A TREASURY OF

 ESKIMO TALES

 BY

 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

 COPYRIGHT, 1922, By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY Second Printing

 Printed in the U. S. A. 

[Illustration: HE SUMMONED HIS MASCOT WHICH WAS A HUGE WHITE BEAR]

PREFACE

The Central Eskimo live away up north in that great Americanarchipelago which lies between Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay, and the ArcticOcean; 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, hecould fancy they were "chunks" of the continent which had been brokento pieces by some huge iceberg that bumped into it. 

The land is ice-bound during so much of the year that the inhabitantscannot depend upon getting a living by the cultivation of the soil, and have to subsist almost entirely upon meat which they get fromreindeer, seal, bear, whale, and walrus. 

In summer their clothing is of sealskin and fishskin; and in winter itis of the thicker reindeer hides. Their life is a hard one owing tothe rigorous climate, and they make it harder by their superstitions, for diseases are supposed to be cured by charms and incantations ofthe shaman or priest; and everything in the way of hunting, fishing, cooking, or of clothing themselves must be done in a prescribed way orit is "taboo" or "hoodoo" as the negroes say. When you read "The BabyEskimo" you will see just a tiny bit of the hardships, but I shouldnot 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 firstgroup of tales were told by the Central Eskimo. The second group werederived from the Eskimo living along Bering Strait, to the west; andit is interesting to compare many of these folk tales along similarsubjects. 

The writer is indebted to the Sixth Ethnological Report, issued by theU. S. Government, for many of the legends found in the Central Eskimogroup; and to the Eighteenth Report for many of those from BeringStrait. She wishes to express her thanks for this invaluable andunique material. 

CONTENTS

 CHAPTER PAGE

 _CENTRAL ESKIMO TALES_

 I. THE BABY ESKIMO 1

 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

 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 111

 XXIX. ORIGIN OF THE WINDS 114

 XXX. RAVEN AND THE GEESE 120

 XXXI. EVEN A GRASS PLANT CAN BECOME SOMEONE IF IT TRIES 127

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

I

THE BABY ESKIMO

The little Eskimo away up in the northern part of British America hasa pretty hard time of it, as you may know when you think how cold itis there. 

He is born in a snow hut, and when he is but a few hours old he iscarried on his mother's back out upon the ice, and around and aroundin circles and after a while through deep snow back to the hut. Ifthat does not kill him, the names he gets are enough to do it; for heis given the names of all the people who have died in the villagesince the last baby was born. He sometimes has a string of names longenough to weigh any baby down. Worse than that, if one of hisrelatives dies before he is four years old, that name is added to therest and is the one by which he is called. 

Worse still, if he falls sick he is given a dog's name, so that thegoddess Sedna will look kindly upon him. Then, all his life, he mustwear a dog's harness over his inner jacket. If he should die, hismother must rush out of the house with him at once. If she does not doso, everything in the house must be thrown away or destroyed, just asis done when a grown person dies in a furnished house. 

For a whole year his mother must wear a cap if she steps outside herdoor, and she must carry his boots about with her. After three daysshe goes to his tomb and walks around it three times, going around tothe 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 yearafter his death she must do this again, and she must do the same thingwhenever she happens to pass near the grave. 

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

II

KIVIUNG

An old woman lived with her grandson in a small hut. She had nohusband to take care of her and the boy, and they were very poor. Thelad's clothing was made of the skins of birds which they caught insnares. Whenever the boy came out of the hut to play, the other boyswould call, "Here comes the bird boy! Fly away, birdie!" and the menwould laugh at him and tear his clothes. 

Only one man whose name was Kiv-i-ung, was kind to the boy and triedto protect him from the others, but they would not stop. The lad oftencame to his grandmother crying, and she would console him and promisehim 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 theboy, "I will avenge you on your tormentors. I can do it by making useof my power to conjure. "

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 outof sight, but the next moment he rose near the beach and swam about asa young seal with a wonderfully smooth, shining skin. 

Some one saw him and called out that there was a yearling seal closeto shore. The men all ran to their kayaks eager to secure thebeautiful creature. But the boy-seal swam lustily away as hisgrandmother 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 upbehind the kayaks, where he would splash and dabble in order to lurethem on. As soon as he had attracted their attention and they hadturned to pursue him, he would dive and come up farther out in thesea. The men were so interested in catching him that they did notobserve how they were being led far out into the ocean and out ofsight of the land. 

It was now that the grandmother put forth her powers. Suddenly afierce gale arose; the sea foamed and roared and the waves upset theirfrail vessels and plunged them under the surface. When they weredrowned, the little seal changed back into a boy and walked home overthe water without wetting his feet. There was no one left now totorment him. 

Kiv-i-ung, who had never abused the boy, had gone out with the rest, but his kayak did not capsize. Bravely he strove against the wildwaves, and drifted far away from the place where the others had gonedown. There was a dense fog and he could not tell in which directionto go. 

He rowed for many days not knowing whither he was going, and then oneday 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, andhe saw that what he had supposed to be a rocky cliff on an island wasa 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 heescaped being drawn into the whirlpool and carried down. He put forthall his strength and at last got away where the waves were less likemountains. But he had to be constantly on the alert, for at one momenthis frail craft was carried high up on the crest of billows and thenext it was plunged into a deep trough of the sea. 

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

He went toward it, and after rowing along the coast for some distancehe spied a stone house with a light in it. You may be sure he wasdelighted to come near a human habitation again. He landed and enteredthe house. There was no one in it but one old woman. She received himkindly and helped him to pull off his boots, and she hung his wetstockings 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 thathe could scarcely wait for the supper. It seemed to him that she was along time preparing it. When his stockings were dry he tried to takethem from the frame in order to put them on. But as soon as he touchedthe frame it rose up out of his reach. He tried in vain several times, and each time the frame rose up. He called the woman in and asked herto give him his stockings. 

"Take them yourself, " she said. "There they are; there they are, " andwent out again. 

Kiviung was surprised at the change in her manner. He tried once moreto take hold of his stockings, but with no better result. Calling thewoman 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 getthem, " she replied, and left the room. 

He tried once more, but the frame arose as before and he could notreach it. He knew now that she was a wicked woman, and he suspectedthat the big fire she had made was prepared so she could roast and eathim. 

What should he do? He had seen that she could work magic. He knew thathe could not escape unless he could surpass her in her own arts. Hesummoned his mascot, which was a huge white bear. At once there was alow 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 throughthe floor roaring loudly. Then the old witch rushed in trembling withfear and gave Kiviung what he had asked for. 

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

But Kiviung would not stay any longer with the horrid creature, anddared not wait to put on his stockings and boots. He rushed out of thehouse and had barely gotten out of the door when it clapped violentlytogether, catching the tail of his jacket, which was torn off. Withoutstopping to look behind, he ran to his kayak and paddled away. 

The old woman quickly recovered from her fear and came out swinging aglittering knife which she attempted to throw at him. He was sofrightened that he nearly upset his kayak, but he steadied it andarose 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 whichshe had made by magic out of a thin slab of ice. 

He traveled on for many days, always keeping near the shore. At lasthe came to another hut, and again a lamp was burning inside. Hisclothing was wet and he was hungry, so he landed and went into thehouse. There he found something very strange: a woman living all alonewith her daughter! Yet the daughter was married and they kept theson-in-law in the house. But he was a log of driftwood which they hadfound on the beach. It had four branches like legs and arms. Every dayabout the time of low water they carried it to the beach and when thetide came in, it swam away. When night came it returned with eightlarge seals, two being fastened to each bough. 

Thus the log provided food for its wife, her mother, and Kiviung, andthey lived in abundance. Kiviung became rested and refreshed after hisweary travels, and he enjoyed this life so well that he remained for along time. One day, however, after they had launched the log as theyhad always done, it floated away and never came back. 

Then Kiviung went sealing every day for himself and the women, and hewas so successful that they wished him to remain with them always. Buthe had not forgotten the home he had left long ago, and meant toreturn to it. He was anxious to lay in a good stock of mittens to keephis hands warm on the long journey, and each night he pretended tohave lost the pair he wore, and the women would make him another pairfrom the skin of the seals he brought home. He hid them all in thehood of 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 evercared to be. 

At last he came again to a hut where a lamp was burning, and went toit. But this time he thought it would be well to see who was insidebefore entering. He therefore climbed up to the window and lookedthrough the peep-hole. On the bed sat a woman whose head and whosehands looked like big yellow-and-black spiders. She was sewing; andwhen she saw the dark shadow before the window she at first thought itwas a cloud, but when she looked up and beheld a man, she grasped abig knife and arose, looking very angry. Kiviung waited to see nomore. 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 whichseemed 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 upand waved and shouted to them they came to meet him. They had been ona whaling excursion and were towing a large dead whale to theirvillage. 

