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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES

G. E. Stechert & (

Alfred Hafuer
New York

A TREASURY OF
ESKIMO TALES

CLARA K. BAYLISS

Author of "A Treasury of Indian Tales"
"Old Man Coyote," etc.

ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR BY

GEORGE CARLSON

NEW YORK

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
Second Printing

Printed in the U. S. A.

783

PREFACE

THE Central Eskimo live away up north in
that great American archipelago which lies be-
tween Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay, and the Arctic
Ocean; an archipelago in which the islands are
so large, so numerous, and so irregular in outline
that, as one looks at a map of them, he could
fancy they were " chunks " of the continent
which had been broken to pieces by some huge
iceberg that bumped into it.

The land is ice-bound during so much of the
year that the inhabitants cannot depend upon
? getting a living by the cultivation of the soil, and
have to subsist almost entirely upon meat which
they get from reindeer, seal, bear, whale, and
walrus.

In summer their clothing is of sealskin and
fishskin ; and in winter it is of the thicker reindeer
hides. Their life is a hard one owing to the
rigorous climate, and they make it harder by their
superstitions, for diseases are supposed to be
cured by charms and incantations of the shaman

or priest; and everything in the way of hunting,

iii

431833

PREFACE

fishing, cooking, or of clothing themselves must
be done in a prescribed way or it is " taboo " or
" hoodoo " as the negroes say. When you read
' The Baby Eskimo " you will see just a tiny bit
of the hardships, but I should not like to tell you '
how much more terrible a time he might have
had, if he had happened to be a girl baby.

By referring to the Table of Contents you will
note that the first group of tales were told by the
Central Eskimo. The second group were de-
rived from the Eskimo living along Bering
Strait, to the west; and it is interesting to com-
pare many of these folk tales along similar sub-
jects.

The writer is indebted to the Sixth Ethnolog-
ical Report, issued by the U. S. Government,
for many of the legends found in the Central
Eskimo group ; and to the Eighteenth Report for
many of those from Bering Strait. She wishes
to express her thanks for this invaluable and
unique material.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

CENTRAL ESKIMO TALES

I. THE BABY ESKIMO I

II. KIVIUNG 3

.*• III. THE GIANT 12

IV. KALOPALING 14

V. THE WOMAN MAGICIAN . . . .18

^ VI. THE BIRD WIFE 23

VII. THE SPIRIT OF THE SINGING HOUSE . . 28

VIII. THE TORNIT 30

IX. THE FLIGHT TO THE MOON . . .33

X. WHAT THE MAN IN THE MOON DID . . 37

XI. THE GUEST 41

XII. THE ORIGIN OF THE NARWHAL . . 43

BERING STRAIT TALES

XIII. WHAT THE ESKIMO BELIEVES ... 49

XIV. THE FIRST MAN 52

XV. THE FIRST WOMAN .... 57

XVI. OTHER MEN 61

XVII. MAN'S FIRST GRIEF .... 65

XVIII. UP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY, AND DOWN

TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA . . 69

CONTENTS

CHAPTER *AGH

XIX. TAKING AWAY THE SUN ... 76
XX. THE DWARF PEOPLE . ... 82

XXI. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LONE WOMAN

OF ST. MICHAEL .... 85

XXII. WHY THE MOON WAXES AND WANES . 87

XXIII. CHUNKS OF DAYLIGHT .... 90

XXIV. THE RED BEAR 95

XXV. THE LAST OF THE THUNDERBIRDS . 99

XXVI. RAVEN MAKES AN OCEAN VOYAGE . . 103

XXVII. THE RED SKELETON . . . .108

XXVIII. THE MARMOT AND THE RAVEN . . 1 1 1

XXIX. ORIGIN OF THE WINDS . . . .114

— XXX. RAVEN AND THE GEESE . . .120

XXXI. EVEN A GRASS PLANT CAN BECOME

SOMEONE IF IT TRIES . . . 1 27

ILLUSTRATIONS

He summoned his mascot which was a

huge white bear ( 7 ) . . . Frontispiece

PAGE

He lifted the boulder as if it had been a pebble 39

He whipped on his magic coat and became a

raven ....... 93

A gale swept in bringing reindeer, trees and

bushes 117

Vll

THE BABY ESKIMO

THE little Eskimo away up in the northern
part of British America has a pretty hard time
of it, as you may know when you think how cold
it is there.

He is born in a snow hut, and when he is but a
few hours old he is carried on his mother's back
out upon the ice, and around and around in cir-
cles and after a while through deep snow back to
the hut. If that does not kill him, the names he
gets are enough to do it ; for he is given the names
of all the people who have died in the village since
the last baby was born. He sometimes has a
string of names long enough to weigh any baby
down. Worse than that, if one of his relatives
dies before he is four years old, that name is
added to the rest and is the one by which he is
called.

Worse still, if he falls sick he is given a dog's
name, so that the goddess Sedna will look kindly
upon him. Then, all his life, he must wear a

dog's harness over his inner jacket. If he should

A TKEASUKY OP ESKIMO TALES

die, his mother must rush out of the house with
him at once. If she does not do so, everything in
the house must be thrown away or destroyed, just
as is done when a grown person dies in a fur-
nished house.

For a whole year his mother must wear a cap
if she steps outside her door, and she must carry
his boots about with her. After three days she
goes to his tomb and walks around it three times,
going around to the left, because that is the way
the sun travels. While she walks, she talks to the
dead child and promises to bring him food. A
year after his death she must do this again, and
she must do the same thing whenever she hap-
pens to pass near the grave.

Now we shall tell you some of the tales which
the Eskimo mothers relate to their children. The
first one is about Kiviung, the Rip Van Winkle
of the Eskimos.

KIVIUNG

AN old woman lived with her grandson in a
small hut. She had no husband to take care of
her and the boy, and they were very poor. The
lad's clothing was made of the skins of birds
which they caught in snares. Whenever the boy
came out of the hut to play, the other boys would
call, " Here comes the bird boy ! Fly away,
birdie!" and the men would laugh at him and
tear his clothes.

Only one man whose name was Kiv-i-ung, was
kind to the boy and tried to protect him from the
others, but they would not stop. The lad often
came to his grandmother crying, and she would
console him and promise him a new garment, as
soon as they could get the skins.

She begged the men to stop teasing the child
and tearing his clothes, but they only laughed at
her. At last she became angry and said to the
boy, " I will avenge you on your tormentors. I
can do it by making use of my power to con-
jure."

A TKEASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

She poured water on the mud floor and said,
" Step into this puddle, and do not be frightened
at anything that happens."

He stepped into it, and immediately the earth
opened and he sank out of sight, but the next
moment he rose near the beach and swam about
as a young seal with a wonderfully smooth, shin-
ing skin.

Some one saw him and called out that there
was a yearling seal close to shore. The men all
ran to their kayaks eager to secure the beautiful
creature. But the boy-seal swam lustily away as
his grandmother had told him to do, and the men
continued to pursue him. Whenever he rose to
the surface to breathe, he took care to come up
behind the kayaks, where he would splash and
dabble in order to lure them on. As soon as he
had attracted their attention and they had turned
to pursue him, he would dive and come up farther
out in the sea. The men were so interested in
catching him that they did not observe how they
were being led far out into the ocean and out of
sight of the land.

It was now that the grandmother put forth her
powers. Suddenly a fierce gale arose; the sea
foamed and roared and the waves upset their
frail vessels and plunged them under the surface.

KIVIUNG

When they were drowned, the little seal changed
back into a boy and walked home over the water
without wetting his feet. There was no one left
now to torment him.

Kiv-i-ung, who had never abused the boy, had
gone out with the rest, but his kayak did not cap-
size. Bravely he strove against the wild waves,
and drifted far away from the place where the
others had gone down. There was a dense fog
and he could not tell in which direction to go.

He rowed for many days not knowing whither
he was going, and then one day he spied through
the mists a dark mass which he took to be land.
As he pulled toward it the sea became more and
more tempestuous, and he saw that what he had
supposed to be a rocky cliff on an island was a
wild, black sea with a raging whirlpool in the
midst of it.

He had come so close that it was only by the
utmost exertion he escaped being drawn into the
whirlpool and carried down. He put forth all
his strength and at last got away where the waves
were less like mountains. But he had to be con-
stantly on the alert, for at one moment his frail
craft was carried high up on the crest of billows
and the next it was plunged into a deep trough
of the sea.

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

Again he saw a dark mass looming up, and
rowed toward it hoping to find land, but again he
was deceived, for it was another whirlpool which
made the sea rise in gigantic waves. At last the
wind subsided, and the sea became less rough,
though the whitecaps still frothed around him.
The fog lifted, and at a great distance he saw
land, real land this time.

He went toward it, and after rowing along the
coast for some distance he spied a stone house
with a light in it. You may be sure he was de-
lighted to come near a human habitation again.
He landed and entered the house. There was no
one in it but one old woman. She received him
kindly and helped him to pull off his boots, and
she hung his wet stockings on the frame above the
lamp. Then she said:

" I will make a fire in the next room and cook a
good supper."

Kiviung thought she was a very good woman,
and he was so hungry that he could scarcely wait
for the supper. It seemed to him that she was a
long time preparing it. When his stockings
were dry he tried to take them from the frame in
order to put them on. But as soon as he touched
the frame it rose up out of his reach. He tried
in vain several times, and each time the frame rose

KIVTUNG

up. He called the woman in and asked her to
give him his stockings.

' Take them yourself," she said. ' There they
are ; there they are," and went out again.

Kiviung was surprised at the change in her
manner. He tried once more to take hold of his
stockings, but with no better result. Calling the
woman in again, he explained his difficulty and
said:

" Please hand me my boots and stockings ; they
slip away from me."

"Sit down where I sat when you entered my
house; then you can get them," she replied, and
left the room.

He tried once more, but the frame arose as be-
fore and he could not reach it. He knew now
that she was a wicked woman, and he suspected
that the big fire she had made was prepared so she
could roast and eat him.

What should he do? He had seen that she
could work magic. He knew that he could not
escape unless he could surpass her in her own arts.
He summoned his mascot, which was a huge white
bear. At once there was a low growl from under
the house. The woman did not hear it at first,
but Kiviung kept on conjuring the spirit and it
rose right up through the floor roaring loudly.

A TEEASUET OF ESKIMO TALES

Then the old witch rushed in trembling with fear
and gave Kiviung what he had asked for.

" Here are your boots," she cried; "here are
your slippers; here are your stockings. I will
help you put them on."

But Kiviung would not stay any longer with
the horrid creature, and dared not wait to put on
his stockings and boots. He rushed out of the
house and had barely gotten out of the door when
it clapped violently together, catching the tail of
his jacket, which was torn off. Without stop-
ping to look behind, he ran to his kayak and pad-
dled away.

The old woman quickly recovered from her
fear and came out swinging a glittering knife
which she attempted to throw at him. He was
so frightened that he nearly upset his kayak, but
he steadied it and arose to his feet, lifting his
spear.

" I shall kill you with my spear," he cried.

At that the old woman fell down in terror and
broke her knife which she had made by magic out
of a thin slab of ice.

He traveled on for many days, always keeping
near the shore. At last he came to another hut,
and again a lamp was burning inside. His cloth-
ing was wet and he was hungry, so he landed and

KIVIUNG

went into the house. There he found something
very strange: a woman living all alone with her
daughter! Yet the daughter was married and
they kept the son-in-law in the house. But he
was a log of driftwood which they had found on
the beach. It had four branches like legs and
arms. Every day about the time of low water
they carried it to the beach and when the tide
came in, it swam away. When night came it re-
turned with eight large seals, two being fastened
to each bough.

Thus the log provided food for its wife, her
mother, and Kiviung, and they lived in abun-
dance. Kiviung became rested and refreshed
after his weary travels, and he enjoyed this life so
well that he remained for a long time. One day,
however, after they had launched the log as they
had always done, it floated away and never came
back.

Then Kiviung went sealing every day for him-
self and the women, and he was so successful that
they wished him to remain with them always.
But he had not forgotten the home he had left
long ago, and meant to return to it. He was
anxious to lay in a good stock of mittens to keep
his hands warm on the long journey, and each
night he pretended to have lost the pair he wore,

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

and the women would make him another pair
from the skin of the seals he brought home. He
hid them all in the hood 01 his jacket.

Then one day, he, too, floated off with the tide
and never came back. He rowed on for many
days and nights, always following the shore.
During the terrible storm he had been out of sight
of land all he ever cared to be.

At last he came again to a hut where a lamp
was burning, and went to it. But this time he
thought it would be well to see who was inside
before entering. He therefore climbed up to the
window and looked through the peep-hole. On
the bed sat a woman whose head and whose hands
looked like big yellow-and-black spiders. She
was sewing; and when she saw the dark shadow
before the window she at first thought it was a
cloud, but when she looked up and beheld a man,
she grasped a big knife and arose, looking very
angry. Kiviung waited to see no more. He
felt a sudden longing for home, and hastily went
on his way.

Again he traveled for days and nights. At
last he came to a land which seemed familiar, and
as he went farther he recognized his own country.
He was very glad to see some boats ahead of him,
and when he stood up and waved and shouted to

KIVIUNG

them they came to meet him. They had been on
a whaling excursion and were towing a large dead
whale to their village.

In the bow of one of the boats stood a stout
young man who had harpooned the whale. He
looked at Kiviung keenly and Kiviung looked at
him. Then, of a sudden, they recognized each
other. It was Kiviung's own son whom he had
left a small boy, but who was now become a
grown man and a great hunter.

Kiviung's wife was delighted to see him whom
she had supposed dead. At first she seemed glad
and then she seemed troubled. She had taken a
new husband, but after thinking it over she re-
turned to Kiviung, and they were very happy.

Ill

THE GIANT

IN days of old an enormous man lived with
other members of the Inuit tribe in a village be-
side a large inlet. He was so tall that he could
straddle the inlet, and he used to stand that way
every morning and wait for the whales to pass
beneath him. As soon as one came along he used
to scoop it up just as easily as other men scoop
up a minnow. And he ate the whole whale just
as other men eat a small fish.

One day all the natives manned their boats to
catch a whale that was spouting off the shore;
but he sat idly by his hut. When the men had
harpponed the whale and were having a hard time X
to hold it and keep their boats from capsizing, he
rose and strolled down to the shore and scooped
the whale and the boats from the water and
placed them on the beach.

Another time when he was tired of walking ,
about, he lay down on a high hill to take a nap.

" You would better be careful," said the peo-
12

THE GIANT

pie, " for a couple, of huge bears have been seen
near the village."

" Oh, I don't care for them. If they come too
near me, throw some stones at me to waken me,"
he said with a yawn.

The bears came, and the people threw the
stones and grabbed their spears. The giant sat
up.

"Where are they? I see no bears. Where
are they? " he asked.

"There! There! Don't you see them? " cried
the Inuit.

' What ! those little things ! They are not
worth all this bustle. They are nothing but small
foxes." And he crushed one between his fingers,
and put the other into the eyelet of his boot to
strangle it.

