as this\nwas done a great rush of oil poured into the room and put out the\nlight, while the room itself began to roll wildly about.\n\nThis continued for four days, and Raven was nearly dead from\nexhaustion and the bruises which he received. Then the room became\nstill and the whale was dead, for Raven had torn off part of one of\nthe heart vessels. The _inua_ never came back to the room, and the\nwhale drifted upon the shore.\n\nRaven now found himself a prisoner and was saying to himself, \"Now I\n_am_ in a pretty boat! I have enjoyed the trip, but how is one to get\nout of a kayak like this?\"\n\nPresently he said, \"Hark! What is that I hear? As I live, it is\nsomeone walking on the roof of the house!\"\n\nAnd he was right, for two men were walking on top of the dead whale\nand calling to their village mates to come and help cut it up. Very\nsoon there were many people at work cutting a hole through the upper\nside of the whale's body.\n\nRaven quickly pulled down his mask, becoming a bird, and crouched\nclose in the farthest corner. When the hole was large enough, he\nwatched his chance and while everybody was carrying a load of meat to\nthe shore, he flew out and alighted on the top of a hill close by\nwithout being noticed.\n\n\"Ah, my good fire-drill; I have forgotten it,\" he exclaimed,\nremembering that he had left it behind.\n\nHe quickly pushed up his beak and removed his raven coat, becoming a\nyoung man again. He started along the shore toward the whale. The\npeople working on the dead animal saw a small, dark-colored man in a\nstrangely made deerskin coat coming toward them, and they looked at\nhim curiously.\n\n\"Ho, you have found a fine, large whale,\" said he as he drew near. \"I\nwill help you to cut him up.\"\n\nHe rolled up his sleeves and set to work. Very soon a man cutting on\nthe inside of the whale's body called out, \"Ah, see what I have\nfound! A fire-drill inside a whale!\"\n\nAt once the wily Raven rolled down his sleeves and quit work, saying,\n\"That is a bad sign, for my daughter has told me that if a fire-drill\nis found in a whale and people try to cut up that whale, many of them\nwill die. I shall run away before the _inua_ of the whale catches me.\"\nAnd away he ran.\n\nWhen he was gone the people looked at one another and said, \"Perhaps\nhe is right; we'd better go too.\" And away they all ran, each one\ntrying to rub the oil from his hands as he went.\n\nFrom his hiding-place Raven looked on and laughed as he saw the people\nrunning away. Then he went back for his raven coat and when he had put\nit on and pulled down his beak he flew to the carcass and began to cut\nit up and fly with chunks of the flesh to a cave on the shore. He did\nnot dare go to it as a man lest the villagers should see him and,\ndiscovering the trick he had played them, should come back for the\nmeat. As he chuckled over the feast in store for him he said, \"Thanks,\nGhost of the whale, both for the boat ride and for the feast.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXVII\n\nTHE RED SKELETON\n\n\nIn a village on Cape Prince of Wales, very long ago, there was a poor\norphan boy who had no one to take his part and who was treated badly\nby everyone, being made to run here and there at the bidding of all\nthe villagers.\n\nOne snowy night he was told to go out of the kashim to see if the\nweather was getting worse. He had no skin boots, and it was so cold\nthat he did not wish to go, but he was driven out. When he came back\nhe said, \"It has stopped snowing, but it is as cold as ever.\"\n\nJust to plague him, the men kept sending him out every little while,\nuntil at last he came in saying:\n\n\"I saw a ball of fire like the moon coming over the hill to the\nnorth.\"\n\nThe men laughed at him and asked, \"Why do you tell us a yarn like\nthat? Go out again and see if there is not a whale coming over the\nhill. You are always seeing things.\"\n\nHe went out, and came in again quickly, saying in agitation, \"The red\nthing has come nearer and is close to the house.\"\n\nThe men laughed, but the boy hid himself. Almost immediately after\nthis the men in the kashim saw a fiery figure dancing on the gut-skin\ncovering over the roof hole, and an instant after a human skeleton\ncame crawling into the room through the passageway, creeping on its\nknees and elbows.