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

Kiviung's wife was delighted to see him whom she had supposed dead. Atfirst she seemed glad and then she seemed troubled. She had taken anew husband, but after thinking it over she returned to Kiviung, andthey were very happy. 

III

THE GIANT

In days of old an enormous man lived with other members of the Inuittribe in a village beside a large inlet. He was so tall that he couldstraddle the inlet, and he used to stand that way every morning andwait for the whales to pass beneath him. As soon as one came along heused to scoop it up just as easily as other men scoop up a minnow. Andhe 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 wasspouting off the shore; but he sat idly by his hut. When the men hadharpooned the whale and were having a hard time to hold it and keeptheir boats from capsizing, he rose and strolled down to the shore andscooped the whale and the boats from the water and placed them on thebeach. 

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

"You would better be careful, " said the people, "for a couple of hugebears have been seen near the village. "

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

The bears came, and the people threw the stones and grabbed theirspears. 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. Theyare 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. Hisbody is like that of a man except that his feet are very large andlook like sealskin muffs. His clothing is made of the skins of eiderducks and, as their bellies are white and their backs are black, hisclothes 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 theInuit, for if a kayak upsets and the boatman is drowned, Ka-lo-pa-linggrabs him and puts him into the hood. 

The Inuit say that in olden times there were a great many of thesecreatures, and they often sat in a row along the ice floes, like aflock of penguins. Their numbers have become less and less, till nowthere are but a few left. 

Anyone standing on shore may see them swimming under water veryrapidly, and occasionally they rise to the surface as if to get air. They make a great noise by splashing with their feet and arms as theyswim. In summer they like to come out and bask on the rocks, but inwinter they sit along the edge of the ice or else stay under water. 

They often chase the hunters, so the most courageous of the men try tokill them whenever they can get near enough. When the Kalopaling sitssleeping, the hunter comes up very cautiously and throws a walrusharpoon into him. Then he shuts his eyes tight until the Kalopaling isdead, 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; butthe dogs eat it. 

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

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

At once the door opened and Kalopaling came hobbling in on his clumsyfeet, which were made for swimming and not for walking. The woman putthe boy into the large hood, in which he was completely hidden. Thenthe Kalopaling disappeared as suddenly as he had come. 

By and by the Inuit caught more seals than usual and gave her plentyof meat. Then she was sorry that she had given her grandson away, andwas more than ever sorry that it was to Kalopaling she had given him. She thought how much of the time he must have to stay in the waterwith that strange man-like animal. She wept about it, and begged theInuit 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 seaweed, 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 tidehad broken long cracks not far from the shore. Every day the boy usedto rise out of the water and sit alongside the cracks, playing, andwatching the fish swim down below. 

Kalopaling was afraid someone might carry the boy away, so he fastenedhim to a string of seaweed, the other end of which he kept in hishand. The hunter and his wife watched for the boy to come out, andwhen they saw him they went toward him. But the boy did not want to goback to live with his grandmother, and as they came near he calledout:

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

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

Some time after this the hunter and his wife saw the boy again. Butbefore 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 thewater. 

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

As the lad did not wish to return to his grandmother, he stayed withthe hunter, and as he grew to be a man he learned all that his newfather could teach him, and became the most famous hunter of thetribe. 

V

THE WOMAN MAGICIAN

Long ago, in Aggo, a country where nobody lives nowadays, there weretwo large houses standing far apart. In each of these houses manyfamilies lived together. In the summer the people in the two houseswent in company to hunt deer and had a good time together. When fallcame they returned to their separate houses. The names of the houseswere 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 eachother, "They are not fair; they shoot before we have a chance;" andthey 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, " saidthe others. For the game was packed in snow and ice and was taken homeon dog sledges when the hunting was over. 

When it came time to go home both parties agreed to go on a certainday to the storehouses and pack up the game ready to start early inthe morning. This was the time for which the men of Exaluq had beenwaiting. 

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

Fearing that if the dogs went back to camp without their masters, thewomen and children would guess what had happened, they killed the dogsalso. When they returned, they told the women that their husbands hadseparated from them and had gone off over a hill, and they did notknow what had become of them. 

Now one of the young men had married a girl from Quern, and he went toher house that night as usual, and she received him kindly, for shebelieved 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 wayback, as they had hunted in these parts so long that they knew theland. 

But in the house was the girl's little brother who had seen thehusband come in; and after everybody was asleep he heard the spiritsof the murdered men calling and he recognized their voices. They toldhim what had happened, and asked the boy to kill the young man inrevenge for their deaths. So he crept from under the bed and thrust aknife into the young man's breast. 

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

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

"We must fly from here before the men from Exaluq awaken and learnthat 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 fastenough to escape. "

"I will attend to that, " said the old woman. In her hut was a litterof pups, and as she was a conjurer, she said to them, "Grow up atonce. " She had no fairy wand to wave over them, but she waved a stick, and after waving it once the dogs[1] were half-grown. She waved itagain, saying, "Be full-grown instantly;" and they were. 

They harnessed the dogs at once, and in order to deceive their enemiesthey 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 dressing. 

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

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 helpedthem to get off. They hastily harnessed their own dogs and started inpursuit of the fugitives. 

The women whipped their dogs and journeyed rapidly, but the pursuershad older and tougher animals and were likely to overtake them soon. They became very much frightened, fearing that they would all bekilled in revenge for the death of the young man. 

When the sledge of the men drew near and the women and children sawthat they could not escape, the boy who had slain the man said to theold 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 fingeracross the path of the pursuers, muttering a magic charm as she didso. 

The ice gave a terrific crack, and the water came gushing through thecrevasse. They sped on, and presently she drew another line with herfinger, and another crack opened and the ice between the two cracksbroke up and the floe began to move. 

The men, dashing ahead with all speed, could scarcely stop their dogteam in time to escape falling into the open water. The floe was sowide and so long that it was impossible for them to cross, and thusthe women and children were saved by the art of their conjurer. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The actual statement both here and on page 39 is that the womanand the Man in the Moon beat the pups and the boy with sticks to makethem grow. Is not our birthday beating, "one for each year and one togrow on" a survival of this ancient superstition?

VI

THE BIRD WIFE

Itajung, one of the Inuit tribe, was vexed because a young woman wouldnot marry him, so he left his home and traveled far away into the landof the birds. He came to a small lake in which many geese wereswimming. On the shore he saw a great many boots. He cautiously creptnear and stole a pair and hid them. 

Presently the birds came out of the water, and finding a pair of bootsgone they were alarmed, and quickly forming into two long lines withtheir 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 wantmy boots!"

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

"That I will not do, " she replied. 

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

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

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

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

One day they killed a whale and were busy cutting it up and carryingthe meat and blubber to their homes. Many of the women were helping, but though Itajung was working very hard, his wife stood lazilylooking 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 mynice white clothing. "

She went to the beach and searched for feathers. When she found some, she put them between her fingers and the fingers of her child. Theywere both turned into geese and flew away. When the Inuit saw thisthey 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 thedirection his wife had taken, and went over all the land in search ofher. 

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

As Itajung looked at the man he was frightened almost to death; forthe back of the man was entirely hollow, and Itajung could see rightthrough him and out at the other side. He was so scared that he keptvery still and crept back and away out around him. He wanted to ask ifthe man had seen his wife, for that was what he asked everyone he cameto. So he went around and came from the opposite direction, facing theman. 

When Small Salmon saw him approaching he stopped chopping and asked, "Which way did you approach me?"

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

"That is lucky for you, for if you had come the other way and had seenmy 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 seenmy wife? She left me and came this way. "

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

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

"I will help you, " said Small Salmon kindly. "Come down to the beachwith me. Here is the backbone of a salmon. Now shut your eyes. Thebackbone 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 willupset. "

"I will obey, " said Itajung. 

He closed his eyes, the backbone became a kayak, and away he sped overthe water. He heard no splashing and was anxious to know if he reallywas moving, so he peeped open his eyes a trifle. 

At once the boat began to swing violently, but he quickly shut hiseyes, 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 boyon 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 father is far away and cannotfind 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 isright here. "

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

She did so, and a great quantity of feathers flew out and stuck fastto them. The hut disappeared. The woman, her new husband, and thechild were transformed into geese and flew away, leaving Itajungstanding alone. 

VII

THE SPIRIT OF THE SINGING HOUSE

The singing house of an Eskimo village is used also for feasting anddancing, and always has a spirit owner who is supposed to remain in itall the time. Once a woman was curious about this spirit and wanted tosee it. For a long time she had wanted to know more about this spiritof the singing house, but the villagers warned her that she would meetwith a terrible fate if she persisted in trying to see it. 

One night she could wait no longer, and went into the house when itwas quite dark so the villagers would not see her go. When she hadentered she said:

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

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

"Here I am; there I am, " said a hoarse whisper. 