IV
KALOPALING

KA-LO-PA-LING is a strange being who lives in
the northern seas. His body is like that of a man
except that his feet are very large and look like
sealskin muffs. His clothing is made of the skins
of eider ducks and, as their bellies are white and
their backs are black, his clothes are spotted all
over. He cannot speak, but cries all the time,
"Be, be! Be, be!"

His jacket has an enormous hood which is an
object of fear to the Inuit, for if a kayak upsets
and the boatman is drowned, Ka-lo-pa-ling grabs
him and puts him into the hood.

The Inuit say that in olden times there were a
great many of these creatures, and they often sat
in a row along the ice floes, like a flock of pen-
guins. Their numbers have become less and less,
till now there are but a few left.

Anyone standing on shore may see them swim-
ming under water very rapidly, and occasionally
they rise to the surface as if to get air. They
make a great noise by splashing with their feet

KALOPALING

and arms as they swim. In summer they like to
come out and bask on the rocks, but in winter they
sit along the edge of the ice or else stay under
water.

They often chase the hunters, so the most cour-
ageous of the men try to kill them whenever they
can get near enough. When the Kalopaling
sits sleeping, the hunter comes up very cautiously
and throws a walrus harpoon into him. Then he
shuts his eyes tight until the Kalopaling is dead,
otherwise the hunter's boat would be capsized and
he be drowned. They dare not eat the flesh of
the creatures, for it is poisonous; but the dogs
eat it.

One time an old woman and her grandson were
living alone in a small hut. They had no men to
hunt for them and they were very poor. Once
in a while, but not often, some of the Inuit took
pity on them and brought them seal's meat, and
blubber for their lamp.

One day the boy was so hungry that he cried
aloud. His grandmother told him to be quiet,
but he cried the harder. She became vexed with
him and cried out, " Ho, Kalopaling, come and
take this fretful boy away ! "

At once the door opened and Kalopaling came
hobbling in on his clumsy feet, which were made

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

for swimming and not for walking. The woman
put the boy into the large hood, in which he was
completely hidden. Then the Kalopaling disap-
peared as suddenly as he had come.

By and by the Inuit caught more seals than
usual and gave her plenty of meat. Then she
was sorry that she had given her grandson away,
and was more than ever sorry that it was to Kalo-
paling she had given him. She thought how
much of the time he must have to stay in the
water with that strange man-like animal. She
wept about it, and begged the Inuit to help her
get him back.

Some of them said they had seen the boy sitting
by a crack in the ice, playing with a whip of sea-
weed, but none of them knew how to get him.
Finally one of the hunters and his wife said, " We
may never succeed, but we will see what we can
do."

The water had frozen into thick ice, and the
rise and fall of the tide had broken long cracks not
far from the shore. Every day the boy used to
rise out of the water and sit alongside the cracks,
playing, and watching the fish swim down below.

Kalopaling was afraid someone might carry
the boy away, so he fastened him to a string of
seaweed, the other end of which he kept in his

KALOPALING

hand. The hunter and his wife watched for the
boy to come out, and when they saw him they
went toward him. But the boy did not want to
go back to live with his grandmother, and as they
came near he called out:

" Two men are coming; one with a double
jacket, the other with a foxskin jacket."

Then Kalopaling pulled on the string and the
boy disappeared into the water.

Some time after this the hunter and his wife
saw the boy again. But before they could lay
hold of him the lad sang out :

" Two men are coming."

And again Kalopaling pulled the string and
the boy slipped into the water.

However, the hunter and his wife did not give
up trying. They went near the crack and hid
behind the big blocks of ice which the tide had
piled up. The next time when the boy had just
come out they sprang forward and cut the rope
before he had time to give the alarm. Then away
they went with him to their hut.

As the lad did not wish to return to his grand-
mother, he stayed with the hunter, and as he grew
to be a man he learned all that his new father
could teach him, and became the most famous
hunter of the tribe.

THE WOMAN MAGICIAN

LONG ago, in Aggo, a country where nobody
lives nowadays, there were two large houses
standing far apart. In each of these houses
many families lived together. In the summer the
people in the two houses went in company to hunt
deer and had a good time together. When fall
came they returned to their separate houses. The
names of the houses were Quern and Exaluq.

One summer it happened that the men from
Quern had killed many deer, while those from
Exaluq had caught but a few. The latter said to
each other, " They are not fair; they shoot before
we have a chance; " and they became very angry.

" Let us kill them," said one.

' Yes, let us kill them, but let us wait till the
end of the season, and then we can take all the
game they have in their storehouse," said the
others. For the game was packed in snow and
ice and was taken home on dog sledges when the
hunting was over.

When it came time to go home both parties
18

THE WOMAN MAGICIAN

agreed to go on a certain day to the storehouses
and pack up the game ready to start early in the
morning. This was the time for which the men
of Exaluq had been waiting.

They started off all together with their sledges,
but when they got a long distance from the camp
and very near to the storehouse, those from Ex-
aluq suddenly fell upon the others and slew them,
for the men from Quern had never suspected that
there was any ill-feeling.

Fearing that if the dogs went back to camp
without their masters, the women and children
would guess what had happened, they killed the
dogs also. When they returned, they told the
women that their husbands had separated from
them and had gone off over a hill, and they did
not know what had become of them.

Now one of the young men had married a girl
from Quern, and he went to her house that night
as usual, and she received him kindly, for she be-
lieved what she had heard about the men of her
party straying off. She and all the other women
thought the men would soon find their way back,
as they had hunted in these parts so long that they
knew the land.

But in the house was the girl's little brother
who had seen the husband come in; and after

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

everybody was asleep he heard the spirits of the
murdered men calling and he recognized their
voices. They told him what had happened, and
asked the boy to kill the young man in revenge
for their deaths. So he crept from under the bed
and thrust a knife into the young man's breast.

Then he awakened all the women and children
in the great row of huts and told them that the
spirits of the dead men had come to him and told
of their murder, and had ordered him to avenge
them by killing the young man.

" Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do? "
they cried. " They have killed our men and they
will kill us ! " They were terribly frightened.

" We must fly from here before the men from
Exaluq awaken and learn that the young man is
slain in revenge," said one of the old women.

" But how can we fly? Our dogs are dead, and
we cannot travel fast enough to escape."

" I will attend to that," said the old woman.
In her hut was a litter of pups, and as she was a
conjurer, she said to them, " Grow up at once."
She had no fairy wand to wave over them, but she
waved a stick, and after waving it once the dogs *

1 The actual statement both here and on page 39 is that
the woman and the Man in the Moon beat the pups and the
boy with sticks to make them grow. Is not pur birthday

THE WOMAN MAGICIAN

were half-grown. She waved it again, saying,
" Be full-grown instantly; " and they were.

They harnessed the dogs at once, and in order
to deceive their enemies they left everything in
the huts and even left their lights burning, so that
when the men arose in the morning they would
think that they, too, had arisen and were dress-
ing.

When it had come full daylight next morning
the men of Exaluq wondered why the young man
did not come back to them, and presently they
went to find out. They peeked into the spy-hole
of the window and saw the lamps burning, but no
people inside the hut. They discovered the body
of the dead man, and then when they looked they
saw the tracks of sledges.

They wondered very much how the women
could have gone away on sledges, since they had
no dogs, and they feared some other people had
helped them to get off. They hastily harnessed
their own dogs and started in pursuit of the fugi-
tives.

The women whipped their dogs and journeyed
rapidly, but the pursuers had older and tougher
animals and were likely to overtake them soon.

beating, " one for each year and one to grow on " a survival
of this ancient superstition?

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

They became very much frightened, fearing that
they would all be killed in revenge for the death
of the young man.

When the sledge of the men drew near and the
women and children saw that they could not es-
cape, the boy who had slain the man said to the
old woman:

' The spirits of our murdered men are calling
to us to cut the ice. Cannot you cut it? "

" I think I can," she answered, and she slowly
drew her first finger across the path of the pur-
suers, muttering a magic charm as she did so.

The ice gave a terrific crack, and the water
came gushing through the crevasse. They sped
on, and presently she drew another line with her
finger, and another crack opened and the ice be-
tween the two cracks broke up and the floe began
to move.

The men, dashing ahead with all speed, could
scarcely stop their dog team in time to escape fall-
ing into the open water. The floe was so wide
and so long that it was impossible for them to
cross, and thus the women and children were
saved by the art of their conjurer.

VI
THE BIRD WIFE

ITAJUNG, one of the Inuit tribe, was vexed be-
cause a young woman would not marry him, so
he left his home and traveled far away into the
land of the birds. He came to a small lake in
which many geese were swimming. On the shore
he saw a great many boots. He cautiously crept
near and stole a pair and hid them.

Presently the birds came out of the water, and
finding a pair of boots gone they were alarmed,
and quickly forming into two long lines with their
leader at the point where the lines met, they flew
away crying, "Honk! Honk! Honk! "

But one of the flock remained behind crying,
" I want my boots-! I want my boots ! "

Itajung came forth from his hiding-place and
said, " I will give you your boots if you will be-
come my wife."

" That I will not do," she replied.

' Very well," he said, and turned around to go
away.

A TBEASUKY OF ESKIMO TALES

" I don't want to, but I will be your wife if you
will bring back my boots," she called.

He came back and gave her the boots, and
when she put them on she was changed into a
woman.

They walked away together, and wandered
down to the seaside and, as she liked to live near
the water, they settled in a large village by the
sea. Here they lived for several years and had a
son. Itajung became a highly respected man,
for he was by far the best whaler in all the Inuit
tribe.

One day they killed a whale and were busy cut-
ting it up and carrying the meat and blubber to
their homes. Many of the women were helping,
but though Itajung was working very hard, his
wife stood lazily looking on.

" Come and help us," he called to her.

" My food is not from the sea," she replied.
" My food is from the land. I will not eat the
meat of a whale; neither will I help."

' You must eat it; it will fill your stomach,"
said he.

She began to cry, and said, " I will not eat it.
I will not soil my nice white clothing."

She went to the beach and searched for feath-
ers. When she found some, she put them be-

THE BIED WIFE

tween her fingers and the fingers of her child*
They were both turned into geese and flew away.
.When the Inuit saw this they cried, " Itajung^
your wife is flying away."

Itajung became very sad. He no longer cared
for the meat and blubber, nor for the whales
spouting near the shore. He followed in the
direction his wife had taken, and went over all the
land in search of her.

After traveling for many weary months, he
came to a river where a man with a large axe was
chopping chips from a piece of wood, and as fast
as he chopped them they were turned into salmon
and slipped out of the man's hands into the river
and swam down to a large lake near by. The
name of the man was Small Salmon.

As Itajung looked at the man he was fright-
ened almost to death; for the back of the man
was entirely hollow, and Itajung could see right
through him and out at the other side. He was
so scared that he kept very still and crept back
and away out around him. He wanted to ask if
the man had seen his wife, for that was what he
asked everyone he came to. So he went around
and came from the opposite direction, facing the
man.

When Small Salmon saw him approaching he

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

stopped chopping and asked, " Which way did
you approach me? "

" I came from that direction," said Itajung,
pointing in the way he had last approached.

r That is lucky for you, for if you had come the
other way and had seen my back, I should have
killed you at once with my hatchet."

" I am glad I don't have to die," said Itajung.
" But haven't you seen my wife? She left me
and came this way."

" Yes, I saw her. Do you see that little island
in the large lake? That is where she lives now,
and she has taken another husband."

" Oh, I can never reach her," said Itajung in
despair. " I have no boat and do not know how
to reach the island."

" I will help you," said Small Salmon kindly.
" Come down to the beach with me. Here is the
backbone of a salmon. Now shut your eyes.
The backbone will turn into a kayak and
carry you safely to the island. But mind you
keep your eyes shut. If you open them the kayak
will upset."

" I will obey," said Itajung.

He closed his eyes, the -backbone became a
kayak, and away he sped o\rer the water. He

heard no splashing and was anxious to know if he

THE BIRD WIFE

really was moving, so he peeped open his eyes a
trifle.

At once the boat began to swing violently, but
he quickly shut his eyes, and it went on steadily,
and he soon landed on the island.

There he saw a hut and his son playing on the
beach near it. The boy on looking up saw and
recognized him, and ran to his mother, crying:

" Mother, Father is here and is coming to our
hut."

" Go back to your play," she said; "your fa-
ther is far away and cannot find us."

The lad went back, but again he ran in, saying:

" Mother, Father is here and is coming to our
hut."

Again she sent him away; but he soon returned,
saying: " Father is right here."

He had scarcely said it when Itajung opened
the door. When the new husband saw him he
said to his wife, " Open that box in the corner of
the hut."

She did so, and a great quantity of feathers
flew out and stuck fast to them. The hut disap-
peared. The woman, her new husband, and the
child were transformed into geese and flew away,
leaving Itajung standing alone.

VII

THE SPIRIT OF THE SINGING
HOUSE

THE singing house of an Eskimo village is
used also for feasting and dancing, and always
has a spirit owner who is supposed to remain in
it all the time. Once a woman was curious about
this spirit and wanted to see it. For a long time
she had wanted to know more about this spirit of
the singing house, but the villagers warned her
that she would meet with a terrible fate if she per-
sisted in trying to see it.

One night she could wait no longer, and went
into the house when it was quite dark so the vil-
lagers would not see her go. When she had en-
tered she said:

" If you are in the house, come here."

As she could see and hear nothing, she cried,
" No spirit is here; he will not come."

" Here I am; there I am," said a hoarse whis-
per.

'Where are your feet?" she asked, for she
could not see him.

THE SPIRIT OP THE SINGING HOUSE

" Here they are ; .there they are," said the voice.

" Where are your shins? " she asked.

" Here they are; there they are," it whispered.

As she could not see anything, she felt of him
with her hands to make sure he was there, and
when she touched his knees she found that he was
a bandy-legged man with knees bent outward and
forward. She kept on asking, " Where are your
hips? Where are your shoulders? Where is
your neck? " And each time the voice answered,
" Here it is; there it is."

At last she asked, " Where is your head? "

" Here it is; there it is," the spirit whispered,
hoarsely.

But as the woman touched the head, all of a
sudden she~fell dead. It had no bones and no
hair.

VIII
THE TORNIT

IN olden times the Inuit were not the only tribe
living in the Eskimo country. Around Cumber-
land Sound there lived some very large, strong
people called the Tornit. They were on good
terms with the Inuit and shared the same hunting
ground, but lived in separate villages. They
were much taller than the Inuit and had very
long legs and arms, but their eyes were not as
good.

They were so strong that they could lift large
boulders which were far too heavy for the Inuit,
though the latter were much stronger in those
days than they now are. Some of the stones
which they used to throw are lying about the
country still, and the toughest of the men now
living cannot lift them, much less swing and
throw them. Some of their stone houses also re-
main. They generally lived in these houses all
winter, and did not cover them with snow to make
them warmer.