\n\nWhen the skeleton was in the room it made a motion toward the people\nwhich caused them all to fall on their knees and elbows in the same\nposition as it had. Then, turning about, it crawled out as it had\ncome, followed by the people, who were forced to go with it. Outside,\nthe skeleton crept through the snow toward the edge of the village,\nfollowed by all the men, and in a short time every one of them was\ndead and the skeleton had vanished.\n\nSome of the villagers had been absent when the spook came, and when\nthey returned they found dead people lying all about on the cold\nground. Entering the kashim, they found the orphan boy, who told them\nhow the people had been killed.\n\nThey followed the tracks of the skeleton through the snow, and were\nled up the side of the mountain till they came to an ancient grave,\nwhere the tracks ended.\n\nIt was the grave of the boy's father.\n\n\n\n\nXXVIII\n\nTHE MARMOT AND THE RAVEN\n\n\nOnce when a Raven was flying over some reefs near the shore of the\nsea, he was seen by some Sea-birds that were perched on the rocks.\nThey began to revile him, calling him disagreeable names: \"Oh, you\noffal eater! Oh, you carrion eater! Oh, you black one!\" until the\nRaven turned and flew away, crying, \"_Gnak, gnak, gnak_! why do they\ncall me such names?\"\n\nHe flew far away across the great water until he came to a mountain on\nthe other side, where he stopped. Just in front of him he saw a marmot\nhole. He said to himself, \"If it is a disgrace to eat dead animals I\nwill eat only live ones. I will become a murderer.\"\n\nHe stood in front of the hole watching, and very soon the marmot came\nhome, bringing some food. Marmot said to Raven, \"Please stand aside;\nyou are right in front of my door.\"\n\n\"It is not my intention to stand aside,\" said Raven. \"They called me a\ncarrion eater, and I will show that I am not, for I will eat you.\"\n\n\"If you are going to eat me, you ought to be willing to do me a\nfavor,\" replied Marmot. \"I have heard that you are a very fine dancer,\nand I long to see you dance before I die. If you dance as beautifully\nas they say, I shall be willing to die when once I have seen it. If\nyou will dance I will sing, and then you may eat me.\"\n\nThis pleased Raven so much that he began to dance and Marmot pretended\nto go into ecstasies about it.\n\n\"Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven, how well you dance!\" he sang. \"Oh, Raven,\nRaven, Raven, how well you dance!\"\n\nBy and by they stopped to rest and Marmot said, \"I am very much\ndelighted with your dancing. Do shut your eyes and dance your best\njust once more, while I sing.\"\n\nRaven closed his eyes and hopped clumsily about while Marmot sang,\n\"Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven, what a graceful dancer! Oh, Raven, Raven,\nRaven, what a fool you are!\" And with a quick run, Marmot darted\nbetween Raven's legs and was safe in his hole.\n\nThere he turned, putting out the tip of his nose and laughing\nmockingly as he said, \"_Chi-kik-kik, chi-kik-kik, chi-kik-kik_! You\nare the greatest fool I ever met. What a ridiculous figure you made\nwhile dancing; I could scarcely sing for laughing. Look at me, and see\nhow fat I am. Don't you wish you could eat me?\"\n\nAnd he tormented Raven till the latter flew away in a rage.\n\n\n\n\nXXIX\n\nORIGIN OF THE WINDS\n\n\nIn a village on the lower Yukon lived a man and his wife who had no\nchildren. One day the woman said to her husband, \"Far out on the\ntundra there grows a solitary tree. Go to that and bring back a piece\nof the trunk, and make a doll from it. Then it will seem that we have\na child.\"\n\nThe man went out of the house and saw a long track of bright light\nlike that made by the moon shining on snow, leading off across the\ntundra in the direction he had been told to take. It was the Milky\nWay. Along this path he traveled far away until he saw before him a\nbeautiful object shining in the bright light. Going up to it, he found\nit was the tree of which he came in search. The tree was small, so he\ntook his hunting-knife, cut off a part of the trunk, and carried the\nfragment home.\n\nHe sat down in the house and carved out from the wood an image of a\nsmall boy, and his wife made two suits of clothing for it and dressed\nit in one of them, \"saving the other to put on when he had soiled the\nfirst,\" she said.\n\n\"Now, Father, make your little boy a set of toy dishes,\" she said.\n\n\"I see no use in all this trouble. We will be no better off than we\nwere in the first place,\" said the man.