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

"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 makesure he was there, and when she touched his knees she found that hewas a bandy-legged man with knees bent outward and forward. She kepton asking, "Where are your hips? Where are your shoulders? Where isyour neck?" And each time the voice answered, "Here it is; there itis. "

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. _Ithad no bones and no hair. _

VIII

THE TORNIT

In olden times the Inuit were not the only tribe living in the Eskimocountry. Around Cumberland Sound there lived some very large, strongpeople called the Tornit. They were on good terms with the Inuit andshared the same hunting ground, but lived in separate villages. Theywere much taller than the Inuit and had very long legs and arms, buttheir eyes were not as good. 

They were so strong that they could lift large boulders which were fartoo heavy for the Inuit, though the latter were much stronger in thosedays than they now are. Some of the stones which they used to throware lying about the country still, and the toughest of the men nowliving cannot lift them, much less swing and throw them. Some of theirstone houses also remain. They generally lived in these houses allwinter, and did not cover them with snow to make them warmer. 

The principal part of their winter dress was a long, wide coat ofdeerskins, reaching to the knees and trimmed with leather straps. Theyate walrus, deer, and seal, and when they went sealing in the winterthey fastened the lower edge of their coat to the snow by means ofpegs. Under the coat they carried a small lamp, over which to meltsnow when they were thirsty, and over which to roast some of the sealmeat. 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 theythrew the harpoon, and thus got burned. 

Their strength was so great that they could hold a harpooned walrus aseasily as the Inuit could hold a seal. These weaker men did not liketo play ball with them, for they did not realize how rough they wereand often hurt their playfellows severely. This the playfellows triedto take in good part, and the two lived on friendly terms except forone thing. For some reason the Tornit did not make kayaks forthemselves, although they saw how convenient they were for huntingwhen the ice broke up in the spring. Every little while they wouldsteal a boat from the Inuit, who did not dare fight for theirproperty because the thieves were so much stronger. 

This rankled in the hearts of the Inuit and they would talk amongthemselves and threaten to take vengeance on the robbers. They debatedwhat they should do either to get rid of the Tornit or to make themcease their depredations. This state of affairs had gone on till theInuit were at fever heat, when one day a young Tornit took the boat ofa young Inuit without asking, and in sealing with it, he ran it intosome blocks of floating ice which stove in the bottom. The ownernursed his wrath until night, and then when the thief was asleep heslipped into the tent and thrust his knife into the Tornit's neck. 

The Tornit tribe had been aware of the growing dislike, and when atlast one of the Inuit took revenge, they feared that others might dothe same and in similar secret fashion; so they decided to leave thecountry. In order to deceive their neighbors, they cut off the tailsof their long coats and tied their hair in bunches that stuck outbehind to look like a strange people as they fled. 

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

IX

THE FLIGHT TO THE MOON

A powerful conjurer, who had a bear for his mascot, thought he wouldlike to go to the Moon. He had his hands tied up and a rope fastenedaround his knees and neck. Then he sat down at the rear of his hutwith his back to the lamps and had the light extinguished. 

He called for his mascot, and the bear at once appeared and he mountedits back. Up it carried 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 covered with beautiful white deerskins. Now whitedeer are strange and sacred and are hatched from long white eggsburied deep in the soil. There is mystery and magic in white deer, white buffalo, and in all albino animals. The Man in the Moon driedthese white deerskins and fastened them over his house, which, as Isaid, is the Moon itself. 

On each side of the door to the house was the upper part of anenormous walrus. The beasts were alive, and they threatened to tearthe visitor in pieces. It was very dangerous to try to pass the fierceanimals, but the conjurer told his mascot to growl as loud as itcould, and that startled the walruses for an instant, and in thatinstant the man slipped in. 

It must be chilly in the Moon, for the house had a passageway to keepout the cold, just as the Eskimo houses have. In this passageway was ared-and-white spotted dog, the only dog which the Man in the Moonkeeps. The man went on past this dog and into the inner room. There atthe left he saw a door into another building in which sat a beautifulwoman with a lamp before her. As soon as she saw the stranger she blewon her fire and made it flash up, and she hid behind the blaze; but hehad 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 toshake hands with the visitor and welcome him. Behind the lamps therewas a great heap of venison and seal meat, but the Man in the Moon didnot offer his guest any of it, which is not the way the Eskimo andIndians treat their guests. The Man in the Moon seemed to have adifferent idea of hospitality, for he immediately said:

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

Before long a woman entered carrying an oblong chopping-bowl in whichlay her chopping-knife. She set it down and stooped forward, turningthe bowl as if it were a whirligig. Then she commenced dancing; andwhen she turned her back toward the stranger he saw that she washollow. She had no back, backbone, or insides, but only lungs andheart. 

Her husband presently joined in the dance, and their attitudes andgrimaces were so ludicrous that the stranger could scarcely keep fromlaughing. He did not wish to be impolite, so he kept turning his faceaside and pretending to cough. Fortunately for him, just as he thoughthe would surely explode with laughter, he recalled the warning the manhad given him and rushed out of the house. The Man guessed what wasthe matter 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 keepinghis face straight, so when their performance was ended the Man in theMoon was very friendly to him and showed him all around the house andlet him look into a small building near the entrance. 

In this building there were large herds of deer which seemed to beroaming over vast plains. The Man in the Moon said, "You may chooseone of these for your own, " and as soon as he did so the animal fellthrough 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 hewas 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 theMoon Man. So the conjurer called his mascot and rode down through theair to his hut. 

There his body had lain motionless while his spirit was away, but nowit revived. The cords with which his hands and knees had been bounddropped off, though they had been tied in hard knots. The conjurerfelt quite exhausted from his trip, but when the lamps were lighted hetold his eager neighbors all that he had seen during his flight to theMoon. 

X

WHAT THE MAN IN THE MOON DID

Long ago there was a poor little orphan boy who had no home and no oneto protect him. All the inhabitants of the village neglected andabused him. He was not allowed to sleep in any of the huts, but onefamily permitted him to lie outside in the cold passage among the dogswho were his pillows and his quilt. They gave him no good meat, butflung him bits of tough walrus hide such as they gave to the dogs, andhe 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 asmall piece of iron for a knife. "You must keep it hidden, or the menwill take it from you, " she said. 

He did not grow at all because he had so little food. He remained poorlittle Quadjaq, and led a miserable life. He did not dare even to joinin the play of the boys, for they called him a "poor little shriveledbag of bones, " and were always imposing upon him on account of hisweakness. 

When the people gathered in the singing house he used to lie in thepassage and peep over the threshold. Now and then a man would take himby the nose and lift him into the house and make him carry out a jarof water. It was so large and heavy that he had to take hold of itwith both hands and his teeth. Because he was so often lifted by hisnose, it grew very large, but he remained 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. Heharnessed his dappled dog to his sledge and drove down. When he wasnear 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 hesaid, "I will not come out. Go away. "

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

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

[Illustration: HE LIFTED THE BOWLDER AS IF IT HAD BEEN A PEBBLE]

Then Quadjaq came slowly out, but when he saw who it was he was evenmore frightened than if it had been one of the men standing there. TheMoon Man took him to a place where there were many large boulders andmade him lie across one as if he were to be paddled. Quadjaq wasscared but he did not dare disobey. 

The Man from the Moon took a long, thin ray of moonlight and whippedthe 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 theground, and he had to be whipped again. After the third time he was sostrong 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 evenfrom the Moon give you strength. To-morrow morning I shall send threebears. Then you may show what power you have. "

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

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

In the morning he waited for the bears, and three bears did reallycome, growling and looking so fierce that the men of the village raninto their huts and shut the doors. But Quadjaq put on his boots andran down to the ice where the bears were. The men peering out throughthe window holes said, "Can that be Quadjaq? The bears will soon eatthe foolish fellow. "

But he seized the first one by its hind legs and smashed its head onan 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 villageand let it eat some of his persecutors. 

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

Those that he did not kill ran away never to return. Only a few whohad been kind to him when he was a poor skinny boy were spared. Amongthem, of course, was the girl who had given him the knife, and shebecame his wife. 

XI

THE GUEST

An old hag lived in a house with her grandson. She was a very badwoman who thought of nothing but playing mischief. She was a witch andtried to harm everybody with witchcraft. 

One time a stranger came to visit some friends who lived in a housenear the old woman. The visitor was a fine hunter and went out withhis host every morning and they brought home a great deal of game. Itmade the old woman envious 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 mostpoisonous food she could think of. Then she sent her grandson toinvite the stranger to eat supper at her house. 

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

The boy went to the neighboring hut and said, "Stranger, mygrandmother invites you to come to her hut and have a good feast on asupper that she has cooked. She told me not to say that it is a wolf'sand a man's brains, and I do not say it. "

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

He went to the hut where the old woman pretended to be very glad tosee him. They sat down at the table and while she was placing a largedish 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 hisfront teeth were gone, and every time he poured the spoonful into thebowl. 