THE TOENIT

The principal pant of their winter dress was a
long, wide coat of deerskins, reaching to the knees
and trimmed with leather straps. They ate wal-
rus, deer, and seal, and when they went sealing in
the winter they fastened the lower edge of their
coat to the snow by means of pegs. Under the
coat they carried a small lamp, over which to melt
snow when they were thirsty, and over which to
roast some of the seal meat. They sat around a
hole in the ice and watched for their prey, and
when a seal blew in the hole they whispered, " I
shall stab it." Sometimes in their eagerness they
forgot the lamp and upset it as they threw the
harpoon, and thus got burned.

Their strength was so great that they could
hold a harpooned walrus as easily as the Inuit
could hold a seal. These weaker men did not like
to play ball with them, for they did not realize
how rough they were and often hurt their play-
fellows severely. This the playfellows tried to
take in good part, and the two lived on friendly
terms except for one thing. For some reason the
Tornit did not make kayaks for themselves, al-
though they saw how convenient they were for
hunting when the ice broke up in the spring.
Every little while they would steal a boat from
the Inuit, who did not dare fight for their

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

property because the thieves were so much
stronger.

This rankled in the hearts of the Inuit and they
would talk among themselves and threaten to
take vengeance on the robbers. They de-
bated what they should do either to get rid of the
Tornit or to make them cease their depredations.
This state of affairs had gone on till the Inuit
were at fever heat, when one day a young Tornit
took the boat of a young Inuit without asking,
and in sealing with it, he ran it into some blocks
of floating ice which stove in the bottom. The
owner nursed his wrath until night, and then
when the thief was asleep he slipped into the tent
thrust his knife into the Torh'itVneck.

The Tornit tribe had been aware of the grow-
ing dislike, and when at last one of the Inuit took
revenge, they feared that others might do the
same and in similar secret fashion; so they de-
cided to leave the country. In order to deceive
their neighbors, they cut off the tails of their long
coats and tied their hair in bunches that stuck
out behind to look like a strange people as they
fled.

Then they stole away, and the Inuit were so
glad they were gone that they made no effort to
pursue them.

IX
THE FLIGHT TO THE MOON

A POWERFUL conjurer, who had a bear for his
mascot, thought he would like to go to the Moon.
He had his hands tied up and a rope fastened
around his knees and neck. Then he sat down at
the rear of his hut with his back to the lamps and
had the light extinguished.

He called for his mascot, and the bear at once
appeared and he mounted its back. Up it car-
ried him, above the village, above the mountains,
up and up till they reached the Moon. To his
surprise, the Moon was a house which was cov-
ered with beautiful white deerskins. Now white
deer are strange and sacred and are hatched from
long white eggs buried deep in the soil. There is
mystery and magic in white deer, white buffalo,
and in all albino animals. The Man in the Moon
dried these white deerskins and fastened them
over his house, which, as I said, is the Moon itself.

On each side of the door to the house was the
upper part of an enormous walrus. The beasts

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

were alive, and they threatened to tear the visitor
in pieces. It was very dangerous to try to pass
the fierce animals, but the conjurer told his mas-
cot to growl as loud as it could, and that startled
the walruses for an instant, and in that instant the
man slipped in.

It must be chilly in the Moon, for the house had
a passageway to keep out the cold, just as the
Eskimo houses have. In this passageway was a
red-and-white spotted dog, the only dog which
the Man in the Moon keeps. The man went on
past this dog and into the inner room. There at
the left he saw a door into another building in
which sat a beautiful woman with a lamp before
her. As soon as she saw the stranger she blew on
her fire and made it flash up, and she hid behind
the blaze ; but he had seen enough so that he knew
she was the Sun.

The Man in the Moon rose from his seat on the
ledge and came over to shake hands with the vis-
itor and welcome him. Behind the lamps there
was a great heap of venison and seal meat, but the
Man in the Moon did not offer his guest any of it,
which is not the way the Eskimo and Indians
treat their guests. The Man in the Moon seemed
to have a different idea of hospitality, for he im-
mediately said:

THE FLIGHT TO THE MOON

" My wife, Ulul, will soon be here and we will
have a dance. Mind you don't laugh, or she will
slice you in two with her knife and feed you to my
ermine which is in yon little house outside."

Before long a woman entered carrying an oh-
long chopping-bowl in which lay her chopping-
knife. She set it down and stooped forward,
turning the bowl as if it were a whirligig. Then
she commenced dancing; and when she turned her
back toward the stranger he saw that she was hol-
low. She had no back, backbone, or insides, but
only lungs and heart.

Her husband presently joined in the dance,
and their attitudes and grimaces were so ludicrous
that the stranger could scarcely keep from laugh-
ing. He did not wish to be impolite, so he kept
turning his face aside and pretending to cough.
Fortunately for him, just as he thought he would
surely explode with laughter, he recalled the
warning the man had given him and rushed out of
the house. The Man guessed what was the mat-
ter with him, and called out :

' Better call your white bear mascot! "

He did so, and escaped unhurt.

However, he went into the house another day
and succeeded in keeping his face straight, so
when their performance was ended the Man in

A TBEASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

the Moon was very friendly to him and showed
him all around the house and let him look into a
small building near the entrance.

In this building there were large herds of deer
which seemed to be roaming over vast plains.
The Man in the Moon said, " You may choose
one of these for your own," and as soon as he did
so the animal fell through a hole and alighted on
the earth right by the conjurer's hut.

In another building there were many seals
swimming in an ocean, and he was allowed to
choose one of these, which also fell down to his
hut.

" Now you have seen all I can show you, and
you may go home," said the Moon Man. So the
conjurer called his mascot and rode down through
the air to his hut.

There his body had lain motionless while his
spirit was away, but now it revived. The cords
with which his hands and knees had been bound
dropped off, though they had been tied in hard
knots. The conjurer felt quite exhausted from
his trip, but when the lamps were lighted he told
his eager neighbors all that he had seen during his
flight to the Moon.

WHAT THE MAN IN THE MOON DID

LONG ago there was a poor little orphan boy
who had no home and no one to protect him. All
the inhabitants of the village neglected and
abused him. He was not allowed to sleep in any
of the huts, but one family permitted him to lie
outside in the cold passage among the dogs who
were his pillows and his quilt. They gave him no
good meat, but flung him bits of tough walrus
hide such as they gave to the dogs, and he was
obliged to gnaw it as the dogs did, for he had no
knife.

The only one who tooK pity on him was a young
girl, and she gave him a small piece of iron for a
knife. * You must keep it hidden, or the men
will take it from you," she said.

He did not grow at all because he had so little
food. He remained poor little Quadjaq, and led
a miserable life. He did not dare even to join in
the play of the boys, for they called him a " poor

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

little shriveled bag of bones," and were always
imposing upon him on account of his weakness.

When the people gathered in the singing house
he used to lie in the passage and peep over the
threshold. Now and then a man would take him
by the nose and lift him into the house and make
him carry out a jar of water. It was so large and
heavy that he had to take hold of it with both
hands and his teeth. Because he was so often
lifted by his nose, it grew very large, but he re-
mained small and weak.

At last the Man in the Moon, who protects all
the Eskimo orphans, noticed how the men ill-
treated Quadjaq, and came down to help him.
He harnessed his dappled dog to his sledge and
drove down. When he was near the hut he
stopped the dog and called, " Quadjaq, come
out."

The boy thought it was one of the men who
wanted to plague him, and he said, " I will not
come out. Go away."

" Come out, Quadjaq," said the Man from the
Moon, and his voice sounded softer than the
voices of the men. But still the boy hesitated,
and said, " You will cuff me."

" No, I will not hurt you. Come out," said the
Moon Man.

HE LIFTED THE BOWLDER AS
IF IT HAD BEEN A PEBBLE

WHAT THE MAN IN THE MOON DID

Then Quadjaq cauie slowly out, but when he
saw who it was he was even more frightened than
if it had been one of the men standing there. The
Moon Man took him to a place where there were
many large boulders and made him lie across one
as if he were to be paddled. Quadjaq was scared
but he did not dare disobey.

The Man from the Moon took a long, thin ray
of moonlight and whipped the boy softly with it.

" Do you feel stronger? " he asked.

" Yes, I feel a little stronger," said the lad.

" Then lift yon boulder," said the Man.

But Quadjaq was not able to lift it, so he was
whipped again.

" Do you feel stronger now? " asked the Man.

' Yes, I feel stronger," said Quadjaq.

" Then lift the boulder."

But again he was not able to lift the stone more
than a foot from the ground, and he had to be
whipped again. After the third time he was so
strong that he lifted the boulder as if it had been
a pebble.

' That will do now," said the Man from the
Moon. " Rays of light even from the Moon give
you strength. To-morrow morning I shall send
three bears. Then you may show what power
you have."

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

The Man then got into his sledge and went
back to his place in the Moon.

Every time a moonbeam had hit Quadjaq he
had felt himself growing. His feet began first
and became enormously large, and when the Man
left him, he found himself a good-sized man.

In the morning he waited for the bears, and
three bears did really come, growling and looking
so fierce that the men of the village ran into their
huts and shtlft the doors. But Quadjaq put on
his boots and ran down to the ice where the bears
were. The men peering out through the window
holes said, " Can that be Quadjaq? The bears
will soon eat the foolish fellow."

But he seized the first one by its hind legs and
smashed its head on an iceberg near which it was
standing. The next one fared no better. But
the third one he took in his arms and carried it up
to the village and let it eat some of his persecu-
tors.

" That is for abusing me ! " he cried. " That is
for ill-treating me ! "

Those that he did not kill ran away never to re-
turn. Only a few who had been kind to him
when he was a poor skinny boy were spared.
Among them, of course, was the girl who had
given him the knife, and she became his wife.

THE GUEST

AN old hag lived in a house with her grandson.
She was a very bad woman who thought of noth-
ing but playing mischief. She was a witch and
tried to harm everybody with witchcraft.

One time a stranger came to visit some friends
who lived in a house near the old woman. The
visitor was a fine hunter and went out with his
host every morning and they brought home a
great deal of game. It made the old woman en-
vious to see her neighbor have so much to eat,
while she had little, and she determined to kill the
visitor.

She made a soup of wolf's and man's brains,
which was the most poisonous food she could
think of. Then she sent her grandson to invite
the stranger to eat supper at her house.

' Tell him that I desire to be polite to the guest
of my neighbor, but be sure you do not tell him
what I have cooked."

The boy went to the neighboring hut and said,

A TKEASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

" Stranger, my grandmother invites you to come
to her hut and have a good feast on a supper that
she has cooked. She told me not to say that it is
a wolf's and a man's brains, and I do not say it."

The man thought a moment, and then replied,
" Tell your grandam that I will come."

He went to the hut where the old woman pre-
tended to be very glad to see him. They sat
down at the table and while she was placing a
large dish of soup before him, he put a bowl on
the floor between his feet. He excused himself
for putting his hand before his mouth because his
front teeth were gone, and every time he poured
the spoonful into the bowl.

When he had finished he said, " It is the cus-
tom in my tribe to bring your hostess, a bit of
some delicious food to show that you appreciate
her hospitality. Here is a bowl of rare food
which I give to you, but it will not be good unless
you eat it at once."

He gave the soup to the old witch, and the
moment she tasted the broth she herself had pre-
pared she fell down dead.

XII
THE ORIGIN OF THE NARWHAL

A LONG, long time ago a widow lived with her
young son and daughter in a small hut. They
had a hard time to get enough to eat. But the
boy was anxious to do all he could, and while he
was still quite small he made a bow and arrows of

walrus tusks which he found under the snow.
i

With these weapons he shot birds for their food.

He had no snow goggles and one day when the
sun shone bright and he was hunting, he became
utterly blind. He had a hard time finding his
way back to the hut and when he got there with-
out any game, his mother was so disappointed
that instead of pitying him for his blindness she
became angry with him.

From that time she ill-treated him, never giv-
ing him enough to eat. He was a growing boy
and needed a great deal of food, and she thought
he wanted more than his share, so she gave him

less, and would not allow her daughter to give

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

him anything. So the boy lived on, half starving,
and was very unhappy.

One day a polar bear came to the hut and
thrust his head right through the window. They
were all much frightened, and the mother gave
the boy his bow and arrows and told him to kill
the animal.

" But I cannot see the window and I shall miss
the bear. Then it will be furious and will eat
us," he said.

" Quick, brother! I will level the bow," said
his sister.

So he shot and killed the bear, and the mother
and sister went out and skinned it and buried the
meat in the snow.

" Don't you dare to tell your brother that he
killed the bear," said the mother. " We must
make this meat last all winter."

When they went back into the hut she said to
her son, " You missed the bear. He ran away as
soon as he saw you take your bow and arrow.
We have been following him a long way into the
woods."

The sister did not dare to tell her brother. She
and her mother lived on the meat for a long time
while the boy was nearly starving. But some-
times when the mother was away, the girl gave

THE OEIGIN OF THE NAEWHAL

him meat, for she loved her brother dearly anH
used to weep because she knew he was hungry.

One day a loon flew over the hut, and, seeing
the poor blind boy at the door, resolved to restore
his eyesight. The bird perched on the roof and
kept calling, " Quee moo! Quee moo! " which
sounded to the lad like " Come here! Come
here!"

He went out and followed the bird to the
water. There the loon took the boy on its back
and dived with him to the bottom. The loon is a
great diver and can stay for a long time under
water, but it knew the boy could not. So it came
to the surface soon and asked, " Can you see any-
thing? "

" No, I cannot see anything as yet," answered
the boy.

They dove again and remained a longer time.
Again when they came up the loon asked, " Can
you see now? "

" I can see a dim shimmer," replied the boy.

' Take a long, long breath and hold it while we
go down," said the loon. " When you can hold
it no more, let it come out very gradually. As
soon as the bubbles of air begin to rise I will know
that you must come to the surface and will bring
you."

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

The third time they remained a long while
under water, and when they rose to the surface
the boy could see as well as ever. He thanked
the loon very heartily, and it said to him :

" Go to your home now; but promise me never
again to shoot a bird."

He gladly promised, and then ran away to his
hut. There he found the skin of the bear he had
shot hanging up to dry. He was so angry that
he tore it down and, entering the hut, demanded
of his mother, " Where did you get the bearskin
that is hanging outside the house? "

His mother perceived that he had recovered
his sight and that he suspected the truth about the
bear. She was frightened at his anger and sought
to pacify him.

" Come here," she said, " and I will give you
the best I have. But I have no one to support me
and am very poor. Come here and eat this. It
is very good."

The boy did not go near. Again he asked,
" Where did you get the bearskin that I saw
hanging outside the door? "

She was afraid to tell him the truth, so she said,
" A boat came here with many men in it and they
gave me the skin."

The boy did not believe her story. He was
46

THE OEIGIN OF THE NAEWHAL

sure that it was the .skin of the bear he had shot.
But he said nothing more. His mother was anx-
ious to make peace with him, and offered him
food and clothing, which he refused to take.

He went to the other Inuit who lived in the
same village and made a spear and a harpoon of
the same pattern as they used. Then he watched
them throw the harpoons, and in a short time he
became an expert hunter and could catch many
white whales.