\n\n\"Why, yes, we are already better off,\" said the wife. \"Before we had\nthe doll we had nothing to talk about except ourselves. Now we have\nthe doll to talk about and to amuse us.\"\n\nTo please her the husband made the toy dishes, and she placed the doll\nin the seat of honor on the bench opposite the door, with the dishes\nfull of food and water before it.\n\nWhen the couple had gone to bed that night the room was very dark and\nthey heard several low, whistling sounds.\n\n\"Do you hear that? It is the doll,\" said the woman, shaking her\nhusband till he awakened.\n\nThey got up at once and, making a light, saw that the Doll had eaten\nthe food and drunk the water, and that its eyes were moving. The woman\ncaught it up with delight and fondled and played with it for a long\ntime. When she became tired she put it back on the bench and they went\nto bed again.\n\nIn the morning when they got up the Doll was gone. They looked for it\nall around the house, but could not find it. Then they went outside,\nand there were its tracks leading away from the door. They followed\nthe tracks to the creek and along the bank to a place outside the\nvillage, where they ended; for from this place the Doll had gone up\nthe Milky Way on the path of light upon which the man had gone to find\nthe tree.\n\nDoll traveled along the bright path till he came to the edge of day,\nwhere the sky comes down to the earth and walls in the light. Close\nbeside him, in the east, he saw a skin cover fastened over a hole in\nthe sky wall. The skin was bulging inward as if some strong force on\nthe other side were pushing it.\n\n\"It is very quiet here. I think a little wind would make it livelier,\"\nsaid the Doll, drawing his knife and cutting the cover loose on one\nside of the hole. At once a strong wind blew through, every now and\nthen bringing with it a live reindeer. Looking through the hole, Doll\nsaw beyond the wall another world like the earth. He drew the cover\nover the hole again.\n\n\"Do not blow too hard,\" he said to the wind. \"Sometimes blow hard,\nsometimes light, and sometimes do not blow at all.\"\n\n[Illustration: A GALE SWEPT IN BRINGING REINDEER, TREES AND BUSHES]\n\nThen he got upon the sky wall and walked along till he came to the\nsoutheast. Here another opening was covered like the first, and the\ncovering was bulging inward. When he cut this covering loose a gale\nswept in bringing reindeer, trees, and bushes. He quickly covered the\nhole and said to the gale, \"You are too strong. Sometimes blow hard,\nsometimes light, and sometimes do not blow at all. The people on earth\nwill want variety.\"\n\nAgain walking along the sky wall he came to a hole in the south, and\nwhen this covering was cut a hot wind came rushing in carrying rain\nand spray from the great sea lying beyond the sky-hole on that side.\nDoll closed this opening and talked to the wind as before.\n\nThen he passed on to the west where there was another hole which\nadmitted heavy rainstorms, with sleet and spray from the ocean. When\nhe had closed this and given the wind its instructions he went on to\nthe northwest. There, when he cut away the covering, a cold blast came\nrushing in, bringing snow and ice, so that he was chilled to the bone\nand half frozen, and he made haste to close the hole as he had the\nothers.\n\nHe started to go along the sky wall to the north, but the cold became\nmore and more severe until at last he was obliged to leave the wall\nand make a circuit to the southward, going back to the north only when\nhe came opposite the opening. There the cold was so intense that he\nwaited some time before he could muster courage to cut the cover away.\nWhen he did so, a fearful blast rushed in, carrying great masses of\nsnow and ice, strewing it over the entire plain of the earth. It was\nso bitter that he closed the hole very quickly, and told the wind from\nthat direction to come only in the middle of the winter so that the\npeople might not be taken unawares, and might be prepared for it.\n\nFrom there he hastened down to warmer climes in the middle of the\nearth plain, where, looking up, he saw that the sky was supported by\nlong, slender, arching poles, like those of a conical lodge, but made\nof some beautiful material unknown to him. Journeying on, he finally\ncame to the village from which he started and went into his own home.