When he had finished he said, "It is the custom in my tribe to bringyour hostess a bit of some delicious food to show that you appreciateher hospitality. Here is a bowl of rare food which I give to you, butit will not be good unless you eat it at once. "

He gave the soup to the old witch, and the moment she tasted the brothshe herself had prepared she fell down dead. 

XII

THE ORIGIN OF THE NARWHAL

A long, long time ago a widow lived with her young son and daughter ina small hut. They had a hard time to get enough to eat. But the boywas anxious to do all he could, and while he was still quite small hemade a bow and arrows of walrus tusks which he found under the snow. With these weapons he shot birds for their food. 

He had no snow goggles and one day when the sun shone bright and hewas hunting, he became utterly blind. He had a hard time finding hisway back to the hut and when he got there without any game, his motherwas so disappointed that instead of pitying him for his blindness shebecame angry with him. 

From that time she ill-treated him, never giving him enough to eat. Hewas a growing boy and needed a great deal of food, and she thought hewanted more than his share, so she gave him less, and would not allowher daughter to give him anything. So the boy lived on, halfstarving, and was very unhappy. 

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

"But I cannot see the window and I shall miss the bear. Then it willbe 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 andskinned it and buried the meat in the snow. 

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

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

The sister did not dare to tell her brother. She and her mother livedon the meat for a long time while the boy was nearly starving. Butsometimes when the mother was away, the girl gave him meat, for sheloved her brother dearly and used to weep because she knew he washungry. 

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

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

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

They dove again and remained a longer time. Again when they came upthe 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 theloon. "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 mustcome to the surface and will bring you. "

The third time they remained a long while under water, and when theyrose to the surface the boy could see as well as ever. He thanked theloon 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 theskin of the bear he had shot hanging up to dry. He was so angry thathe tore it down and, entering the hut, demanded of his mother, "Wheredid you get the bearskin that is hanging outside the house?"

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

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

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

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

The boy did not believe her story. He was sure that it was the skinof the bear he had shot. But he said nothing more. His mother wasanxious 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 aspear and a harpoon of the same pattern as they used. Then he watchedthem throw the harpoons, and in a short time he became an experthunter and could catch many white whales. 

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

She agreed. Then he went to hunt white whales. As he had no kayak hestood 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 quieteddown and died. Sometimes his sister went along to help him hold theline. 

One day his mother went to the beach, and he tied the string aroundher body and told her to take a firm footing. She was a trifle nervousfor she had never done the thing before, and she said, "Harpoon asmall dolphin, else I may not be able to hold it, if it is largeenough 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 immediately he threw hisharpoon, taking care to wound but not to kill it, and at the same timepushing his mother into the water. 

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

Whenever she came to the surface to breathe she cried "_Louk! Louk!_"and gradually she became 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 manand a woman who came down from the sky. These two lived on the islandfor a long time, but had no children. 

At last the man took some ivory from a walrus and carved out fiveimages from it. Then he took some wood and carved five more images, and set all of them aside. The next morning the ten images had turnedinto 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 whichcovered all the earth except one very high peak in the middle. Thewater rose up from the sea and covered all the land except the top ofthis mountain, and the only animals that were not drowned were a fewthat went up this mountain. A few people escaped by going into theirboats and living on the fish they caught until the water subsided. 

After the waters lowered, these people went to live upon themountains, and when the land was dry they came down to the coast. Theanimals also came down and eventually the earth was refilled withanimals and people. 

It was during the flood that the waves and currents of water cut theland into hollows and ridges. Then the water ran back into the sealeaving the mountains and valleys as they are today. All the Eskimoalong the northern part of North America have heard their old peopletell of the flood. 

 * * * * *

There are reindeer which came from the sky and which have teeth likedogs. They were once common and anyone could see them, but now onlythe priests can see them. They live on the plains, and have a largehole through the body back of the shoulders. If the people, who cansee them, mistake them for common reindeer and shoot at them, thearrow falls harmless, for no ordinary weapon can kill them. 

The Aurora Borealis is a group of boys playing football. Sometimesthey use the skull of a walrus for the ball. The swaying movement ofthe lights shows that the players are struggling with each other andtugging back and forth. If the Aurora fades away and you utter a lowwhistle, the boys will come back as if answering to applause. 

The Milky Way is the snow that fell from the Raven's snowshoes when hewalked across the sky, during one of his journeys while he wascreating the inhabitants of earth. 

 * * * * *

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

XIV

THE FIRST MAN

In the time before there were any people on earth, a large pea-vinewas growing on the beach, and in the pod of this pea the first man laycoiled up for four days. On the fifth day he stretched out his feetand that bursted the pod. He fell to the ground, where he stood up, afull-grown man. 

He had never seen anything that looked like him, and he did not knowwhat to make of himself. He looked around, and then at himself; thenhe moved his arms and hands and was surprised that he could do it. Hemoved his neck and his legs, and examined himself curiously. 

Looking back, he saw the pod from which he had fallen still hanging tothe vine, with a hole at the lower end out of which he had dropped. Hewent up and looked in through the hole to see if there were any morelike him in the pod. Then he looked about him again, and saw that hewas getting farther away from the place where he started, and thatthe ground seemed very soft and moved up and down under his feet. 

After a while he had an unpleasant feeling in his stomach, and stoopeddown to take water in his mouth from a small pool at his feet. Thewater ran down into his stomach and he felt better. When he looked upagain, he saw a big dark object coming through the air with a wavingmotion. It came on until it was just in front of him when it stoppedand, standing on the ground, looked at him. 

This was a Raven, and as soon as it stopped it raised one of itswings, pushed up its beak like a mask, to the top of its head, andchanged at once into a man. Before he raised his mask, the Raven hadstared at the Man and now he stared more than ever, moving about fromside to side to obtain a better view. At last he said:

"What are you? Where did you come from? I have never seen anythinglike you. "

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

Presently he said, "Walk away a few steps so that I may see you moreclearly. I am astonished at you! I have never before seen anythinglike you. Where did you come from?"

"I came from the pea-pod, " said Man pointing to the plant from whichhe came. 

"Ah!" exclaimed Raven, "I made that vine, but did not know thatanything like you would ever come out of it. Come with me to the highground over there. This ground I made later and it is still soft andthin, but it is harder and thicker over there. " They came to thehigher 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, changing again into a bird, andflew far up into the sky where he disappeared. Man waited where he hadbeen left until the fourth day, when Raven returned, bringing fourberries. Pushing up his mask, Raven became a man again and held outtwo salmonberries and two heathberries. 

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

Man took the berries and placed them in his mouth one after the other, and they satisfied his hunger which had made him feel uncomfortable. Raven then led Man to a small creek near by and left him till he wentto the edge of the water and molded two pieces of clay into the formof a pair of mountain sheep. He held them in his hand till they weredry 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 wavedhis wings four times over the images, when they came to life andbounded away as full-grown mountain sheep. 

Raven then raised his mask and said, "Look! Look quick!" When Man sawthe sheep moving away full of life he cried out with pleasure. Seeinghow 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 highcliffs, " said Raven, "and there only shall they be found, so thateveryone cannot kill them. "

Then Raven made two animals of clay and gave them life when they weredry only in spots; and they remained brown and white, and were thetame 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 ontheir bellies before giving them life; and to this day the belly ofthe wild reindeer is the only white part about it. 

"These animals will be very common and people will kill many of them, "said Raven. 

XV

THE FIRST WOMAN

"You will be very lonely by yourself, " said Raven to Man one day. "Iwill 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, hemade an image very much like Man. He took from the creek some finewater grass and fastened it on the back of the head for hair. Afterthe image had dried in his hands, he waved his wings over it as he haddone with all the live things, and it came to life and stood besideMan, a beautiful young woman. 

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

In those days there were no mountains far or near, and the sun neverceased to shine brightly. No rain ever fell and no winds blew. Whenthey came to the knoll Raven found a patch of long, dry moss andshowed the pair how to make a bed 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 threepairs of fishes: sticklebacks, graylings, and blackfish. When theywere swimming about in the water, he called to Man, "Come and see whatI have made. "

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

"Look at these graylings, " said Raven; "they will be found in clearmountain streams, while the sticklebacks are already on their way tothe sea. Both are good for food; so, whether you live beside the wateror in the upland, you may find plenty to eat. "

He looked about and thought there was nothing on the land as lively asthe fish in the water, so he made the shrew-mice, for he said, "Theywill skip about and enliven the ground and prevent it from lookingdead and barren, even if they are not good for food. "

He kept on for several days making other animals, more fishes, and afew ground birds, for as yet there were no trees for birds to alightin. Every time he made anything he explained to Man what it was andwhat it would do. 