But he could not forget his anger at his mother.
He said to his sister, " I will not come home while
our mother lives in the house. She abused me
while I was blind and helpless, and she mistreated
you for pitying me. We will not kill her, but we
will get rid of her and then live together. Will
you do what I have planned? "

She agreed. Then he went to hunt white
whales. As he had no kayak he stood on shore,
winding the end of the harpoon string around his
body, and taking a firm footing so he could hold
the whale until it quieted down and died. Some-
times his sister went along to help him hold the
line.

One day his mother went to the beach, and he
tied the string around her body and told her to
take a firm footing. She was a trifle nervous for

A TREASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

she had never done the thing before, and she said,
" Harpoon a small dolphin, else I may not be
able to hold it, if it is large enough to make a
strong pull."

After a short time a young animal came up to
breathe, and she cried, " Kill that one. I can
hold it."

" No, that one is too large," he said.

Again a small dolphin came near, and the
mother shouted, " Spear that." But he said,
" No, it is too large and strong."

At last a huge animal arose quite near, and im-
mediately he threw his harpoon, taking care to
wound but not to kill it, and at the same time
pushing his mother into the water.

" That is because you abused me," he cried, as
the white whale dragged her into the sea.

Whenever she came to the surface to breathe
she cried " Louk! Louk! " and gradually she be-
came transformed into a narwhal.

XIII
WHAT THE ESKIMO BELIEVES

HOW MEN WERE CREATED

THE first human beings who appeared on the
Diomede Islands were a man and a woman who
came down from the sky. These two lived on
the island for a long time, but had no children.

At last the man took some ivory from a walrus
and carved out five images from it. Then he took
some wood and carved five more images, and set
all of them aside. The next morning the ten im-
ages had turned into people. Those from the
ivory dolls were men, hardy and brave; those
from the wood were women, soft and timid.

From these ten people came the inhabitants of
the islands,

THE FLOOD

.In the first days that people can remember
there was a flood which covered all the earth ex-
cept one very high peak in the middle. The
water rose up from the sea and covered all the

A TBEASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

land except the top of this mountain, and the
only animals that were not drowned were a few
that went up this mountain. A few people es-
caped by going into their boats and living on the
fish they caught until the water subsided.

After the waters lowered, these people went to
live upon the mountains, and when the land was
dry they came down to the coast. The animals
also came down and eventually the earth was re-
filled with animals and people.

It was during the flood that the waves and
currents of water cut the land into hollows and
ridges. Then the water ran back into the sea
leaving the mountains and valleys as they are to-
day. All the Eskimo along the northern part of
North America have heard their old people tell
of the flood.

There are reindeer which came from the sky
and which have teeth like dogs. They were once
common and anyone could see them, but now
only the priests can see them. They live on the
plains, and have a large hole through the body
back of the shoulders. If the people, who can see
them, mistake them for common reindeer and
shoot at them, the arrow falls harmless, for no

ordinary weapon can kill them.

WHAT THE ESKIMO BELIEVES

The Aurora Borealis is a group of boys play-
ing football. Sometimes they use the skull of a
walrus for the ball. The swaying movement of
the lights shows that the players are struggling
with each other and tugging back and forth. If
the Aurora fades away and you utter a low
whistle, the boys will come back as if answering
to applause.

The Milky Way is the snow that fell from the
Raven's snowshoes when he walked across the
sky, during one of his journeys while he was cre-
ating the inhabitants of earth.

From Puget Sound at the northern border of
the United States all along the coast to Bering
Strait, both Indians and Eskimo believe that the
eagle, the raven, the goose, and perhaps any bird,
can push up its beak making it the visor of a cap
and thus become a man, and that by pulling it
down he can become a bird again.

XIV

IN the time before there were any people on
earth, a large pea-vine was growing on the beach,
and in the pod of this pea the first man lay coiled
up for four days. On the fifth day he stretched
out his feet and that bursted the pod. He
fell to the ground, where he stood up, a full-
grown man.

He had never seen anything that looked like
him, and he did not know what to make of him-
self. He looked around, and then at himself;
then he moved his arms and hands and was sur-
prised that he could do it. He moved his neck
and his legs, and examined himself curiously.

Looking back, he saw the pod from which he
had fallen still hanging to the vine, with a hole
at the lower end out of wrhich he had dropped.
He went up and looked in through the hole to
see if there were any more like him in the
pod. Then he looked about him again, and saw
that he was getting farther away from the

THE FIEST MAN

place where he started, and that the ground
seemed very soft and moved up and down under
his feet.

After a while he had an unpleasant feeling in
his stomach, and stooped down to take water in
his mouth from a small pool at his feet. The
water ran down into his stomach and he felt bet-
ter. When he looked up again, he saw a big dark
object coming through the air with a waving mo-
tion. It came on until it was just in front of him
when it stopped and, standing on the ground,
looked at him.

This was a Raven, and as soon as it stopped it
raised one of its wings, pushed up its beak like a
mask, to the top of its head, and changed at once
into a man. Before he raised his mask, the Raven
had stared at the Man and now he stared more
than ever, moving about from side to side to ob-
tain a better view. At last he said:

* What are you? Where did you come from?
I have never seen anything like you."

He looked again and said, " You are so much
like me in shape that you surprise me."

Presently he said, " Walk away a few steps so
that I may see you more clearly. I am aston-
ished at you ! I have never before seen anything

like you. Where did you come from? "

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

" I came from the pea-pod," said Man point-
ing to the plant from which he came.

" Ah! " exclaimed Raven, " I made that vine,
but did not know that anything like you would
ever come out of it. Come with me to the high
ground over there. This ground I made later and
it is still soft and thin, but it is harder and thicker
over there." They came to the higher ground
which was firm under their feet.

" Have you eaten anything? " Raven asked
Man.

" I took some soft stuff into me at one of the
pools," replied Man.

" Ah! you drank water," said Raven. " Now
wait for me here."

He drew down the mask over his face, chang-
ing again into a bird, and flew far up into the sky
where he disappeared. Man waited where he had
been left until the fourth day, when Raven re-
turned, bringing four berries. Pushing up his
mask, Raven became a man again and held out
two salmonberries and two heathberries.

" Here is what I made for you to eat. I wish
them to be plentiful over the earth. Now eat
them."

Man took the berries and placed them in his
mouth one after the other, and they satisfied his

THE FIRST MAN

hunger which had made him feel uncomfortable.
Raven then led Man to a small creek near by and
left him till he went to the edge of the water and
molded two pieces of clay into the form of a pair
of mountain sheep. He held them in his hand till
they were dry and then called Man to show him
what he had done.

" Those are very pretty," said Man.

" Close your eyes for a little while," said
Raven.

As soon as Man's eyes were closed Raven drew
down his mask and waved his wings four times
over the images, when they came to life and
bounded away as full-grown mountain sheep.

Raven then raised his mask and said, " Look!
Look quick! " When Man saw the sheep mov-
ing away full of life he cried out with pleasure.
Seeing how pleased he was, Raven said, " If these
animals are numerous, perhaps people will wish
very much to get them."

" I think they will," said Man.

' Well, it will be better for them to have their
home in the high cliffs," said Raven, " and there
only shall they be found, so that everyone cannot
kill them."

Then Raven made two animals of clay and
gave them life when they were dry only in spots ;

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

and they remained brown and white, and were
the tame reindeer with mottled coats.

" Those are very handsome," exclaimed Man,
admiring them.

" Yes, but there will not be many of these,"
said Raven.

Then he made a pair of wild reindeer and let
them get dry only on their bellies before giving
them life; and to this day the belly of the wild
reindeer is the only white part about it.

' These animals will be very common and peo-
ple will kill many of them," said Raven.

THE FIRST WOMAN

* You will be very lonely by yourself," said
Raven to Man one day. " I will make you a
companion."

He went to a spot some distance from where
he had made the animals, and, looking now and
then at Man as an artist looks at his model, he
made an image very much like Man. He took
from the creek some fine water grass and fastened
it on the back of the head for hair. After the
image had dried in his hands, he waved his wings
over it as he had done with all the live things, and
it came to life and stood beside Man, a beautiful
young woman.

' There is a companion for you ! " cried Raven.
" Now come with me to this knoll over here."

In those days there were no mountains far or
near, and the sun never ceased to shine brightly.
No rain ever fell and no winds blew. When they
came to the knoll Raven found a patch of long,
dry moss and, showed the pair how to make a bed

A TEEASUEY OP ESKIMO TALES

in it, and they slept very warmly. Raven drew
down his mask and slept near by in the form of
a bird. Wakening before the others, Raven went
to the creek and made three pairs of fishes:
sticklebacks, graylings, and blackfish. When
they were swimming about in the water, he
called to Man, " Come and see what I have
made."

When Man saw the sticklebacks swimming up
the stream with a wriggling motion, he was so
surprised that he raised his hands suddenly and
the fish darted away.

" Look at these graylings," said Raven; " they
will be found in clear mountain streams, while the
sticklebacks are already on their way to the sea.
Both are good for food ; so, whether you live be-
side the water or in the upland, you may find
plenty to eat."

He looked about and thought there was noth-
ing on the land as lively as the fish in the water,
so he made the shrew-mice, for he said, " They
will skip about and enliven the ground and pre-
vent it from looking dead and barren, even if they
are not good for food."

He kept on for several days making other ani-
mals, more fishes, and a few ground birds, for as
yet there were no trees for birds to alight in.

THE FIEST WOMAN

Every time he ma.de anything he explained to
Man what it was and what it would do.

After this he flew away to the sky and was
gone four days, when he returned bringing a
salmon for Man and his wife. He thought that
the ponds and lakes seemed silent and lonely, so
he made insects to fly over their surfaces, and
muskrats and beavers to swim about near their
borders. At that time the mosquito did not bite
as it does now, and he said to Man:

" I made these flying creatures to enliven the
world and make it cheerful. The skin of this
muskrat you are to use for clothing. The beaver
is very cunning and only good hunters can catch
it. It will live in the streams and build strong
houses, and you must follow its example and
build a house."

When a child was born, Raven and Man took
it to the creek and rubbed it with clay, and carried
it back to the stopping-place on the knoll. The
next morning the child was running about pull-
ing up grass and other plants which Raven had
caused to grow near by. On the third day the
child became a full-grown man.

Raven one day went to the creek and made a
bear, and gave it life; but he jumped aside very
quickly when the bear stood up and looked

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

fiercely about. He had thought there ought to
be some animal of which Man would be afraid,
and now he was almost afraid of the bear himself.

" You would better keep away from that ani-
mal," he said. " It is very fierce and will tear you
to pieces if you disturb it."

He made various kinds of seals, and said to
Man, " You are to eat these and to take their
skins for clothing. Cut some of the skins into
strips and make snares to catch deer. But you
must not snare deer yet ; wait until they are more
numerous."

By and by another child was born, and the
Man and Woman rubbed it with clay as Raven
had taught them to do, and the next day the little
girl walked about. On the third day she was a
full-grown woman, for in those days people grew
up very fast, so that the earth would be peopled.

XVI
OTHER MEN

RAVEN went back to the pea-vine and there he
found that three other men had just fallen from
the pod out of which the first one had dropped.
These men, like the first, were looking about in
wonder not knowing what to make of themselves
and the world about them.

" Come with me," said Raven; and he led them
away in an opposite direction from the one in
which he had led the first Man, and brought them
to solid land close to the sea. " Stop here, and I
will teach you what to do and how to live," said
he.

He caused some small trees and bushes to grow
on the hillside and in the hollows, and he took
a piece of wood from one of these, and a cord, and
made a bow and showed them how to shoot game
for food. Then he taught them to make a fire
with a fire-drill. He made plants, and gulls, and
loons, and other birds such as fly about on the
seacoast.

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

Then he made three clay images somewhat re-
sembling the men, and waved his wings over them
and brought them to life, and led each one of
these women to one of the men, and then led each
pair to a dry bank, and had three families started
on three hilltops.

" Go down to the shore," he said to the three
men and the three women, " and bring up the
logs that the tide has brought in, and I will show
you how to make houses."

They brought the drift logs, and he showed
them how to lay them up for walls, and how to
make a roof of branches covered with earth.
Seals had now become numerous, and he taught
them how to capture them, and what use to make
of their skins. He helped them to make arrows
and spears, and nets to capture deer and fish,
and other implements of the chase. He showed
them how to make kayaks by stretching green
hides over a framework of ribs, and letting the
hides dry.

" I have not made as many birds and animals
for you as I made for First Man and his wife,
but I have made you so many more plants and
trees that it isn't quite fair to him. I must go
back and fix up his land a bit," said Raven.

So he went over to where First Man and his
62

OTHEE MEN

children were living, and told them all he had
done for the three men who had come out of the
pea-pod, and how well he had them fixed up.

" I must have you live as well as they do," he
said. " Your land looks rather barren, and you
have no houses."

That night while the people slept he caused
birch, spruce, and cottonwood trees to spring up
in the low places, and when the people awoke in
the morning they clapped their hands in delight,
for the birds were singing in the tree-tops and
the green leaves with the sunlight flickering
through them made it seem like a fairy land.
And they were delighted with the shade of the
trees in which they could sit and watch the quiver-
ing lights and shadows which the fluttering of the
leaves made.

Then Raven taught these people how to build
houses out of the trees and bushes, and how to
make fire with a fire-drill, and to place the spark
of tinder in a bunch of dry grass and wave it
about until it blazed, and then put dry wood upon
it. He showed them how to put a stick through
their fish and hold it in the fire, till it was a thou-
sand times more delicious than when raw. He
took willow twigs and strips of willow bark, and
made traps for catching fish; and, best of all, he

taught them to look out for the future, by catcK-
ing more salmon than they needed, when salmon
were running, and drying them for use when they
could catch none.

" Now you are pretty well fixed," he said one
day; " it will take you some time to practice on
all the things I have taught you; so I will go
back and see how my coast men are coming on."

XVII
MAN'S FIRST GRIEF

AFTER Raven had gone, Man and his son went
down to the sea to try some of the ways they had
been taught. They made rather bad work of it,
but the son caught a seal and held it. They tried
to kill it with their hands, but couldn't do it until,
finally, the son struck it a hard blow on the head
with his fist. Then the father took off the skin
with his hands alone, and tore it into strips which
they dried. With these strips they set snares for
reindeer.

When they went to look at the snare next
morning, they found the cords bitten in two; for
in those days the reindeer had sharp teeth like
dogs. They stood looking at the ruined snare
for a few minutes, and then the son said:

"Let us go farther down along the deer trail
and dig a pit and set our snare just at the first
edge of the pit, with a heavy stone fastened in it.

Then when the deer puts his head in the snare

A TEEASUEY OP ESKIMO TALES

the stone will fall down into the pit and drag the
deer's head down and hold it."

Next morning when they went to the woods
and down the reindeer trail they found a deer
entangled in the snare. Taking it out, they killed
and skinned it, carrying the skin home for a bed.

The women cried, " Oh, let us hold some of
the flesh in the fire as we did the fish! " And of
course they found it good.