\n\nDoll lived in this village for a very long time; for when the foster\nparents who had made him died, he was taken by other people of the\nvillage and so lived on for many generations, until he finally died.\nSince his death parents have made dolls for their children in\nimitation of the Doll who first opened the wind-holes of the sky and\nregulated all the six winds of earth.\n\n\n\n\nXXX\n\nRAVEN AND THE GEESE\n\n\nFor a long time Raven lived alone, but finally became tired of it and\ndecided to take a wife. It was late in the fall and he noticed that\nthe birds were going south in large flocks. He flew away and stopped\ndirectly in the path taken by geese and other wild fowl on their way\nto the land of summer.\n\nAs he sat there he saw a pretty young goose coming near. He hid his\nface by looking at his feet, so that she would not know but that he\nwas a black goose, and called out, \"Who wishes me for a husband? I am\na very nice person.\"\n\nThe goose flew on without heeding him and he looked after her and\nsighed. Soon after a black brant passed, and Raven cried out as\nbefore, but the brant flew on. Again he waited and this time a duck\npassed near, and when Raven cried out she turned her head a little.\n\n\"Oh, I shall succeed this time,\" thought Raven, and his heart beat\nfast with hope. But the duck passed on, and Raven stood waiting with\nbowed head.\n\nVery soon a family of white-front geese came along, consisting of the\nparents with four sons and a sister. Raven cried out, \"Who wishes me\nfor a husband? I am a fine hunter and am young and handsome.\"\n\nAs he finished speaking they alighted just beyond him, and he thought,\n\"Surely, now I shall get a wife.\" He looked about and found a pretty\nwhite stone with a hole in it lying near. He picked it up and,\nstringing it on a long grass stem, hung it about his neck.\n\nAs soon as he had done this he pushed up his bill so that it slid to\nthe top of his head like a mask, and he became a dark-colored young\nman. At the same time each of the geese pushed up its bill in the same\nmanner, and they became nice-looking people.\n\nRaven walked toward them, and was much pleased with the looks of the\ngirl and, going to her, gave her the stone which she hung about her\nneck. By doing this she showed that she accepted him for her husband.\nThen they all pulled down their bills, becoming birds again, and flew\naway toward the south.\n\nThe geese flapped their wings heavily and worked along slowly, while\nRaven on his outspread wings glided along faster than his party, and\nthe geese gazed after him in admiration, exclaiming, \"How light and\ngraceful he is!\" and the little bride was very proud of her fine\nhusband.\n\nBut Raven was not accustomed to the long, all-day flights of the\ngeese, and he became tired.\n\n\"We would better stop early and look for a good place to spend the\nnight,\" he said. The others agreed to this, so they stopped and were\nsoon asleep.\n\nEarly the next morning the geese were astir, but Raven slept so\nheavily that the father goose had to shake him and say, \"Wake up! Wake\nup! We must make haste for it will snow here soon; we must not\nlinger.\"\n\nAs soon as Raven was fully awake he pretended to be eager to get away,\nand, as on the day before, he led all the others with his wide-spread\nwings, and was greatly admired by the others, especially by his young\nwife. He kept on, above or in front of his companions, and his bride\nwould often say, \"See how gracefully he skims along without having to\nflop heavy wings as we do,\" and she gave her brothers a side glance\nwhich made them feel that she was contrasting their clumsiness with\nhis ease. After that tactless remark, the four brothers-in-law began\nto feel envious of Raven.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThey stopped one evening on the seashore, where they feasted upon the\nberries which were plentiful there, and then they settled down for the\nnight and fell asleep. In the morning the geese were making ready to\nstart without waiting for breakfast, and Raven's stomach cried out for\nmore of the berries. But father goose said they could not wait, and he\ndared not object to starting. The brothers-in-law had secretly urged\nthe father not to wait, for they said, \"Our sister needs to have some\nof the conceit about that husband of hers taken out of her; and so\ndoes he.