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

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

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

Raven one day went to the creek and made a bear, and gave it life; buthe jumped aside very quickly when the bear stood up and lookedfiercely about. He had thought there ought to be some animal of whichMan would be afraid, and now he was almost afraid of the bear himself. 

"You would better keep away from that animal, " he said. "It is veryfierce and will tear you to pieces if you disturb it. "

He made various kinds of seals, and said to Man, "You are to eat theseand to take their skins for clothing. Cut some of the skins intostrips 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 withclay as Raven had taught them to do, and the next day the little girlwalked about. On the third day she was a full-grown woman, for inthose days people grew up very fast, so that the earth would bepeopled. 

XVI

OTHER MEN

Raven went back to the pea-vine and there he found that three othermen had just fallen from the pod out of which the first one haddropped. These men, like the first, were looking about in wonder notknowing what to make of themselves and the world about them. 

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

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

Then he made three clay images somewhat resembling the men, and wavedhis wings over them and brought them to life, and led each one ofthese 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 showyou how to make houses. "

They brought the drift logs, and he showed them how to lay them up forwalls, and how to make a roof of branches covered with earth. Sealshad now become numerous, and he taught them how to capture them, andwhat use to make of their skins. He helped them to make arrows andspears, and nets to capture deer and fish, and other implements of thechase. He showed them how to make kayaks by stretching green hidesover a framework of ribs, and letting the hides dry. 

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

So he went over to where First Man and his children were living, andtold them all he had done for the three men who had come out of thepea-pod, and how well he had them fixed up. 

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

That night while the people slept he caused birch, spruce, andcottonwood trees to spring up in the low places, and when the peopleawoke in the morning they clapped their hands in delight, for thebirds were singing in the tree-tops and the green leaves with thesunlight flickering through them made it seem like a fairy land. Andthey were delighted with the shade of the trees in which they couldsit and watch the quivering lights and shadows which the fluttering ofthe leaves made. 

Then Raven taught these people how to build houses out of the treesand bushes, and how to make fire with a fire-drill, and to place thespark of tinder in a bunch of dry grass and wave it about until itblazed, and then put dry wood upon it. He showed them how to put astick through their fish and hold it in the fire, till it was athousand times more delicious than when raw. He took willow twigs andstrips of willow bark, and made traps for catching fish; and, best ofall, he taught them to look out for the future, by catching moresalmon than they needed, when salmon were running, and drying them foruse when they could catch none. 

"Now you are pretty well fixed, " he said one day; "it will take yousome time to practice on all the things I have taught you; so I willgo 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 someof the ways they had been taught. They made rather bad work of it, butthe son caught a seal and held it. They tried to kill it with theirhands, but couldn't do it until, finally, the son struck it a hardblow on the head with his fist. Then the father took off the skin withhis hands alone, and tore it into strips which they dried. With thesestrips they set snares for reindeer. 

When they went to look at the snare next morning, they found the cordsbitten in two; for in those days the reindeer had sharp teeth likedogs. They stood looking at the ruined snare for a few minutes, andthen the son said:

"Let us go farther down along the deer trail and dig a pit and set oursnare just at the first edge of the pit, with a heavy stone fastenedin it. Then when the deer puts his head in the snare the stone willfall 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 trailthey found a deer entangled in the snare. Taking it out, they killedand skinned it, carrying the skin home for a bed. 

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

 * * * * *

One day Man went out alone hunting seal along the seashore. There weremany seals out of the water sunning themselves on the rocks. He creptup to them cautiously, but just as he thought he had his hands onthem, one after another slipped into the water. Only one was left onthe rocks. Now you will not wonder at what happened, if you rememberthat, although Man was full-grown, he was still quite young, for hehad become a man so suddenly. Only one seal was left on the rocks, andMan 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, andwater began to run in drops from his eyes and down his face. He put uphis hand and caught some of the drops to look at them and found thatthey were really water. Then, without any wish on his part, loud criesbegan to break from him, and the tears ran down his face as he wenthomeward. 

When his son saw him coming he called to his wife and mother to seeMan coming along making such a strange noise. When he reached themthey were still more surprised to see water running 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 withhim, --and in this way people first learned to cry. 

A while after this the son killed another seal and they made morereindeer snares from its hide. When the deer caught this time wasbrought home, Man told his people to take a splint bone from itsforeleg and to drill a hole in the large end of it. Into this they putstrands of sinew from the deer and sewed skins to keep their bodieswarm when winter came, for Raven had told them to do this; and thefresh skins shaped themselves to their bodies and dried on them. 

Man then showed his son how to make bows and arrows and to tip thearrows with points of horn for killing deer. With these the son shothis first deer, which was easier than snaring them. After he had cutup this deer, he placed its fat upon a bush and then fell asleep. Whenhe awoke he was very angry to find that the mosquitoes had eaten allof it. Until this time mosquitoes had never bitten people; but Manscolded them for what they had done, and said: "Never eat our meatagain; eat men, " and since that day mosquitoes have always bittenpeople. 

Where First Man lived there had now grown a large village, for thepeople did everything as Raven had directed, and as soon as a childwas born it was rubbed with clay and thus grew to its full stature inthree 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 thingsas if they were brothers. After a little Man said, "I understand thatyou have made a land in the sky. "

"Yes, I have a fine land there, " answered Raven. "I made that landwith 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 arrived in a short time, andMan found himself in a beautiful country with a climate much betterthan that on earth; but the people who lived there were very small. When they stood beside Man, their heads reached only to his hips. Asthey walked along, Man looked about and saw many animals that werestrange to him, and noticed that the country was much finer than theone he had left. 

The people living there wore handsome fur garments nicely made andembroidered with ornamental patterns such as people on earth now wear. Man got the patterns, and when he came back to earth he showed hispeople how to make the handsome garments; and the patterns have beenretained ever since. 

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

"This is the first man I made in the sky land, " said Raven, explainingwhy the man seemed so old. 

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

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

"That is the flesh of the spotted reindeer and the sheep that live inthese mountains, " said Raven. "When you have finished your meal wewill go on to see other things that I have made. But you must notattempt to drink from any of the lakes we may pass, for in them areanimals 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 growingvery thickly, and lying on the very tips of the grass was a largeanimal, yet the grass did not bend with the weight. It was astrange-looking animal with a long head and six legs, the two hindones unusually large; the forelegs short; and a small pair under itsbelly. The hair around the feet was very long, but all over the bodythere was fine, thick hair. From the back of the head grew short, thick horns which extended forward and curved back at the tips. Theanimal had small eyes, and was of darkish color, almost black. 

"These animals can sink right into the ground and disappear, " saidRaven. "When the people want to kill one of them, they have to put alog under it so it cannot sink. It takes many people to kill one, forwhen the animal falls on the lower log, other logs must be placedabove it and held down, while two men take large clubs and beat itbetween the eyes till it is dead. "

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

"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 firedown on earth, " said Raven. "I have tried to make some of this samekind of grass on earth, but it will not grow there. 

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

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

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

Raven then left Man lying on one side, where he rested for a longtime. Finally he awoke feeling very tired, but when he tried to turnover, he could not. 

"I wish I could turn over, " he said to himself; and in a moment heturned very easily. 

But as he did this, he was horrified to see that his body had becomecovered 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 inone position. He turned as before and fell asleep again for the thirdtime. When he awoke the fourth time Raven stood beside him. 

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

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

"I do not wish to be a bear, for then I would have to live on the seawhile 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 andlay on one side, while he sat up in his human form, thankful that hedid 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 emptybearskin for a backbone, and after he had waved his wings over it awhite bear arose and walked slowly away; and ever since that timewhite bears have been found on the frozen seas. 

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

"Four times, " answered Man. 

"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 youslept. 

"Here is one like the shrew-mouse of the land; but this one alwayslives on the ice of the sea, and whenever it sees a man it darts athim, entering the toe of his boot and crawling all over him. If theman keeps perfectly quiet, it will leave him unharmed. But if he is acoward, and lifts so much as a finger to brush it away, it instantlyburrows 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, whichwraps 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 iceand running away, it will dart underneath and break the ice under hisfeet. Or if he gets on the shore and runs, it burrows through theearth as easily as it swims through the water. No one can escape ifonce 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 analligator, another with a long scaly tail with which it could kill aman 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 theripples 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 himself standing on the shorenear his home, and was very much astonished to see a large villagewhere he had left only a few huts. His wife had become an old womanand 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 theirgatherings. 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 manyanimals, more than Raven was willing to have killed, lest the animalsbecome too few for the large number of people now on earth. For thisreason, 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 theskyland. The next night he let the reindeer down near one of thevillages and told them to run fast and break down the first house theycame to, and destroy the people in it. 

The reindeer did so and ate up the people with their sharp, wolf-liketeeth; then they returned to the sky. The next night they came downagain and destroyed another house and ate up the people. 