One day Man went out alone hunting seal
along the seashore. There were many seals out
of the water sunning themselves on the rocks.
He crept up to them cautiously, but just as he
thought he had his hands on them, one after an-
other slipped into the water. Only one was left
on the rocks. Now you will not wonder at what
happened, if you remember that, although Man
was full-grown, he was still quite young, for he
had become a man so suddenly. Only one seal
was left on the rocks, and Man was very hungry.
He crept up to it more cautiously than before,
but it slipped through his fingers and escaped.

Then Man stood up and his breast seemed full
of a strange feeling, and water began to run in
drops from his eyes and down his face. He put
up his hand and caught some of the drops to look

MAN'S FIEST GEIEP

at them and found that they were really water.
Then, without any wish on his part, loud cries
began to break from him, and the tears ran down
his face as he went homeward.

When his son saw him coming he called to his
wife and mother to see Man coming along mak-
ing such a strange noise. When he reached them
they were still more surprised to see water run-
ning down his face. After he told them the story
of his disappointment about the seals, they were
all stricken with the same ailment and began to
wail with him, — and in this way people first
learned to cry.

A while after this the son killed another seal
and they made more reindeer snares from its hide.
When the deer caught this time was brought
home, Man told his people to take a splint bone
from its foreleg and to drill a hole in the large
end of it. Into this they put strands of sinew
from the deer and sewed skins to keep their bodies
warm when winter came, for Raven had told them
to do this ; and the fresh skins shaped themselves
to their bodies and dried on them.

Man then showed his son how to make bows
and arrows and to tip the arrows with points of
horn for killing deer. With these the son shot his
first deer, which was easier than snaring them.

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

After he had cut up this deer, he placed its fat
upon a bush and then fell asleep. When he
awoke he was very angry to find that the mosqui-
toes had eaten all of it. Until this time mosqui-
toes had never bitten people; but Man scolded
them for what they had done, and said: " Never
eat our meat again; eat men," and since that day
mosquitoes have always bitten people.

Where First Man lived there had now grown
a large village, for the people did everything as
Raven had directed, and as soon as a child was
born it was rubbed with clay and thus grew to its
full stature in three days.

XVIII

UP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY, AND

DOWN TO THE BOTTOM

OF THE SEA

ONE day Raven came back and, sitting beside
Man, talked of many things as if they were broth-
ers. After a little Man said, " I understand that
you have made a land in the sky."

' Yes, I have a fine land there," answered
Raven. " I made that land with all its people
and animals, before I made this one."

" I wish you would take me to see it," said
Man.

' Very well, I will do so," replied Raven.

They started toward the sky, where they ar-
rived in a short time, and Man found himself in
a beautiful country with a climate much better
than that on earth ; but the people who lived there
were very small. When they stood beside Man,
their heads reached only to his hips. As they
walked along, Man looked about and saw many

animals that were strange to him, and noticed

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

that the country was much finer than the one he
had left.

The people living there wore handsome fur
garments nicely made and embroidered with or-
namental patterns such as people on earth now
wear. Man got the patterns, and when he came
back to earth he showed his people how to make
the handsome garments; and the patterns have
been retained ever since.

After a time they came to a large house and
went in. A very old man came from the place
of honor opposite the door at the head of the
room to welcome them.

:' This is the first man I made in the sky land,"
said Raven, explaining why the man seemed so
old.

The old man called to his people: " We have
here a guest from the lower land, who is a friend
of mine. Bring food to refresh him after his
travels."

They brought boiled food of a more delicious
kind than Man had ever tasted.

" That is the flesh of the spotted reindeer and
the sheep that live in these mountains," said
Raven. ' When you have finished your meal we
will go on to see other things that I have made.
But you must not attempt to drink from any of

UP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY

the lakes we may pass, for in them are animals
which would seize and kill anyone from the lower
land."

On the way they came to a dry lake bed in
which tall grass was growing very thickly, and
lying on the very tips of the grass was a large
animal, yet the grass did not bend with the
weight. It was a strange-looking animal with a
long head and six legs, the two hind ones un-
usually large ; the forelegs short ; and a small pair
under its belly. The hair around the feet was
very long, but all over the body there was fine,
thick hair. From the back of the head grew
short, thick horns which extended forward and
curved back at the tips. The animal had small
eyes, and was of darkish color, almost black.

' These animals can sink right into the ground
and disappear," said Raven. ' When the people
want to kill one of them, they have to put a log
under it so it cannot sink. It takes many people
to kill one, for when the animal falls on the lower
log, other logs must be placed above it and held
down, while two men take large clubs and beat it
between the eyes till it is dead."

Next they came to a round hole in the sky with
a ring of short grass growing around the border
and glowing like fire.

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

" This is a star called the Moon-dog," said
Raven.

" The tops of the grass blades have been cut
away or have burned off," said Man.

' Yes, my mother took some, and I took the
rest to make the first fire down on earth," said
Raven. " I have tried to make some of this same
kind of grass on earth, but it will not grow there.

" Now close your eyes and get upon my wings
and I will take you to another place," said Raven.

Man did as he was told, and they dropped
through the flame-bordered star hole and floated
down and down for a long time. They came to
something that seemed denser than the air, and
caused them to go more slowly, until they finally
stopped.

' We are now standing on the bottom of the
sea," said Raven. " I came down here to make
some new kinds of water animals. Looking
through the water must look like a fog to you, but
you must not walk about ; you must lie down, and
if you become tired you may turn over upon the
other side."

Raven then left Man lying on one side, where
he rested for a long time. Finally he awoke feel-
ing very tired, but when he tried to turn over, he
could not.

UP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY

" I wish I could turn over," he said to him-
self; and in a moment he turned very easily.

But as he did this, he was horrified to see that
his body had become covered with long, white
hairs, and that his fingers had become long, sharp
claws. However, he was so drowsy that he soon
fell asleep again. After a long time he awoke
and again felt tired from lying so long in one
position. He turned as before and fell asleep
again for the third time. When he awoke the
fourth time Raven stood beside him.

" I have changed you into a white bear," said
Raven. " How do you like it? "

Man tried to answer but could not make a
sound. Raven waved his magic wing over him
and then he said:

" I do not wish to be a bear, for then I would
have to live on the sea while my son would live on
the shore, and I would be unhappy."

Raven made one stroke of his wings and the
bearskin fell from Man and lay on one side, while
he sat up in his human form, thankful that he did
not have to spend the rest of his life as a polar
bear.

Then Raven pulled a quill from his tail and
put it into the empty bearskin for a backbone,

and after he had waved his wings over it a white

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

bear arose and waited slowly away; and ever
since that time white bears have been found on
the frozen seas.

" How many times did you turn over? " Raven
asked.

" Four times," answered Man.

!c That was four years. You slept there just
four years," said Raven. " Come now and I will
show you some of the animals I made while you
slept.

" Here is one like the shrew-mouse of the land;
but this one always lives on the ice of the sea, and
whenever it sees a man it darts at him, entering
the toe of his boot and crawling all over him. If
the man keeps perfectly quiet, it will leave him
unharmed. But if he is a coward, and lifts so
much as a finger to brush it away, it instantly
burrows into his flesh going directly to his heart
and causing death.

" Here is another, a large leather-skinned
animal with four long, wide-spreading arms.
This is a fierce animal, living in the sea, which
wraps its arms around a man or a kayak and
pulls them into the water. If the man tries to
escape by getting out of his kayak upon the ice
and running away, it will dart underneath and
break the ice under his feet. Or if he gets on the

UP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY

shore and runs, it burrows through the earth as
easily as it swims through the water. No one
can escape if once it pursues him."

" Why did you make such an animal? " asked
Man.

" This is like man's own misdeeds, from which
he cannot escape," replied Raven.

Raven then showed Man several other animals :
one somewhat like an alligator, another with a
long scaly tail with which it could kill a man at
one stroke; some walruses, and otter, and many
kinds of fish. They finally came to a place where
the shore rose before them, and the ripples on the
surface of the water could be seen.

" Close your eyes and hold fast to me," said
Raven.

As soon as he had done this, Man found him-
self standing on the shore near his home, and was
very much astonished to see a large village where
he had left only a few huts. His wife had be-
come an old woman and his son was an old man.
The people saw him and welcomed him back,
making him their Headman, and giving him the
place of honor in their gatherings. He told them
all he had seen and heard since he left them, and
taught the young men many things about the

sea animals.

XIX

TAKING AWAY THE SUN

PEOPLE were becoming such good hunters that
they killed a great many animals, more than
Raven was willing to have killed, lest the animals
become too few for the large number of people
now on earth. For this reason, Raven took a
grass basket and tied a long line to it and, going
down to earth, caught ten reindeer which he took
up to the skyland. The next night he let the
reindeer down near one of the villages and told
them to run fast and break down the first house
they came to, and destroy the people in it.

The reindeer did so and ate up the people with
their sharp, wolf-like teeth ; then they returned to
the sky. The next night they came down again
and destroyed another house and ate up the peo-
ple.

' What shall we do? " cried the people to one
another. " They will destroy all of us if they
keep on coming."

" I know what I am going to do," said the man
who lived in the third house. ' They will come

TAKING AWAY THE SUN

to my house the next time, and I'm going to
cover it with deer fat and stick sour berries all
over in the fat."

When the reindeer came the third night, they
got their teeth full of fat and sour berries, and
ran off shaking their heads so hard that their long,
sharp teeth fell out. Afterward small teeth, such
as reindeer now have, came in their places, and
these animals became harmless.

But Raven had not accomplished his purpose,
for only two families had been destroyed, and
there were still too many inhabitants left. He
said, " If something isn't done to stop people
from killing so many animals, they will keep on
until they have killed everything I have made.
I believe I will take away the sun from them,
so that they will be in the dark and will die."

He took Man up to the sky with him, so that
he would be safe from the trouble to come. Then
he said, " You remain here while I go and take
away the sun."

He went away and took the sun, and put it into
his skin bag, and carried it far off to a part of the
skyland where his parents lived, thus making it
very dark on earth. There in his father's village
he stayed for a long time, keeping the sun care-
fully hidden in the bag.

A TEEASUBY OF ESKIMO TALES

The people on earth were terribly distressed
when it remained dark so long. They prayed to
Raven and offered him rich presents of food and
furs, but he wouldn't bring back the sun. They
kept on begging him, saying at last: " We have
crept around in the darkness finding our store-
houses and getting the meat, till now it is almost
gone, and we are likely to starve. Let us have
light for a little time at least, so we may get more
food."

So Raven yielded a trifle and held up the sun
in one hand for two days while all the people went
hunting; then he put it back and darkness re-
turned. Another long time would pass and the
people would make many offerings before he
would let them have light again. This was re-
peated many times.1

In this same sky village with Raven and his
parents lived an older brother of Raven who
thought the punishment of men was being car-
ried too far. This brother felt sorry for the peo-
ple on earth, but he didn't say a word about it to
anyone. He thought out a plan which he kept
to himself.

After a time he pretended to die, and was put

1This story is probably the Eskimo's explanation of the
very long nights in the far north during part of the year.

TAKING AWAY THE SUN

away in a grave box in the customary manner.
As soon as the mourners left his grave, he arose
and went out a short distance from the village,
where he hid his raven mask and coat in a tree.
Then he turned himself into a young boy and
went back to his father's house, where he skipped
about in a lively manner, and amused the parents
so much that the father at last became very fond
of him.

When he had gotten them in the habit of in-
dulging him, he began to cry for the sun as a
plaything. He kept this up until the father went
to the bag and took out the sun and let him have
it for a while, being careful to see that it went
back into the bag when anyone was coming, or
when the boy was going out of doors.

One day the boy played with it for a time in
the house, all the while watching his chance, and
when no one was looking, he ran outside, fled to
the tree where he put on his raven coat and mask
and flew away with it. When he was far up in
the sky, he heard his father's voice, sounding
faint and far below, saying:

" Don't hide the sun. If you will not bring it
back, let it out of the bag sometimes. Don't keep
us always in the dark, if you mean to keep the sun
for yourself."

A TEEASUBY OF ESKIMO TALES

The father went into the house, and the Raven
boy flew on to the place where the sun belonged,
and put the bag down. It was early dawn and
he saw the Milky Way leading far onward, and
followed it to a hole surrounded by short grass
which glowed with light. He plucked some of
the grass and, standing close beside the edge of
the earth just before sunrise time, he stuck it into
the sky. It has stayed there ever since as the
beautiful Morning Star.

Then he went back and tore off the skin cover-
ing and put the sun in its place. Remembering
that his father had called to him not to keep it
always dark, but to make it partly dark and
partly light, he caused the sky to revolve so that
it moved around the earth carrying the sun and
stars with it, and making day and night.

Going down to earth he came to where the first
people lived, and said to them, " Raven, my
uncle, was angry because you killed more animals
than you needed, and he took away the sun; but
I have put it back and it will never be changed
again."

The people welcomed him warmly when they
knew what he had done for them. As he looked
around upon them he recognized the Headman of

the sky-dwarfs.

TAKING AWAY THE SUN

'* Why, what are you doing down here? " he
asked.

" I and some of my people thought we would
like a change, and so we came down to live on
earth for a while," replied the dwarf.

" What has become of Man? "

' Who is Man? I never heard of him," said
Raven boy.

" He was the first person ever seen on earth.
He was our Headman until he went away with
Raven," said the people.

" I will go into the skyland and find him," said
Raven boy. He tried to fly, but could get up
only a little way. He tried several times, getting
only a short distance above the ground. When
he found that he could not get back to the sky, he
wandered off and finally came to where there
were living the children of the three men who last
dropped from the pea-vine. There he took a
wife and lived for a long time having many chil-
dren, all of whom were Raven people like him-
self and could fly over the earth. But they grad-
ually lost their magical powers, and were no
longer able to turn themselves into men by push-
ing up their beaks. They became just ordinary
ravens like those we see now on the tundras or
marshy plains.

THE DWARF PEOPLE

VERY long ago, before the white people ever
went into the land of the Eskimo, there was a
large village at Pik-mik-tal-ik. One winter day
the people living there were surprised to see a
small man and a small woman with a child com-
ing down the river on the ice. The man was so
little that he wore a coat made of a single white
fox skin. The woman's coat was made from the
skins of two white hares ; while two muskrat skins
clothed the child.

The father and mother were about two cubits
high, and the boy not over the length of one's
forearm. Though he was so small, the man was
dragging a sled much larger than those used by
the villagers, and he had on it a heavy load of
various articles. He seemed surprisingly strong,
and when they came to the shore below the vil-
lage, he easily drew the sled up the steep bank,
and taking it by the rear end raised it on the sled
frame, a feat which would have required the
strength of several of the villagers.

THE DWAEF PEOPLE

The couple entered one of the houses and were
made welcome. This small family remained in
the village for some time, the man taking his
place among the other men and seeming entirely
at home and friendly. He was very fond of his
little son ; but one day when the latter was play-
ing outside the house, he was bitten so badly by
a savage dog that he died. In his anger the fa-
ther caught the dog up by the tail and struck it
against a post so violently that the dog fell in
halves.