\"\n\nRaven dreaded the long flight across the sea, for he heard father\ngoose say, \"We will make only one stop in crossing this water. There\nis an island in the center of it, and there we will rest for a short\ntime and then go on to the farther shore.\"\n\nRaven was ashamed to say that he feared he could never reach that\nfarther shore, so he determined to keep still and risk it; and off\nthey all flew.\n\nThe geese kept steadily on and on. After a long time Raven began to\nfall behind. His wide-spread wings ached, yet the geese kept steadily\nand untiringly on. His vanity was no longer gratified by admiring\nremarks from his companions, for he was flapping heavily along.\nSometimes he would glide on outspread pinions for a time, hoping to\nease his tired wings, but he fell farther and farther behind.\n\nFinally the geese looked back and the brothers said, sarcastically,\n\"We thought he was light and active.\" The father goose said, \"He must\nbe getting tired. We must not press him too hard. We will rest.\"\n\nThe geese sank upon the water close together, and Raven came laboring\nup and dropped upon their backs, gasping for breath. In a short time\nhe partially recovered and, putting one hand on his breast, said, \"I\nhave an arrow-head here from an old war I was in, and it pains me\ngreatly; that is the reason I fell behind.\"\n\nHe had his wife put her hand on his breast to feel the arrow-head\nwhich he declared was working its way into his heart. She could feel\nnothing but his heart beating like a trip-hammer with no sign of an\narrow-point. But she said nothing, for her brothers were whispering,\n\"We don't believe that story about the arrow-point! How could he live\nwith an arrow in his heart?\"\n\nThey rested two or three times more, he sinking upon their backs as\nbefore; but when they saw the far-off shore before them father goose\nsaid, \"We can wait for you no more,\" for they were eager to reach the\nland and find food.\n\nThey all arose and flew on, Raven slowly flapping along behind, for\nhis wings felt heavy. The geese kept steadily on toward the shore,\nwhile he sank lower and lower, getting nearer to the dreaded water.\nWhen the waves were almost touching him he shrieked to his wife:\n\n\"Leave me the white stone; it has magical powers. Throw me the white\nstone.\"\n\nThus he kept crying until suddenly his wings lost their power and he\nfloated helplessly on the water as the geese gained the shore. He\ntried to rise from the water but his wings seemed to be weighted down,\nand he drifted back and forth along the beach. The waves arose and one\nwhitecap after another broke over him till he was soaked, and it was\nonly with the greatest difficulty that he could get his beak above the\nsurface to breathe a little between the billows.\n\nAfter a long time a great wave cast him upon the land, and as it\nflowed back he dug his claws into the sand to save himself from being\ndragged back into the sea. As soon as he was able he struggled up the\nbeach, an unhappy looking object. The water ran in streams from his\nsoaked feathers and his wings dragged on the ground. He fell several\ntimes, and at last, with wide-gaping mouth, he reached some bushes. As\nsoon as he could get his breath he took off his raven coat and pushed\nup his beak, becoming a small, dark-colored man.\n\n\"From this time on, forevermore I'm done with being a goose,\" he\ndeclared.\n\n\n\n\nXXXI\n\nEVEN A GRASS PLANT CAN BECOME SOMEONE IF IT TRIES\n\n\nNear the mouth of the Yukon grows a tall, slender kind of grass which\nthe women gather and dry in the fall and use for braiding mats and\nbaskets and for pads in the soles of skin boots.\n\nOne of these grass stalks that had been almost pulled out by the roots\nwhen the women were gathering others, did not like the fate in store\nfor it.\n\n\"Why should I stay on in this shape and never become anything but a\npad in the sole of a boot to be trodden on forever? It must be nicer\nto be the one who treads on the pad; but since I cannot be that, I\nwill at least be something better than grass.\"\n\nLooking about, it spied a bunch of herbs growing close by, looking so\nquiet and unmolested that the grass stem said, \"I will be an herb;\nthat is a higher and safer life than this.\"\n\nAt once it was changed into an herb like those it had envied, and for\na time it remained in peace. But one day the women came back with\nbaskets and picks and began to dig up these herbs and eat some of the\nroots, putting others into the baskets to take home. The changed plant\nwas left standing when the women went home toward evening, but it had\nseen the fate of its companions.