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

"I know what I am going to do, " said the man who lived in the thirdhouse. "They will come to my house the next time, and I'm going tocover 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 offat and sour berries, and ran off shaking their heads so hard thattheir long, sharp teeth fell out. Afterward small teeth, such asreindeer now have, came in their places, and these animals becameharmless. 

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

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

He went away and took the sun, and put it into his skin bag, andcarried 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 hestayed for a long time, keeping the sun carefully hidden in the bag. 

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

So Raven yielded a trifle and held up the sun in one hand _for twodays_ while all the people went hunting; then he put it back anddarkness returned. Another long time would pass and the people wouldmake many offerings before he would let them have light again. Thiswas repeated many times. [2]

In this same sky village with Raven and his parents lived an olderbrother of Raven who thought the punishment of men was being carriedtoo far. This brother felt sorry for the people on earth, but hedidn't say a word about it to anyone. He thought out a plan which hekept to himself. 

After a time he pretended to die, and was put away in a grave box inthe customary manner. As soon as the mourners left his grave, he aroseand went out a short distance from the village, where he hid his ravenmask and coat in a tree. Then he turned himself into a young boy andwent back to his father's house, where he skipped about in a livelymanner, and amused the parents so much that the father at last becamevery fond of him. 

When he had gotten them in the habit of indulging him, he began to cryfor the sun as a plaything. He kept this up until the father went tothe bag and took out the sun and let him have it for a while, beingcareful 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 whilewatching his chance, and when no one was looking, he ran outside, fledto the tree where he put on his raven coat and mask and flew away withit. 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 thebag sometimes. Don't keep us always in the dark, if you mean to keepthe sun for yourself. "

The father went into the house, and the Raven boy flew on to the placewhere the sun belonged, and put the bag down. It was early dawn and hesaw the Milky Way leading far onward, and followed it to a holesurrounded by short grass which glowed with light. He plucked some ofthe grass and, standing close beside the edge of the earth just beforesunrise time, he stuck it into the sky. It has stayed there ever sinceas the beautiful Morning Star. 

Then he went back and tore off the skin covering and put the sun inits place. Remembering that his father had called to him not to keepit always dark, but to make it partly dark and partly light, he causedthe sky to revolve so that it moved around the earth carrying the sunand stars with it, and making day and night. 

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

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

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

"I and some of my people thought we would like a change, and so wecame 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 untilhe went away with Raven, " said the people. 

"I will go into the skyland and find him, " said Raven boy. He tried tofly, but could get up only a little way. He tried several times, getting only a short distance above the ground. When he found that hecould not get back to the sky, he wandered off and finally came towhere there were living the children of the three men who last droppedfrom the pea-vine. There he took a wife and lived for a long timehaving many children, all of whom were Raven people like himself andcould fly over the earth. But they gradually lost their magicalpowers, and were no longer able to turn themselves into men by pushingup their beaks. They became just ordinary ravens like those we see nowon the tundras or marshy plains. 

FOOTNOTES:

[2] This story is probably the Eskimo's explanation of the very longnights in the far north during part of the year. 

XX

THE DWARF PEOPLE

Very long ago, before the white people ever went into the land of theEskimo, there was a large village at Pik-mik-tal-ik. One winter daythe people living there were surprised to see a small man and a smallwoman with a child coming down the river on the ice. The man was solittle that he wore a coat made of a single white fox skin. Thewoman's coat was made from the skins of two white hares; while twomuskrat skins clothed the child. 

The father and mother were about two cubits high, and the boy not overthe length of one's forearm. Though he was so small, the man wasdragging a sled much larger than those used by the villagers, and hehad on it a heavy load of various articles. He seemed surprisinglystrong, and when they came to the shore below the village, he easilydrew the sled up the steep bank, and taking it by the rear end raisedit on the sled frame, a feat which would have required the strength ofseveral of the villagers. 

The couple entered one of the houses and were made welcome. This smallfamily remained in the village for some time, the man taking his placeamong the other men and seeming entirely at home and friendly. He wasvery fond of his little son; but one day when the latter was playingoutside the house, he was bitten so badly by a savage dog that hedied. In his anger the father caught the dog up by the tail and struckit against a post so violently that the dog fell in halves. 

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

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

Before this time, too, they had always cast their dead out on thetundra to be devoured by the dogs and wild beasts; but after they hadseen the dwarf people bury their son in a grave-box with toys placedabout him, they buried their dead in that way and observed four daysof mourning as had been done by the dwarf; for they liked him and hisgentle manners. 

And ever since that time the hunters coming home at dusk and lookingtoward the darkening tundra, sometimes see dwarf people who carry bowsand arrows, but who disappear into the ground if one tries to approachthem. They are harmless people, never attempting to do anyone aninjury. No one has ever spoken to these dwarfs since the time theyleft the village; but deer hunters have often seen their tracks nearthe 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; andthis is the way the Eskimo explain it. 

Very long ago there were many men living in the northland, but therewas no woman among them. Far away in the southland a single woman wasknown to live. At last the shrewdest young man of the northlandstarted and traveled southward 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 menin 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 hasnone. "

Meanwhile, the Headman's son had also set out to journey toward thesouth, and while the husband was talking thus to himself, the sonstood in the entrance to the house and heard what he said. It angeredthe son to hear the husband gloating over him. He hid in the passageand waited until the people inside were asleep, when he crept into thehouse and, seizing the woman by the shoulders, began dragging heraway. 

Just as he reached the doorway he was overtaken by the husband whocaught the woman by her feet. The two held on like grim death andtugged and pulled until it ended in the woman being torn in two. Thethief carried the upper half of the body away, while the husband wasleft 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 womenwere made from the halves of one. 

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

XXII

WHY THE MOON WAXES AND WANES

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

One time, however, she became angry at him, and that night when shecarried food to the other brothers in the kashim or assembly housewhere the men slept, she gave none to the youngest brother. When shewent out of the assembly house she saw a ladder[3] leading up into thesky, with a line hanging down by the side of it. Taking hold of theline, she ascended the ladder, going up into the sky. As she was goingup, the younger brother came out and, seeing her, at once ran back andcalled 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 suchthing, " said they. 

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

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

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

The girl became the sun and the boy became the moon, and ever sincethat time he pursues but never overtakes her. At night the sun sinksin the west, and the moon is seen coming up in the east to go circlingafter, but always too late. The moon, being without food, wanes slowlyaway from starvation until it is quite lost to sight; then the sunreaches out and feeds it from the dish in which she carried food tothe kashim. After the moon is fed and gradually brought to the full, it is permitted to starve again, thus producing the waxing and waningwhich we see every month. 

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Probably the Milky Way. 

XXIII

CHUNKS OF DAYLIGHT

At the northern part of the continent, in the land of the midnightsun, where in the long summer days the sun at midnight is justslipping below the northern horizon and immediately is seen coming upagain, and where in the long nights of winter there is scarcely anydaytime at all, it is not strange that the legends of the people oftentreat of daylight and especially of darkness. The long nights becomeoppressive, and the people have different theories as to the cause ofit, which they weave into legends such as the following. 

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

In a village of the lower Yukon there lived an orphan boy who alwayssat upon the bench with the humble people, over the entrance way ofthe kashim or assembly house. The other people thought he was foolish, and he was despised and ill-treated by everyone. After the shamans hadtried very hard to bring back the sun and moon and had failed, the boybegan to ridicule them. 

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

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

"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, " shereplied. 

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

After a great deal of persuasion the aunt said: "Well, if you wish tofind the light you must take your snowshoes and go far, far to thesouthland, to the place you will know when you get there. "

The boy put on his black coat, took his snowshoes, and at once set offfor the south. For many days he traveled, while the darkness alwaysremained the same. When he had gone a very long way, he saw far aheadof him a single ray of light, and that cheered and encouraged him. 

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

The man was tossing the snow high in air, and each time he did thisthe light was hidden, thus causing the changes from light to darknesswhich the boy had noticed as he approached. Close beside the house hesaw 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 andthe shovel from the man. After a time he walked up to the man andasked, "Why are you throwing up the snow and hiding the light fromour village?"

[Illustration: HE WHIPPED ON HIS MAGIC COAT AND BECAME A RAVEN]

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

"It is so dark at our village that I did not like to live there, so Icame 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 wayinto the underground passage to the house, letting the curtain fall infront of the door as he passed, for he thought the boy was closebehind him. 

The moment the door flap fell behind the man as he entered, the boycaught up the ball of light and put it in the turned-up flap of hisfur coat in front. Catching up the shovel in one hand, he ran away tothe north, running until his feet became tired. Then he whipped on hismagic coat and became a raven and flew as fast as his wings wouldcarry him. Behind he heard the frightful shrieks and cries of the oldman, following fast in pursuit. 

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

"No; you made our village dark and you cannot have the shovel, " calledthe raven, and flew faster, leaving the man far in the rear. 