In his great sorrow, the father made a hand-
some, carved grave-box for his son and placed
the child with his toys in it. Then he went into
his house and for four days he did no work and
would see no one. At the end of that time he took
his sled, and with his wife returned up the river
on their old trail, while the villagers sorrowfully
watched them go, for they had come to like the
pair very much.

, Before this time the villagers had always made
the body of their sleds from long strips of wood
running lengthwise; but after they had seen the
dwarf's sled with many crosspieces, they adopted
that model.

Before this time, too, they had always cast their
dead out on the tunclra to be devoured by the

A TKEASUKY OF ESKIMO TALES

dogs and wild beasts; but after they had seen
the dwarf people bury their son in a grave-box
with toys placed about him, they buried their
dead in that way and observed four days of
mourning as had been done by the dwarf ; for they
liked him and his gentle manners.

And ever since that time the hunters coming
home at dusk and looking toward the darkening
tundra, sometimes see dwarf people who carry
bows and arrows, but who disappear into the
ground if one tries to approach them. They are
harmless people, never attempting to do anyone
an injury. No one has ever spoken to these
dwarfs since the time they left the village; but
deer hunters have often seen their tracks near the
foot of the mountains.

XXI

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LONE
WOMAN OF ST. MICHAEL

THE women south of St. Michael are poor
seamstresses but fine dancers, while those to the
north are expert needlewomen but poor dancers ;
and this is the way the Eskimo explain it.

Very long ago there were many men living in
the northland, but there was no woman among
them. Far away in the southland a single woman
was known to live. At last the shrewdest young
man of the northland started and traveled south-
ward till he came to the woman's house, where he
stopped and became her husband.

He was very proud of himself for getting
ahead of the other young men in the north. One
day he sat in the house thinking of his former
home, and he said, " Ah, I have a wife, while
even the son of the Headman has none."

Meanwhile, the Headman's son had also set
out to journey toward the south, and while the
husband was talking thus to himself, the son

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

stood in the entrance to the house and heard what
he said. It angered the son to hear the husband
gloating over him. He hid in the passage and
waited until the people inside were asleep, when
he crept into the house and, seizing the woman
by the shoulders, began dragging her away.

Just as he reached the doorway he was over-
taken by the husband who caught the woman by
her feet. The two held on like grim death and
tugged and pulled until it ended in the woman
being torn in two. The thief carried the upper
half of the body away, while the husband was left
with the lower portion of his wife.

Each man set to work to replace the missing
parts from carved wood. After these parts were
fitted on they came to life; and thus two women
were made from the halves of one.

Owing to the clumsiness of her wooden fingers,
the woman of the south was a poor needlewoman,
but was a fine dancer. The woman of the north
was very expert in needlework, but her wooden
legs made her a poor dancer. Each of these
women gave these traits to her daughters, so that
to the present time the same difference is noted
between the women of the north and those of the
south, " thus showing that the story is true."

XXII

WHY THE MOON WAXES AND
WANES

IN a certain village on the Yukon River there
once lived four brothers and a sister. The sister's
companion was the youngest boy, of whom she
was very fond. This boy was lazy and could
never be made to work. The other brothers were
great hunters and in the fall they hunted at sea,
for they lived near the shore. As soon as the
Bladder feast in December was over, they went
to the mountains and hunted reindeer. The boy
never went with them, but remained at home with
his sister, and they amused each other.

One time, however, she became angry at him,
and that night when she carried food to the other
brothers in the kashim or assembly house where
the men slept, she gave none to the youngest
brother. When she went out of the assembly
house she saw a ladder 1 leading up into the sky,
with a line hanging down by the side of it. Tak-

1 Probably the Milky Way.
87

A TREA8UBY OF ESKIMO TALES

ing hold of the line, she ascended the ladder, go-
ing up into the sky. As she was going up, the
younger brother came out and, seeing her, at once
ran back and called to his brothers:

" Our sister is climbing the sky! Our sister is
climbing the sky! "

" Oh, you lazy youngster, why do you tell us
that? She is doing no such thing," said they.

" Come and see for yourselves ! Come, quick ! "
he cried, very much excited.

Sure enough! Up she was going at a rapid
rate.

The boy caught up his sealskin breeches and,
being in a hurry, thrust one leg into them and
then drew a deerskin sock on the other foot as he
ran outside. There he saw the girl far away up
in the sky and began at once to go up the ladder
toward her; but she floated away, he following in
turn.

The girl became the sun and the boy became
the moon, and ever since that time he pursues but
never overtakes her. At night the sun sinks in
the west, and the moon is seen coming up in the
east to go circling after, but always too late. The
moon, being without food, wanes slowly away
from starvation until it is quite lost to sight ; then
the sun reaches out and feeds it from the dish in

WHY THE MOON WAXES AND WANES

which she carried food to the kashim. After the
moon is fed and gradually brought to the full, it
is permitted to starve again, thus producing the
waxing and waning which we see every month.

XXIII
CHUNKS OF DAYLIGHT

AT the northern part of the continent, in the
land of the midnight sun, where in the long sum-
mer days the sun at midnight is just slipping be-
low the northern horizon and immediately is seen
coming up again, and where in the long nights of
winter there is scarcely any daytime at all, it is
not strange that the legends of the people often
treat of daylight and especially of darkness. The
long nights become oppressive, and the people
have different theories as to the cause of it, which
they weave into legends such as the following.

In the days when the earth was a child, there
was light from the sun and moon as there is now.
Then the sun and moon were taken away and the
people were left for a long time with no light but
the shining of the stars. The shamans, or priests,
made their strongest charms to no purpose, for
the darkness of night continued.

In a village of the lower Yukon there lived an
orphan boy who always sat upon the bench with

CHUNKS OF DAYLIGHT

the humble people, ever the entrance way of the
kashim or assembly house. The other people
thought he was foolish, and he was despised and
ill-treated by everyone. After the shamans had
tried very hard to bring back the sun and moon
and had failed, the boy began to ridicule them.

" What fine shamans you must be, not to be
able to bring back the light, when even I can do
it," he said mockingly.

At this the shamans became very angry and
beat him and drove him out of the kashim. The
orphan was like any other boy until he put on a
black coat which he had, when he became a raven
and remained in that form until he removed his
coat. When the shamans drove him out, he went
to the house of his aunt in the village and told her
what he had said, and how the shamans had
beaten him and driven him out of the kashim.

'* Tell me where the sun and moon have gone,
for I am going after them," said he.

' They are hidden somewhere, but I don't
know where it is," she replied.

" I am sure you know where they are, for look
what a neatly sewed coat you wear, and you could
not see to do that if you did not know where the
light is."

After a great deal of persuasion the aunt said:

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

" Well, if you wish to find the light you must
take your snowshoes and go far, far to the south-
land, to the place you will know when you get
there."

The boy put on his black coat, took his snow-
shoes, and at once set off for the south. For
many days he traveled, while the darkness always
remained the same. When he had gone a very
long way, he saw far ahead of him a single ray
of light, and that cheered and encouraged him.

As he hurried on, the light showed again
plainer than before and then vanished ; and kept
appearing and vanishing at intervals. At last he
came to a large hill, one side of which was in a
bright light while the other was in the blackness
of night. Ahead of him and close to. the hill he
saw a hut with a man who was shoveling snow
from the front of it.

The man was tossing the snow high in air,
and each time he did this the light was hidden,
thus causing the changes from light to darkness
which the boy had noticed as he approached.
Close beside the house he saw a great blazing ball
of fire — the light he had come to find.

The boy stopped and began to plan how he
could secure the light and the shovel from the
man. After a time he walked up to the man and

HE WHIPPED ON HIS MAGIC
COAT AND BECAME A RAVEN

."•;''--:" •"••".'-••" ""•--;' "-; ,-.'•-. ••' .'-..-"'- • . ' - •

CHUNKS OP DAYLIGHT

asked, " Why are you throwing up the snow and
hiding the light from our village? "

The man stopped his work, looked up and said,
" I am only clearing away the snow from my
door. I am not hiding the light. But who are
you, and where do you come from? "

" It is so dark at our village that I did not like
to live there, so I came here to live with you,"
said the boy.

" What? Will you stay all the time? " asked
the man in surprise.

' Yes," replied the boy.

' That is well; come into the house with me,"
said the man.

He dropped his shovel on the ground and,
stooping down, led the way into the underground
passage to the house, letting the curtain fall in
front of the door as he passed, for he thought the
boy was close behind him.

The moment the door flap fell behind the man
as he entered, the boy caught up the ball of light
and put it in the turned-up flap of his fur coat
in front. Catching up the shovel in one hand, he
ran away to the north, running until his feet be-
came tired. Then he whipped on his magic coat
and became a raven and flew as fast as his wings
would carry him. Behind he heard the frightful

A TREASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

shrieks and cries of the old man, following fast in
pursuit.

When the old man found that he could not
overtake the raven he cried to him, " Never mind ;
you may keep the light, but give me my shovel."

" No ; you made our village dark and you can-
not have the shovel," called the raven, and flew
faster, leaving the man far in the rear.

As the raven boy traveled home, he tore out a
chunk from the light ball and threw it away, thus
making a day. Then he went on for a long way
in the darkness, and threw out another piece of
light, making it day again. He continued to do
this at intervals until he reached the kashim in his
own village, where he dropped the rest of the
ball.

Then he went into the kashim and said, " Now,
you worthless shamans, you see I have brought
back the light, and hereafter it will be light and
then dark, making day and night."

And the shamans could not answer.

XXIV
THE RED BEAU

ON the tundra south of the mouth of the
Yukon River an orphan boy once lived with his
aunt. They were all alone with no house within
sight ; but the boy had heard that there were peo-
ple living farther up the river. One summer day
he got into his kayak and rowed up the river hop-
ing to find other human beings. He traveled on
until he came to a large village where he saw
many people moving about. There he landed
and began calling to the people expecting to
make friends with them.

But instead of being friendly, they disliked all
strangers and, running down to the shore, they
seized him, broke his kayak to pieces, tore his
clothing off him, and beat him badly. Then they
took him up into the village and kept him there
all summer, beating and ill-treating him very
often. In the fall one of the men took pity on

him and made him a kayak, and helped him to

A TEEASUET OF ESKIMO TALES

escape. He went down the river and arrived at
home after a long absence.

During the summer other people had built
houses near the home of his aunt and there was a
small village instead of the one lone hut. He
walked among the buildings until he found his
aunt's house ; but when he entered, he frightened
her very much, for at first glance she thought it
was a skeleton, he had been starved and beaten so
long.

When his aunt recognized him and had heard
his story, she said, " Oh, you poor boy ! What
you must have suffered! I am full of rage at
those cruel villagers. I shall find some way to
revenge your wrongs ! "

She sat thinking a while and then said to him,
"Bring me a piece of a small log."

He brought the piece of wood and she whittled
and rubbed it into the form of an animal with
long teeth and long, sharp claws, and painted it
white on the throat and red on the sides. Then
they took the image to the edge of the stream and
placed it in the water.

" Go now," she said to it, " and kill everyone
you find in the village where my boy was beaten."

The image did not move.

She took it out of the water and cried over it,
96

THE BED BEAR

letting her tears fall upon it; and the warm
tears brought it to life and made it feel sorry
for her and the boy. She put it back into the
water.

" Now, go and kill the bad people who beat my;
boy," she said.

At this the image floated across the creek and
crawled up on the other side, where it began to
grow, soon becoming a large red bear. It turned
and looked at the woman till she called out, " Go,
and spare no one."

The bear went away and came to the village
on the big river, the one to which the boy had
gone. There the first one he met was a man go-
ing for water. This one was quickly torn in
pieces, and one after another of the villagers met
the same fate ; for the bear stayed near the village
until he had destroyed one-half of the people, and
the rest were so terrified that they began moving
away.

Then he swam across the Yukon and went over
the tundra to the farther side of another river,
killing everyone he met. For he had become so
bloodthirsty that the least sign of life seemed to
fill him with fury until he had destroyed it.

From there he turned back, and one day came

to the place on the river where he had first come

A TREASUBY OP ESKIMO TALES

to life. Seeing the people on the opposite side
he became furious, tearing the ground with his
claws and growling, and starting to cross the
river to get at them. When the villagers saw this,
they were much frightened, and ran about say-
ing, " Here is the old woman's dog! We shall all
be killed!" "Tell the old woman to stop her
dog! " They had never seen a bear and they
thought it was a dog she had made.

The woman went to meet the bear which did
not try to hurt her, but was passing by her to get
at the other people when she caught him by the
hair on the back of his neck.

" Do not hurt these people," she said; " they
have been kind to me and have given me food
when I was hungry."

She led the bear into her house, and still hold-
ing on to him, she talked to him kindly.

" You have done my bidding well, and I am
pleased with you," she said; " but you must not
overdo it. Hereafter you must injure no one
unless he tries to hurt or injure you."

When she had finished talking, she led him to
the door and sent him away over the tundra.
Before she made him there had never been any of
his kind, but since then there have always been
red bears.

XXV

THE LAST OF THE THUNDERBIRDS

IN ancient times a great many giant eagles or
thunderbirds lived in the mountains ; but in later
years they had all disappeared except one single
pair which made their home in the mountain top
overlooking the Yukon near Sabotnisky. The
top of this mountain was round and the eagles
had hollowed out a great basin on the summit
which they used for a nest. Around the edge of
it was a rocky rim from which they could see far
across the broad river, or could look down upon
the village at the base of the mountain on the
water's edge.

From their perch on this rocky wall these great
birds would soar away, looking like a cloud in the
sky, to seize a reindeer from a passing herd and
bring it to their young. Or, again, they would
circle out with a noise like thunder from their
shaking wings, and drop down upon a fisherman

in his kayak on the river, carrying man and boat

A TKEASUBY OF ESKIMO TALES

to the top of the mountain. There the man would
be eaten by the young thunderbirds, and the
kayak would lie bleaching among the bones and
other refuse scattered along the border of the
nest. Every fall the young birds would fly away
to the northland, while the old ones would remain
by the mountain.

After many fishermen had been carried away
by the birds, there came a time when only the
most daring would venture upon the river. One
summer day a bra\ e young hunter was starting
out to look at his ish traps and he said to his
wife, " Don't go outside the house while I am
away, for fear of the birds."

After he was gone she noticed that the water
tub was empty, and took a bucket to go to the
river for water. As she bent over to fill the vessel
a roaring noise like thunder filled the air, and one
of the birds darted down and seized her in its
talons. The villagers saw the bird swoop down,
and they wailed aloud in sorrow and terror as
they watched her being carried through the air to
the mountain top.

The hunter came home and the villagers gath-
ered about with many lamentations. " Oh, piti-
ful! pitiful! your pretty wife was carried away
by the thunderbirds! Too bad! Too bad! By

100

THE LAST OF THE THUNDEEBIEDS

this time she is torn to pieces and fed to the young
demons! "

Not one word did the husband utter. Going
into his empty house he took down his bow and
his quiver of war arrows and started toward the
mountain.