\n\n\"This is not very safe either, for now I should be eaten. I wish I had\nchosen some other form,\" it said.\n\nLooking down, it saw a tiny, creeping vine clinging close to the\nground. \"That is the thing to be,\" it said. \"That is so obscure and\nlowly that the women will never notice it. I will be a vine like\nthat.\"\n\nWithout delay it became a little squawberry vine nestling under the\ndead leaves. It had not lived in peace and seclusion very long before\nthe women came and tore up many of the vines, stopping just before\nthey reached the changeling, and saying, \"We will come back to-morrow\nand get the rest.\"\n\nThe one-time grass plant was filled with fear, and changed itself\nquickly into a small tuber-bearing plant like some that were growing\nnear. Scarcely had the change been made when a small tundra mouse came\nsoftly through the grass and began digging at a neighboring plant,\nholding up the tuber in its paws and nibbling it, after which the\nmouse crept on again.\n\n\"To be safe, I must be a mouse,\" thought the changeling. \"Animals are\na higher kind of being than plants, anyway. I will be a mouse.\"\n\nInstantly it became a mouse and ran off, glad of the change. Now and\nthen it would pause to dig up a tuber, or would sit up on its hind\nfeet to look around on the new scenes that came into view.\n\n\"This is much more delightful than being a plant and always staying in\none place and never seeing anything of the world,\" it said.\n\nWhile traveling nimbly along in this manner, the mouse observed a\nstrange white animal coming through the air toward it, which kept\ndropping down upon the ground, and after stopping to eat something, it\nwould fly on again.\n\nWhen it came near, the mouse saw that it was a great white owl. At the\nsame moment the owl saw the mouse and swooped down upon it. Darting\noff, the mouse was fortunate enough to escape by running into a hole\nmade by one of its kind, and the owl flew off.\n\nAfter a while the mouse ventured to come out of its shelter, though\nits heart still beat painfully from its recent fright. \"I will be an\nowl, and in that way be safe,\" thought the mouse, and with the wish it\nwas changed into a beautiful white owl.\n\n\"Oh, this is fine!\" he said. \"It is glorious to fly through the air,\nand go up almost to the sky where I can look down on all the world.\nI'm glad that I was not content to stay always down in the dirt.\"\n\nWith slow, noiseless wing flaps the owl set off toward the north,\npausing every now and then to catch and eat a mouse. After a long\nflight Sledge Island came in view and the owl thought it would go\nthere. When far out at sea its untried wings became so tired that only\nwith the greatest difficulty did it manage to reach the shore, where\nit perched upon a piece of driftwood that stood up in the sand.\n\nIn a short time it saw two fine-looking men pass along the shore, and\nthe old feeling of discontent arose again. \"Those men were talking in\na better-sounding language than mine. They seemed to understand each\nother, and they laughed and were having a good time. I will be a man.\"\n\nWith a single flap of wing it stood upon the ground, where it changed\nimmediately into a fine young man. But, of course, the feathers were\ngone and the Man had no clothing. Night came down upon the earth soon\nafter, and the Man sat down with his back against the stick of wood on\nwhich, as an owl, he had perched, and slept till morning. He was\nawakened by the sun shining in his eyes, and upon arising, felt stiff\nand lame from the cold night air.\n\nHe found some of the same grass which he had once been, and braided it\ninto a kind of mantle which kept out a little of the cold. Seeing a\nreindeer grazing, he felt a sudden desire to kill it and eat its\nflesh. He crept close on his hands and knees, and, springing forward,\nseized it by the horns and broke its neck with a single effort.\n\nHe felt all over its body and found that its skin formed a covering\nthrough which he could not push his fingers. For a long time he tried\nto think how to remove the skin, and finally noticed a stone with a\nsharp edge with which he managed to cut through the hide. Then he\nquickly stripped the animal with his hands, and tore out a piece of\nflesh which he tried to swallow as he had swallowed mice when he was\nan owl. He found that he could not do this easily, so he tore off\nsmall bits and ground them with his teeth.