As the raven boy traveled home, he tore out a chunk from the lightball and threw it away, thus making a day. Then he went on for a longway in the darkness, and threw out another piece of light, making itday again. He continued to do this at intervals until he reached thekashim 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 lightand then dark, making day and night. "

And the shamans could not answer. 

XXIV

THE RED BEAR

On the tundra south of the mouth of the Yukon River an orphan boy oncelived with his aunt. They were all alone with no house within sight;but the boy had heard that there were people living farther up theriver. One summer day he got into his kayak and rowed up the riverhoping to find other human beings. He traveled on until he came to alarge village where he saw many people moving about. There he landedand 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 upinto the village and kept him there all summer, beating andill-treating him very often. In the fall one of the men took pity onhim and made him a kayak, and helped him to escape. He went down theriver and arrived at home after a long absence. 

During the summer other people had built houses near the home of hisaunt and there was a small village instead of the one lone hut. Hewalked among the buildings until he found his aunt's house; but whenhe entered, he frightened her very much, for at first glance shethought 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 thosecruel 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 asmall log. "

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

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

The image did not move. 

She took it out of the water and cried over it, letting her tearsfall upon it; and the warm tears brought it to life and made it feelsorry 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 otherside, where it began to grow, soon becoming a large red bear. Itturned and looked at the woman till she called out, "Go, and spare noone. "

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

Then he swam across the Yukon and went over the tundra to the fartherside of another river, killing everyone he met. For he had become sobloodthirsty that the least sign of life seemed to fill him with furyuntil he had destroyed it. 

From there he turned back, and one day came to the place on the riverwhere he had first come to life. Seeing the people on the oppositeside he became furious, tearing the ground with his claws andgrowling, and starting to cross the river to get at them. When thevillagers saw this, they were much frightened, and ran about saying, "Here is the old woman's dog! We shall all be killed!" "Tell the oldwoman to stop her dog!" They had never seen a bear and they thought itwas a dog she had made. 

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

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

She led the bear into her house, and still holding on to him, shetalked 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 unlesshe tries to hurt or injure you. "

When she had finished talking, she led him to the door and sent himaway over the tundra. Before she made him there had never been any ofhis 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 inthe mountains; but in later years they had all disappeared except onesingle pair which made their home in the mountain top overlooking theYukon near Sabotnisky. The top of this mountain was round and theeagles had hollowed out a great basin on the summit which they usedfor a nest. Around the edge of it was a rocky rim from which theycould see far across the broad river, or could look down upon thevillage 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 passingherd and bring it to their young. Or, again, they would circle outwith a noise like thunder from their shaking wings, and drop down upona fisherman in his kayak on the river, carrying man and boat to thetop of the mountain. There the man would be eaten by the youngthunderbirds, and the kayak would lie bleaching among the bones andother refuse scattered along the border of the nest. Every fall theyoung birds would fly away to the northland, while the old ones wouldremain by the mountain. 

After many fishermen had been carried away by the birds, there came atime when only the most daring would venture upon the river. Onesummer day a brave young hunter was starting out to look at his fishtraps and he said to his wife, "Don't go outside the house while I amaway, for fear of the birds. "

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

The hunter came home and the villagers gathered about with manylamentations. "Oh, pitiful! pitiful! your pretty wife was carried awayby the thunderbirds! Too bad! Too bad! By this time she is torn topieces and fed to the young demons!"

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

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

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

With heart still burning for revenge, the hunter hid himself beside agreat rock near the nest and waited for the parent birds. They came. They saw their young lying dead and bloody in the nest, and theircries of rage echoed from the cliffs on the farther side of the greatriver. They soared up into the air looking for the one who had killedtheir young. Quickly they saw the brave hunter beside the great stone, and the mother bird swooped down upon him, her wings sounding like agale in a spruce forest. Swiftly fitting an arrow to the string, asthe eagle came down the hunter sent it deep into her throat. With ahoarse cry she turned and flew away over the hills far to the north. 

The father bird had been circling overhead and came roaring down uponthe hunter, who, at the right moment, crouched close to the groundbehind the stone, and the eagle's sharp claws struck only the hardrock. As the bird arose, eager to swoop down again, the hunter sprangfrom his shelter and drove two heavy war arrows deep under its wing. Uttering hoarse cries of rage, and spreading his broad wings, thethunderbird floated away like a cloud in the sky, far into thenorthland, and was never seen again. 

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

XXVI

RAVEN MAKES AN OCEAN VOYAGE

One day Raven was sitting on a cliff near the sea when he saw a largewhale passing close along the shore. 

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

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

Raven stood up, pushed up his beak, and looking about, found himselfat the entrance to a fine room, at one end of which burned a lamp. Hewent in and was surprised to see a beautiful young woman sittingthere. The place was clean and dry, the roof being supported by thewhale's spine, while its ribs formed the walls. The lamp was suppliedfrom a tube that extended along the whale's backbone, from which oilconstantly 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 myhouse. "

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

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

She brought food which she served with berries and oil. "These areberries 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 wonderedwhat the tube was that ran along the roof of the house. Whenever thespirit woman left the room she said, "You must on no account touchthat tube, " and that only served to make him the more curious. 

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

This continued for four days, and Raven was nearly dead fromexhaustion and the bruises which he received. Then the room becamestill and the whale was dead, for Raven had torn off part of one ofthe heart vessels. The _inua_ never came back to the room, and thewhale 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 getout of a kayak like this?"

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

And he was right, for two men were walking on top of the dead whaleand calling to their village mates to come and help cut it up. Verysoon there were many people at work cutting a hole through the upperside of the whale's body. 

Raven quickly pulled down his mask, becoming a bird, and crouchedclose in the farthest corner. When the hole was large enough, hewatched his chance and while everybody was carrying a load of meat tothe shore, he flew out and alighted on the top of a hill close bywithout 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 ayoung man again. He started along the shore toward the whale. Thepeople working on the dead animal saw a small, dark-colored man in astrangely made deerskin coat coming toward them, and they looked athim curiously. 

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

He rolled up his sleeves and set to work. Very soon a man cutting onthe inside of the whale's body called out, "Ah, see what I havefound! 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-drillis found in a whale and people try to cut up that whale, many of themwill 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, "Perhapshe is right; we'd better go too. " And away they all ran, each onetrying to rub the oil from his hands as he went. 

From his hiding-place Raven looked on and laughed as he saw the peoplerunning away. Then he went back for his raven coat and when he had putit on and pulled down his beak he flew to the carcass and began to cutit up and fly with chunks of the flesh to a cave on the shore. He didnot 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 themeat. 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. "

XXVII

THE RED SKELETON

In a village on Cape Prince of Wales, very long ago, there was a poororphan boy who had no one to take his part and who was treated badlyby everyone, being made to run here and there at the bidding of allthe villagers. 

One snowy night he was told to go out of the kashim to see if theweather was getting worse. He had no skin boots, and it was so coldthat he did not wish to go, but he was driven out. When he came backhe 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 saying:

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

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

He went out, and came in again quickly, saying in agitation, "The redthing has come nearer and is close to the house. "

The men laughed, but the boy hid himself. Almost immediately afterthis the men in the kashim saw a fiery figure dancing on the gut-skincovering over the roof hole, and an instant after a human skeletoncame crawling into the room through the passageway, creeping on itsknees and elbows. 

When the skeleton was in the room it made a motion toward the peoplewhich caused them all to fall on their knees and elbows in the sameposition as it had. Then, turning about, it crawled out as it hadcome, 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 wasdead and the skeleton had vanished. 

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

They followed the tracks of the skeleton through the snow, and wereled up the side of the mountain till they came to an ancient grave, where the tracks ended. 

It was the grave of the boy's father. 

XXVIII

THE MARMOT AND THE RAVEN

Once when a Raven was flying over some reefs near the shore of thesea, he was seen by some Sea-birds that were perched on the rocks. They began to revile him, calling him disagreeable names: "Oh, youoffal eater! Oh, you carrion eater! Oh, you black one!" until theRaven turned and flew away, crying, "_Gnak, gnak, gnak_! why do theycall me such names?"

He flew far away across the great water until he came to a mountain onthe other side, where he stopped. Just in front of him he saw a marmothole. He said to himself, "If it is a disgrace to eat dead animals Iwill eat only live ones. I will become a murderer. "

He stood in front of the hole watching, and very soon the marmot camehome, 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 acarrion eater, and I will show that I am not, for I will eat you. "

"If you are going to eat me, you ought to be willing to do me afavor, " 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 beautifullyas they say, I shall be willing to die when once I have seen it. Ifyou will dance I will sing, and then you may eat me. "

This pleased Raven so much that he began to dance and Marmot pretendedto 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 muchdelighted with your dancing. Do shut your eyes and dance your bestjust 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, Raven, Raven, what a fool you are!" And with a quick run, Marmot dartedbetween Raven's legs and was safe in his hole. 