"Don't go! Don't go!" cried the villagers;
" of what use is it? She is dead and devoured ere
this. You will only add one more to their vic-
tims."

Not a word did the hunter reply. He strode
on and on and they watched him climbing up and
up the mountainside till he was lost to view. At
last he gained the rim of the nest and looked in.
The old birds were away, but the fierce young
eagles greeted him with shrill cries and fiery,
flashing eyes. The hunter's heart was full of
anger and he quickly bent his bow, loosing the
war arrows one after another till the last one of
the hateful birds lay dead in the nest.

With heart still burning for revenge, the
hunter hid himself beside a great rock near the
nest and waited for the parent birds. They came.
They saw their young lying dead and bloody in
the nest, and their cries of rage echoed from the
cliffs on the farther side of the great river. They
soared up into the air looking for the one who

101

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

had killed their young. Quickly they saw the
brave hunter beside the great stone, and the
mother bird swooped down upon him, her wings
sounding like a gale in a spruce forest. Swiftly
fitting an arrow to the string, as the eagle came
down the hunter sent it deep into her throat.
With a hoarse cry she turned and flew away over
the hills far to the north.

The father bird had been circling overhead and
came roaring down upon the hunter, who, at the
right moment, crouched close to the ground be-
hind the stone, and the eagle's sharp claws struck
only the hard rock. As the bird arose, eager to
swoop down again, the hunter sprang from his
shelter and drove two heavy war arrows deep un-
der its wing. Uttering hoarse cries of rage, and
spreading his broad wings, the thunderbird
floated away like a cloud in the sky, far into the
northland, and was never seen again.

Having taken blood vengeance, the hunter
went down into the nest where among ribs of old
canoes and other bones he found some fragments
of his wife, which he carried to the water's edge
and, building a fire, made food offerings and
libations of water such as would be pleasing to
her ghost.

102

XXVI
RAVEN MAKES AN OCEAN VOYAGE

ONE day Raven was sitting on a cliff near the
sea when he saw a large whale passing close along
the shore.

" I have an idea! " said he. " I'm going to try
something new." Then he called out to the
whale, " When you come up again, shut your
eyes and open your mouth wide, and I'll put
something in it."

Then he drew down his mask, put his drill for
making fire under his wing, and flew out over the
water. Very soon the whale came up again and
did as he had been told. Raven, seeing the wide
open mouth, flew straight down the whale's
throat. The whale closed his mouth, gave a great
gulp, and down he went to the bottom of the sea.

Raven stood up, pushed up his beak, and look-
ing about, found himself at the entrance to a fine
room, at one end of which burned a lamp. He
went in and was surprised to see a beautiful
young woman sitting there. The place was clean

103

A TREASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

and dry, the roof being supported by the whale's
spine, while its ribs formed the walls. The lamp
was supplied from a tube that extended along the
whale's backbone, from which oil constantly but
slowly dripped into the lamp.

When Raven stepped in, the woman started
up in alarm and cried out, " How came you here?
You are the first man who ever came into my
house."

" I came in through the whale's throat," said
Raven as politely as he knew how, for the woman
was young and fair to look upon. Moreover, he
had already guessed that she was the inua or
spirit of the whale. " I should like to stay
a while."

" As you cannot get out at present, it seems
that you will have to stay. Whether you like it,
or whether I like it, you appear to be my guest,
so I must prepare food for you."

She brought food which she served with berries
and oil. :< These are berries which I gathered
last summer," she said.

For four days he remained there as the guest
of the whale's spirit, and found it a very pleasant
experience; but he continually wondered what
the tube was that ran along the roof of the house.
Whenever the spirit woman left the room she

104

BAVEN MAKES AN OCEAN VOYAGE

said, " You must on no account touch that tube,"
and that only served to make him the more curi-
ous.

On the fifth day, when she left the room, he
went to the lamp and caught a drop of the oil
which he licked up with his tongue. It tasted so
sweet that he began to catch other drops as fast
as they fell. This soon became too slow to suit
him, for he was hungry, so he reached up and
tore a piece from the side of the tube and ate it.
As soon as this was done a great rushi of oil
poured into the room and put out the light, while
the room itself began to roll wildly about.

This continued for four days, and Raven was
nearly dead from exhaustion and the bruises
which he received. Then the room became still
and the whale was dead, for Raven had torn off
part of one of the heart vessels. The inua never
came back to the room, and the whale drifted
upon the shore.

Raven now found himself a prisoner and was
saying to himself, " Now I am in a pretty boat!
I have enjoyed the trip, but how is one to get out
of a kayak like this? "

Presently he said, "Hark! What is that I
hear? As I live, it is someone walking on the
roof of the house! "

105

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

And he was right, for two men were walking
on top of the dead whale and calling to their vil-
lage mates to come and help cut it up. Very
soon there were many people at work cutting
a hole through the upper side of the whale's
body.

Raven quickly pulled down his mask, becoming
a bird, and crouched close in the farthest corner.
When the hole was large enough, he watched his
chance and while everybody was carrying a load
of meat to the shore, he flew out and alighted on
the top of a hill close by without being noticed.

" Ah, my good fire-drill ; I have forgotten it,"
he exclaimed, remembering that he had left it
behind.

He quickly pushed up his beak and removed
his raven coat, becoming a young man again.
He started along the shore toward the whale.
The people working on the dead animal saw a
small, dark-colored man in a strangely made
deerskin coat coming toward them, and they
looked at him curiously.

" Ho, you have found a fine, large whale," said
he as he drew near. " I will help you to cut him
up."

He rolled up his sleeves and set to work. Veiy
soon a man cutting on the inside of the whale's

106

RAVEN MAKES AN OCEAN VOYAGE

body called out, "Ah, see what I have found! A
fire-drill inside a whale ! "

At once the wily Raven rolled down his sleeves
and quit work, saying, " That is a bad sign, for
my daughter has told me that if a fire-drill is
found in a whale and people try to cut up that
whale, many of them will die. I shall run away
before the inua of the whale catches me." And
away he ran.

When he was gone the people looked at one
another and said, " Perhaps he is right; we'd bet-
ter go too." And away they all ran, each one
trying to rub the oil from his hands as he went.

From his hiding-place Raven looked on and
laughed as he saw the people running away.
Then he went back for his raven coat and when
he had put it on and pulled down his beak he flew
to the carcass and began to cut it up and fly with
chunks of the flesh to a cave on the shore. He
did not dare go to it as a man lest the villagers
should see him and, discovering the trick he had
played them, should come back for the meat. As
he chuckled over the feast in store for him he
said, " Thanks, Ghost of the whale, both for the
boat ride and for the feast."

107

XXVII
THE RED SKELETON

IN a village on Cape Prince of Wales, very
long ago, there was a poor orphan boy who had
no one to take his part and who was treated badly
by everyone, being made to run here and there at
the bidding of all the villagers.

One snowy night he was told to go out of the
kashim to see if the weather was getting worse.
He had no skin boots, and it was so cold that he
did not wish to go, but he was driven out. When
he came back he said, " It has stopped snowing,
but it is as cold as ever."

Just to plague him, the men kept sending him
out every little while, until at last he came in say-
ing:

" I saw a ball of fire like the moon coming over
the hill to the north."

The men laughed at him and asked, " Why do
you tell us a yarn like that? Go out again and
see if there is not a whale coming over the hill.
You are always seeing things."

103

THE BED SKELETON

He went out, and came in again quickly, say-
ing in agitation, " The red thing has come nearer
and is close to the house."

The men laughed, but the boy hid himself. Al-
most immediately after this the men in the kashim
saw a fiery figure dancing on the gut-skin cover-
ing over the roof hole, and an instant after a
human skeleton came crawling into the room
through the passageway, creeping on its knees
and elbows.

When the skeleton was in the room it made a
motion toward the people which caused them all
to fall on their knees and elbows in the same posi-
tion as it had. Then, turning about, it crawled
out as it had come, followed by the people, who
were forced to go with it. Outside, the skeleton
crept through the snow toward the edge of the
village, followed by all the men, and in a short
time every one of them was dead and the skeleton
had vanished.

Some of the villagers had been absent when the
spook came, and when they returned they found
dead people lying all about on the cold ground.
Entering the kashim, they found the orphan boy,
who told them how the people had been killed.

They followed the tracks of the skeleton
through the snow, and were led up the side of the

109

A TBEASUKY OF ESKIMO TALES

mountain till they came to an ancient grave,
where the tracks ended.

It was the grave of the boy's father.

110

XXVIII
THE MARMOT AND THE RAVEN

ONCE when a Raven was flying over some
reefs near the shore of the sea, he was seen by
some Sea-birds that were perched on the rocks.
They began to revile him, calling him disagree-
able names: " Oh, you offal eater! Oh, you car-
rion eater! Oh, you black one! " until the Raven
turned and flew away, crying, " Gnak, gnak,
gnak! why do they call me such names? "

He flew far away across the great water until
he came to a mountain on the other side, where
he stopped. Just in front of him he saw a mar-
mot hole. He said to himself, " If it is a dis-
grace to eat dead animals I will eat only live ones.
I will become a murderer."

He stood in front of the hole watching, and
very soon the marmot came home, bringing some
food. Marmot said to Raven, " Please stand
aside; you are right in front of my door."

" It is not my intention to stand aside," said
Raven. " They called me a carrion eater, and I
will show that I am not, for I will eat you."

Ill

A TKEASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

" If you are going to eat me, you ought to be
willing to do me a favor," replied Marmot. " I
have heard that you are a very fine dancer, and I
long to see you dance before I die. If you dance
as beautifully as they say, I shall be willing to die
when once I have seen it. If you will dance I
will sing, and then you may eat me."

This pleased Raven so much that he began to
dance and Marmot pretended to go into ecstasies
about it.

" Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven, how well you
dance!" he sang. " Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven,
how well you dance ! "

By and by they stopped to rest and Marmot
said, " I am very much delighted with your danc-
ing. Do shut your eyes and dance your best just
once more, while I sing."

Raven closed his eyes and hopped clumsily
about while Marmot sang, " Oh, Raven, Raven,
Raven, what a graceful dancer ! Oh, Raven, Ra-
ven, Raven, what a fool you are ! " And with a
quick run, Marmot darted between Raven's legs
and was safe in his hole.

There he turned, putting out the tip of his nose
and laughing mockingly as he said, " Chi-kik-kik,
chi-Jdk-kikf chi-kik-kik! You are the greatest
fool I ever met. What a ridiculous figure you

112

THE MAEMOT AND THE EAVEN

made while dancing; I could scarcely sing for
laughing. Look at me, and see how fat I am.
Don't you wish you could eat me? "

And he tormented Raven till the latter flew
away in a rage.

113

XXIX

ORIGIN OF THE WINDS

IN a village on the lower Yukon lived a man
and his wife who had no children. One day the
woman said to her husband, " Far out on the tun-
dra there grows a solitary tree. Go to that and
bring back a piece of the trunk, and make a doll
from it. Then it will seem that we have a child."

The man went out of the house and saw a long
track of bright light like that made by the moon
shining on snow, leading off across the tundra in
the direction he had been told to take. It was
the Milky Way. Along this path he traveled far
away until he saw before him a beautiful object
shining in the bright light. Going up to it, he
found it was the tree of which he came in search.
The tree was small, so he took his hunting-knife,
cut off a part of the trunk, and carried the frag-
ment home.

He sat down in the house and carved out from
the wood an image of a small boy, and his wife
made two suits of clothing for it and dressed it in

114

OEIGIN OF THE WINDS

one of them, " saving the other to put on when he
had soiled the first," she said.

" Now, Father, make your little boy a set of
toy dishes," she said.

" I see no use in all this trouble. We will be
no better off than we were in the first place," said
the man.

" Why, yes, we are already better off," said the
wife. " Before we had the doll we had nothing
to talk about except ourselves. Now we have
the doll to talk about and to amuse us."

To please her the husband made the toy dishes,
and she placed the doll in the seat of honor on the
bench opposite the door, with the dishes full of
food and water before it.

When the couple had gone to bed that night
the room was very dark and they heard several
low, whistling sounds.

" Do you hear that? It is the doll," said the
woman, shaking her husband till he awakened.

They got up at once and, making a light, saw
that the Doll had eaten the food and drunk the
water, and that its eyes were moving. The
woman caught it up with delight and fondled and
played with it for a long time. When she be-
came tired she put it back on the bench and they

went to bed again.

115

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

In the morning when they got up the Doll was
gone. They looked for it all around the house,
but could not find it. Then they went outside,
and there were its tracks leading away from the
door. They followed the tracks to the creek and
along the bank to a place outside the village,
where they ended; for from this place the Doll
had gone up the Milky Way on the path of light
upon which the man had gone to find the tree.

Doll traveled along the bright path till he came
to the edge of day, where the sky comes down to
the earth and walls in the light. Close beside
him, in the east, he saw a skin cover fastened over
a hole in the sky wall. The skin was bulging in-
ward as if some strong force on the other side
were pushing it.

" It is very quiet here. I think a little wind
would make it livelier," said the Doll, drawing his
knife and cutting the cover loose on one side of
the hole. At once a strong wind blew through,
every now and then bringing with it a live rein-
deer. Looking through the hole, Doll saw be-
yond the wall another world like the earth. He
drew the cover over the hole again.

" Do not blow too hard," he said to the wind.
" Sometimes blow hard, sometimes light, and
sometimes do not blow at all."

116

$ GALE SWEPT IN BRINGING

OEIGIN OF THE WINDS

Then he got upon the sky wall and walked
along till he came to the southeast. Here an-
other opening was covered like the first, and the
covering was bulging inward. When he cut this
covering loose a gale swept in bringing reindeer,
trees, and bushes. He quickly covered the hole
and said to the gale, " You are too strong. Some-
times blow hard, sometimes light, and sometimes
do not blow at all. The people on earth will
want variety."

Again walking along the sky wall he came to a
hole in the south, and when this covering was cut
a hot wind came rushing in carrying rain and
spray from the great sea lying beyond the sky-
hole on that side. Doll closed this opening and
talked to the wind as before.

Then he passed on to the west where there was
another hole which admitted heavy rainstorms,
with sleet and spray from the ocean. When he
had closed this and given the wind its instructions
he went on to the northwest. There, when he cut
away the covering, a cold blast came rushing in,
bringing snow and ice, so that he was chilled to
the bone and half frozen, and he made haste to
close the hole as he had the others.

He started to go along the sky wall to the
north, but the cold became more and more severe

117

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

until at last he was obliged to leave the wall and
make a circuit to the southward, going back to
the north only when he came opposite the open-
ing. There the cold was so intense that he
waited some time before he could muster courage
to cut the cover away. When he did so, a fearful
blast rushed in, carrying great masses of snow
and ice, strewing it over the entire plain of the
earth. It was so bitter that he closed the hole
very quickly, and told the wind from that direc-
tion to come only in the middle of the winter so
that the people might not be taken unawares, and
might be prepared for it.