\n\nHe had already discovered that by striking two stones together they\ngrew warm and felt good to his cold hands. So now he struck them\ntogether until sparks came with which he lighted some dry weeds and\nbrush and had a fire to cook his meat and to warm himself.\n\nThe next morning he killed another reindeer and the day following two\nmore and wrapped himself in their skins from head to foot, with the\nraw side next his own flesh, as the animals had worn them. The skins\nsoon dried on him and became like a part of his body.\n\nAs the nights grew colder and colder, he collected a quantity of\ndriftwood from the shore, with which he built him a rude hut, which he\nfound very comfortable. Walking over the hills one day he came near to\na strange, black animal eating berries from the bushes. He crept up to\nit and grasped it by its hind legs. With an angry growl it turned to\nface him, showing its white teeth. He knew then that he must not let\ngo his hold of it, so he swung it high over his head and brought it\ndown on the ground with such force that the bear lay dead.\n\nIn skinning the bear he saw that it contained much fat, and that he\nmight have a light in his house if he could find something that would\nhold the grease and yet not take fire itself. Going along the beach he\nfound a long, flat stone with a hollow in one surface, and in this\nthe oil remained very well, and with a lighted moss wick he found it\nmuch pleasanter to get about his house at night. The bearskin he hung\nup for a curtain to his door to keep out the cold wind.\n\nIn this way he lived for many days, but he was a human being now, and\nneeded human society. He remembered the two young men he had seen on\nthe beach when, as an owl, he sat on the post on the shore.\n\n\"Two men passed here once, and I liked them,\" said he. \"They may live\nnot far from here. I should like to see someone like myself. I will go\nseek them.\"\n\nHe went in search of people. Wandering along the coast for some\ndistance he came to two fine new kayaks lying at the foot of a hill,\nand in the kayaks were spears, lines, floats, and other hunting\nimplements. After examining these curiously, he noticed a path leading\nup to a hill. He followed the path and on the top of the hill he found\na house with two storehouses near it and several recently killed white\nwhales and many skulls around it.\n\nWishing to see the people in the house before showing himself, he went\nwith noiseless steps into the entrance way and up to the door.\nCautiously lifting one corner of the skin curtain that hung in the\ndoorway, he looked in. Opposite the doorway was a young man sitting at\nwork on some arrows, while a bow lay beside him. He dropped the\ncurtain and stood for some time in doubt as to how to proceed.\n\n\"If I enter the house he may shoot me before I have time to make known\nmy good will,\" thought he. But in the end he thought, \"If I enter and\nsay, 'I have come, brother,' he will not hurt me.\" So, raising the\ncurtain quickly, he entered.\n\nThe householder at once seized the bow and drew an arrow to the head\njust as the intruder said, \"I have come, brother.\" At this the bow and\narrow were dropped and the young man cried out with delight, \"Are you\nmy brother? Come and sit beside me.\"\n\nThis the newcomer very gladly did, and the householder showed his\npleasure and asked, \"Are you really my brother? I am very glad to see\nyou, brother, for I always believed I had one somewhere, though I\nnever could find him. Where have you lived? Have you known any\nparents? How did you grow up?\"\n\n\"No, I have never known any parents. I never was born and never grew\nup. I just found myself a man standing on the seashore. There I built\nme a house and made myself as comfortable as I could; but I was\nlonely, so I came to find you.\"\n\n\"I also never had any parents that I can recall. My earliest\nrecollection was of finding myself alone in this house, where I have\nlived ever since, killing game for food. I was alone until this friend\ncame to stay with me. Now you, my brother, shall live here too, and we\nwill never be parted again.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnd thus, by always striving to be something higher, the downtrodden\ngrass plant became a MAN.\n\n\nTHE END","title":"A Treasury of Eskimo Tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":27431}