From there he hastened down to warmer climes
in the middle of the earth plain, where, looking
up, he saw that the sky was supported by long,
slender, arching poles, like those of a conical
lodge, but made of some beautiful material un-
known to him. Journeying on, he finally came
to the village from which he started and went into
his own home.

Doll lived in this village for a very long time;
for when the foster parents who had made him
died, he was taken by other people of the village
and so lived on for many generations, until
he finally died. Since his death parents have
made dolls for their children in imitation

118

ORIGIN OP THE WINDS

of the Doll who first opened the wind-holes
of the sky and regulated all the six winds of
earth.

119

XXX

RAVEN AND THE GEESE

FOR a long time Raven lived alone, but finally
became tired of it and decided to take a wife. It
was late in the fall and he noticed that the birds
were going south in large flocks. He flew away
and stopped directly in the path taken by geese
and other wild fowl on their way to the land of
summer.

As he sat there he saw a pretty young goose
coming near. He hid his face by looking at his
feet, so that she would not know but that he was a
black goose, and called out, " Who wishes me for
a husband? I am a very nice person."

The goose flew on without heeding him and he
looked after her and sighed. Soon after a black
brant passed, and Raven cried out as before, but
the brant flew on. Again he waited and this
time a duck passed near, and when Raven cried
out she turned her head a little.

" Oh, I shall succeed this time," thought Ra-
ven, and his heart beat fast with hope. But the

120

duck passed on, and Raven stood waiting with
bowed head.

Very soon a family of white-front geese came
along, consisting of the parents with four sons
and a sister. Raven cried out, " Who wishes me
for a husband? I am a fine hunter and am young
and handsome."

As he finished speaking they alighted just be-
yond him, and he thought, " Surely, now I shall
get a wife." He looked about and found a
pretty white stone with a hole in it lying near.
He picked it up and, stringing it on a long grass
stem, hung it about his neck.

As soon as he had done this he pushed up his
bill so that it slid to the top of his head like a
mask, and he became a dark-colored young man.
At the same time each of the geese pushed up its
bill in the same manner, and they became nice-
looking people.

Raven walked toward them, and was much
pleased with the looks of the girl and, going to
her, gave her the stone which she hung about her
neck. By doing this she showed that she ac-
cepted him for her husband. Then they all
pulled down their bills, becoming birds again, and
flew away toward the south.

The geese flapped their wings heavily and

121

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

worked along slowly, while Raven on his out-
spread wings glided along faster than his party,
and the geese gazed after him in admiration, ex-
claiming, " How light and graceful he is ! " and
the little bride was very proud of her fine hus-
band.

But Raven was not accustomed to the long, all-
day flights of the geese, and he became tired.

' We would better stop early and look for a
good place to spend the night," he said. The
others agreed to this, so they stopped and were
soon asleep.

Early the next morning the geese were astir,
but Raven slept so heavily that the father goose
had to shake him and say, "Wake up! Wake
up ! We must make haste for it will snow here
soon ; we must not linger."

As soon as Raven was fully awake he pre-
tended to be eager to get away, and, as on the day
before, he led all the others with his wide-spread
wings, and was greatly admired by the others,
especially by his young wife. He kept on, above
or in front of his companions, and his bride would
often say, "See how gracefully he skims along
without having to flop heavy wings as we do,"
and she gave her brothers a side glance which
made them feel that she was contrasting their

122

BAVEN AND THE GEESE

clumsiness with his ease. After that tactless re-
mark, the four brothers-in-law began to feel en-
vious of Raven.

They stopped one evening on the seashore,
where they feasted upon the berries which were
plentiful there, and then they settled down for
the night and fell asleep. In the morning the
geese were making ready to start without waiting
for breakfast, and Raven's stomach cried out for
more of the berries. But father goose said they
could not wait, and he dared not object to start-
ing. The brothers-in-law had secretly urged the
father not to wait, for they said, " Our sister
needs to have some of the conceit about that
husband of hers taken out of her; and so does
he."

Raven dreaded the long flight across the sea,
for he heard father goose say, " We will make
only one stop in crossing this water. There is an
island in the center of it, and there we will rest
for a short time and then go on to the farther
shore."

Raven was ashamed to say that he feared he
could never reach that farther shore, so he deter-
mined to keep still and risk it; and off they all
flew.

123

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

The geese kept steadily on and on. After a
long time Raven began to fall behind. His wide-
spread wings ached, yet the geese kept steadily
and untiringly on. His vanity was no longer
gratified by admiring remarks from his compan-
ions, for he was flapping heavily along. Some-
times he would glide on outspread pinions for a
time, hoping to ease his tired wings, but he fell
farther and farther behind.

Finally the geese looked back and the brothers
said, sarcastically, " We thought he was light and
active." The father goose said, " He must be
getting tired. We must not press him too hard.
We will rest."

The geese sank upon the water close together,
and Raven came laboring up and dropped upon
their backs, gasping for breath. In a short time
he partially recovered and, putting one hand on
his breast, said, " I have an arrow-head here from
an old war I was in, and it pains me greatly ; that
is the reason I fell behind."

He had his wife put her hand on his breast to
feel the arrow-head which he declared was work-
ing its way into his heart. She could feel noth-
ing but his heart beating like a trip-hammer with
no sign of an arrow-point. But she said nothing,
for her brothers were whispering, " We don't be-

124

BAVEN AND THE GEESE

lieve that story about the arrow-point! How
could he live with an arrow in his heart? "

They rested two or three times more, he sink-
ing upon their backs as before; but when they
saw the far-off shore before them father goose
said, " We can wait for you no more," for they
were eager to reach the land and find food.

They all arose and flew on, Raven slowly flap-
ping along behind, for his wings felt heavy. The
geese kept steadily on toward the shore, while he
sank lower and lower, getting nearer to the
dreaded water. When the waves were almost
touching him he shrieked to his wife :

"Leave me the white stone; it has magical
powers. Throw me the white stone."

Thus he kept crying until suddenly his wings
lost their power and he floated helplessly on the
water as the geese gained the shore. He tried to
rise from the water but his wings seemed to be
weighted down, and he drifted back and forth
along the beach. The waves arose and one white-
cap after another broke over him till he was
soaked, and it was only with the greatest diffi-
culty that he could get his beak above the surface
to breathe a little between the billows.

After a long time a great wave cast him upon
the land, and as it flowed back he dug his claws

125

A TBEASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

into the sand to save himself from being dragged
back into the sea. As soon as he was able he
struggled up the beach, an unhappy looking ob-
ject. The water ran in streams from his soaked
feathers and his wings dragged on the ground.
He fell several times, and at last, with wide-gap-
ing mouth, he reached some bushes. As soon as
he could get his breath he took off his raven coat
and pushed up his beak, becoming a small, dark-
colored man.

" From this time on, forevermore I'm done
with being a goose," he declared.

126

XXXI

NEAR the mouth of the Yukon grows a tall,
slender kind of grass which the women gather and
dry in the fall and use for braiding mats and bas-
kets and for pads in the soles of skin boots.

One of these grass stalks that had been almost
pulled out by the roots when the women were
gathering others, did not like the fate in store
for it.

* Why should I stay on in this shape and never
become anything but a pad in the sole of a boot
to be trodden on forever? It must be nicer to be
the one who treads on the pad ; but since I cannot
be that, I will at least be something better than
grass."

Looking about, it spied a bunch of herbs grow-
ing close by, looking so quiet and unmolested that
the grass stem said, " I will be an herb; that is a
higher and safer life than this."

At once it was changed into an herb like those

127

A TBEASURY OF ESKIMO TALES

it had envied, and for a time it remained in peace.
But one day the women came back with baskets
and picks and began to dig up these herbs and eat
some of the roots, putting others into the baskets
to take home. The changed plant was left stand-
ing when the women went home toward evening,
but it had seen the fate of its companions.

" This is not very safe either, for now I should
be eaten. I wish I had chosen some other form,"
it said.

Looking down, it saw a tiny, creeping vine
clinging close to the ground. ;' That is the thing
to be," it said. " That is so obscure and lowly
that the women will never notice it. I will be a
vine like that."

Without delay it became a little squawberry
vine nestling under the dead leaves. It had not
lived in peace and seclusion very long before the
women came and tore up many of the vines, stop-
ping just before they reached the changeling, and
saying, " We will come back to-morrow and get
the rest."

The one-time grass plant was filled with fear,
and changed itself quickly into a small tuber-
bearing plant like some that were growing near.
Scarcely had the change been made when a small
tundra mouse came softly through the grass and

128

A GEASS PLANT CAK BECOME SOMEONE

began digging at a neighboring plant, holding up
the tuber in its paws and nibbling it, after which
the mouse crept on again.

" To be safe, I must be a mouse," thought the
changeling. ' "Animals are a higher kind of be-
ing than plants, anyway. I will be a mouse."

Instantly it became a mouse and ran off, glad
of the change. Now and then it would pause to
dig up a tuber, or would sit up on its hind feet to
look around on the new scenes that came into
view.

" This is much more delightful than being a
plant and always staying in one place and never
seeing anything of the world," it said.

While traveling nimbly along in this manner,
the mouse observed a strange white animal com-
ing through the air toward it, which kept drop-
ping down upon the ground, and after stopping
to eat something, it would fly on again.

When it came near, the mouse saw that it was
a great white owl. At the same moment the owl
saw the mouse and swooped down upon it. Dart-
ing off, the mouse was fortunate enough to escape
by running into a hole made by one of its kind,
and the owl new off.

After a while the mouse ventured to come out
of its shelter, though its heart still beat painfully

J29

A TEEASUEY OF ESKIMO TALES

from its recent fright. " I will be an owl, and in
that way be safe," thought the mouse, and with
the wish it was changed into a beautiful white
owl.

" Oh, this is fine! " he said. " It is glorious to
fly through the air, and go up almost to the sky
where I can look down on all the world. I'm
glad that I was not content to stay always down
in the dirt."

With slow, noiseless wing flaps the owl set off
toward the north, pausing every now and then to
catch and eat a mouse. After a long flight
Sledge Island came in view and the owl thought
it would go there. When far out at sea its un-
tried wings became so tired that only with the
greatest difficulty did it manage to reach the
shore, where it perched upon a piece of driftwood
that stood up in the sand.

In a short time it saw two fine-looking men pass
along the shore, and the old feeling of discontent
arose again. ' Those men were talking in a bet-
ter-sounding language than mine. They seemed
to understand each other, and they laughed and
were having a good time. I will be a man."

With a single flap of wing it stood upon the
ground, where it changed immediately into a fine
young man. But, of course, the feathers were

130

A GEASS PLANT CAN BECOME SOMEONE

gone and the Man had no clothing. Night came
down upon the earth soon after, and the Man sat
down with his back against the stick of wood on
which, as an owl, he had perched, and slept till
morning. He was awakened by the sun shining
in his eyes, and upon arising, felt stiff and lame
from the cold night air.

He found some of the same grass which he had
once been, and braided it into a kind of mantle
which kept out a little of the cold. Seeing a rein-
deer grazing, he felt a sudden desire to kill it and
eat its flesh. He crept close on his hands and
knees, and, springing forward, seized it by the
horns and broke its neck with a single effort.

He felt all over its body and found that its skin
formed a covering through which he could not
push his fingers. For a long time he tried to
think how to remove the skin, and finally noticed
a stone with a sharp edge with which he managed
to cut through the hide. Then he quickly
stripped the animal with his hands, and tore out
a piece of flesh which he tried to swallow as he had
swallowed mice when he was an owl. He found
that he could not do this easily, so he tore off
small bits and ground them with his teeth.

He had already discovered that by striking two

stones together they grew warm and felt good to

131

A TKEASUBY OP ESKIMO TALES

his cold hands. So now he struck them together
until sparks came with which he lighted some dry
weeds and brush and had a fire to cook his meat
and to warm himself.

The next morning he killed another reindeer
and the day following two more and wrapped
himself in their skins from head to foot, with the
raw side next his own flesh, as the animals had
worn them. The • l;ins soon dried on him and be-
came like a part of his body.

As the nights grew colder and colder, he col-
lected a quantity of driftwood from the shore,
with which he built him a rude hut, which he
found very comfortable. Walking over the hills
one day he came near to a strange, black animal
eating berries from the bushes. He crept up to
it and grasped it by its hind legs. With an an-
gry growl it turned to face him, showing its white
teeth. He knew then that he must not let go his
hold of it, so he swung it high over his head and
brought it down on the ground with such force
that the bear lay dead.

In skinning the bear he saw that it contained
much fat, and that he might have a light in his
house if he could find something that would hold
the grease and yet not take fire itself. Going
along the beach he found a long, flat stone with a

132

hollow in one surface, and in this the oil remained
very well, and with a lighted moss wick he found
it much pleasanter to get about his house at night.
The bearskin he hung up for a curtain to his door
to keep out the cold wind.

In this way he lived for many days, but he was
a human being now, and needed human society.
He remembered the two young men he had seen
on the beach when, as an owl, he sat on the post
on the shore.

" Two men passed here once, and I liked
them," said he. ' They may live not far from
here. I should like to see someone like myself.
I will go seek them."

He went in search of people. Wandering
along the coast for some distance he came to two
fine new kayaks lying at the foot of a hill, and in
the kayaks were spears, lines, floats, and other
hunting implements. After examining these cu-
riously, he noticed a path leading up to a hill.
He followed the path and on the top of the hill he
found a house with two storehouses near it and
several recently killed white whales and many
skulls around it.

Wishing to see the people in the house before
showing himself, he went with noiseless steps into
the entrance way and up to the door. Cautiously

133

A TREASUBY OF ESKIMO TALES

lifting one corner of the skin curtain that hung in
the doorway, he looked in. Opposite the door-
way was a young man sitting at work on some
arrows, while a bow lay beside him. He dropped
the curtain and stood for some time in doubt as
to how to proceed.

" If I enter the house he may shoot me before
I have time to make known my good will,"
thought he. But in the end he thought, " If I
enter and say, ' I have come, brother,' he will not
hurt me." So, raising the curtain quickly, he
entered.

The householder at once seized the bow and
drew an arrow to the head just as the intruder
said, " I have come, brother." At this the bow
and arrow were dropped and the young man
cried out with delight, "Are you my brother?
Come and sit beside me."

This the newcomer very gladly did, and the
householder showed his pleasure and asked, "Are
you really my brother? I am very glad to see
you, brother, for I always believed I had one
somewhere, though I never could find him.
Where have you lived? Have you known any
parents? How did you grow up ?"

" No, I have never known any parents. I
never was born and never grew up. I just found

134

A GRASS PLANT CAN BECOME SOMEONE

a man standing on the seashore. There I
built me a house and made myself as comfortable
as I could; but I was lonely, so I came to find
you."

" I also never had any parents that I can recall.
My earliest recollection was of finding myself
alone in this house, where I have lived ever since,
killing game for food. I was alone until this
friend came to stay with me. Now you, my
brother, shall live here too, and we will never be
parted again."

And thus, by always striving to be something
higher, the downtrodden grass plant became a
MAN.

THE END

135

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

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JAN 21 1991

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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA

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