There he turned, putting out the tip of his nose and laughingmockingly as he said, "_Chi-kik-kik, chi-kik-kik, chi-kik-kik_! Youare the greatest fool I ever met. What a ridiculous figure you madewhile dancing; I could scarcely sing for laughing. Look at me, and seehow fat I am. Don't you wish you could eat me?"

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

XXIX

ORIGIN OF THE WINDS

In a village on the lower Yukon lived a man and his wife who had nochildren. One day the woman said to her husband, "Far out on thetundra there grows a solitary tree. Go to that and bring back a pieceof the trunk, and make a doll from it. Then it will seem that we havea child. "

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

He sat down in the house and carved out from the wood an image of asmall boy, and his wife made two suits of clothing for it and dressedit in one of them, "saving the other to put on when he had soiled thefirst, " 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 wewere in the first place, " said the man. 

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

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

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

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

They got up at once and, making a light, saw that the Doll had eatenthe food and drunk the water, and that its eyes were moving. The womancaught it up with delight and fondled and played with it for a longtime. When she became tired she put it back on the bench and they wentto bed again. 

In the morning when they got up the Doll was gone. They looked for itall around the house, but could not find it. Then they went outside, and there were its tracks leading away from the door. They followedthe tracks to the creek and along the bank to a place outside thevillage, where they ended; for from this place the Doll had gone upthe Milky Way on the path of light upon which the man had gone to findthe 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. Closebeside him, in the east, he saw a skin cover fastened over a hole inthe sky wall. The skin was bulging inward as if some strong force onthe 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 oneside of the hole. At once a strong wind blew through, every now andthen bringing with it a live reindeer. Looking through the hole, Dollsaw beyond the wall another world like the earth. He drew the coverover 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. "

[Illustration: A GALE SWEPT IN BRINGING REINDEER, TREES AND BUSHES]

Then he got upon the sky wall and walked along till he came to thesoutheast. Here another opening was covered like the first, and thecovering was bulging inward. When he cut this covering loose a galeswept in bringing reindeer, trees, and bushes. He quickly covered thehole and said to the gale, "You are too strong. Sometimes blow hard, sometimes light, and sometimes do not blow at all. The people on earthwill want variety. "

Again walking along the sky wall he came to a hole in the south, andwhen this covering was cut a hot wind came rushing in carrying rainand 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 whichadmitted heavy rainstorms, with sleet and spray from the ocean. Whenhe had closed this and given the wind its instructions he went on tothe northwest. There, when he cut away the covering, a cold blast camerushing in, bringing snow and ice, so that he was chilled to the boneand half frozen, and he made haste to close the hole as he had theothers. 

He started to go along the sky wall to the north, but the cold becamemore and more severe until at last he was obliged to leave the walland make a circuit to the southward, going back to the north only whenhe came opposite the opening. There the cold was so intense that hewaited some time before he could muster courage to cut the cover away. When he did so, a fearful blast rushed in, carrying great masses ofsnow and ice, strewing it over the entire plain of the earth. It wasso bitter that he closed the hole very quickly, and told the wind fromthat direction to come only in the middle of the winter so that thepeople might not be taken unawares, and might be prepared for it. 

From there he hastened down to warmer climes in the middle of theearth plain, where, looking up, he saw that the sky was supported bylong, slender, arching poles, like those of a conical lodge, but madeof some beautiful material unknown to him. Journeying on, he finallycame 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 fosterparents who had made him died, he was taken by other people of thevillage and so lived on for many generations, until he finally died. Since his death parents have made dolls for their children inimitation of the Doll who first opened the wind-holes of the sky andregulated all the six winds of earth. 

XXX

RAVEN AND THE GEESE

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

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

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

"Oh, I shall succeed this time, " thought Raven, and his heart beatfast with hope. But the duck passed on, and Raven stood waiting withbowed head. 

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

As he finished speaking they alighted just beyond him, and he thought, "Surely, now I shall get a wife. " He looked about and found a prettywhite 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 tothe top of his head like a mask, and he became a dark-colored youngman. At the same time each of the geese pushed up its bill in the samemanner, and they became nice-looking people. 

Raven walked toward them, and was much pleased with the looks of thegirl and, going to her, gave her the stone which she hung about herneck. By doing this she showed that she accepted him for her husband. Then they all pulled down their bills, becoming birds again, and flewaway toward the south. 

The geese flapped their wings heavily and worked along slowly, whileRaven on his outspread wings glided along faster than his party, andthe geese gazed after him in admiration, exclaiming, "How light andgraceful he is!" and the little bride was very proud of her finehusband. 

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

"We would better stop early and look for a good place to spend thenight, " he said. The others agreed to this, so they stopped and weresoon asleep. 

Early the next morning the geese were astir, but Raven slept soheavily that the father goose had to shake him and say, "Wake up! Wakeup! We must make haste for it will snow here soon; we must notlinger. "

As soon as Raven was fully awake he pretended to be eager to get away, and, as on the day before, he led all the others with his wide-spreadwings, and was greatly admired by the others, especially by his youngwife. He kept on, above or in front of his companions, and his bridewould often say, "See how gracefully he skims along without having toflop heavy wings as we do, " and she gave her brothers a side glancewhich made them feel that she was contrasting their clumsiness withhis ease. After that tactless remark, the four brothers-in-law beganto feel envious of Raven. 

 * * * * *

They stopped one evening on the seashore, where they feasted upon theberries which were plentiful there, and then they settled down for thenight and fell asleep. In the morning the geese were making ready tostart without waiting for breakfast, and Raven's stomach cried out formore of the berries. But father goose said they could not wait, and hedared not object to starting. The brothers-in-law had secretly urgedthe father not to wait, for they said, "Our sister needs to have someof the conceit about that husband of hers taken out of her; and sodoes he. "

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

Raven was ashamed to say that he feared he could never reach thatfarther shore, so he determined to keep still and risk it; and offthey all flew. 

The geese kept steadily on and on. After a long time Raven began tofall behind. His wide-spread wings ached, yet the geese kept steadilyand untiringly on. His vanity was no longer gratified by admiringremarks from his companions, for he was flapping heavily along. Sometimes he would glide on outspread pinions for a time, hoping toease 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 mustbe getting tired. We must not press him too hard. We will rest. "

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

He had his wife put her hand on his breast to feel the arrow-headwhich he declared was working its way into his heart. She could feelnothing but his heart beating like a trip-hammer with no sign of anarrow-point. But she said nothing, for her brothers were whispering, "We don't believe that story about the arrow-point! How could he livewith an arrow in his heart?"

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

They all arose and flew on, Raven slowly flapping along behind, forhis 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 whitestone. "

Thus he kept crying until suddenly his wings lost their power and hefloated helplessly on the water as the geese gained the shore. Hetried 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 onewhitecap after another broke over him till he was soaked, and it wasonly with the greatest difficulty that he could get his beak above thesurface to breathe a little between the billows. 

After a long time a great wave cast him upon the land, and as itflowed back he dug his claws into the sand to save himself from beingdragged back into the sea. As soon as he was able he struggled up thebeach, an unhappy looking object. The water ran in streams from hissoaked feathers and his wings dragged on the ground. He fell severaltimes, and at last, with wide-gaping mouth, he reached some bushes. Assoon as he could get his breath he took off his raven coat and pushedup his beak, becoming a small, dark-colored man. 

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

XXXI

EVEN A GRASS PLANT CAN BECOME SOMEONE IF IT TRIES

Near the mouth of the Yukon grows a tall, slender kind of grass whichthe women gather and dry in the fall and use for braiding mats andbaskets and for pads in the soles of skin boots. 

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

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

Looking about, it spied a bunch of herbs growing close by, looking soquiet 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 it had envied, and fora time it remained in peace. But one day the women came back withbaskets and picks and began to dig up these herbs and eat some of theroots, putting others into the baskets to take home. The changed plantwas left standing when the women went home toward evening, but it hadseen the fate of its companions. 

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

Looking down, it saw a tiny, creeping vine clinging close to theground. "That is the thing to be, " it said. "That is so obscure andlowly that the women will never notice it. I will be a vine likethat. "

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

The one-time grass plant was filled with fear, and changed itselfquickly into a small tuber-bearing plant like some that were growingnear. Scarcely had the change been made when a small tundra mouse camesoftly through the grass and began digging at a neighboring plant, holding up the tuber in its paws and nibbling it, after which themouse crept on again. 

"To be safe, I must be a mouse, " thought the changeling. "Animals area higher kind of being than plants, anyway. I will be a mouse. "

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

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

While traveling nimbly along in this manner, the mouse observed astrange white animal coming through the air toward it, which keptdropping down upon the ground, and after stopping to eat something, itwould fly on again. 

When it came near, the mouse saw that it was a great white owl. At thesame moment the owl saw the mouse and swooped down upon it. Dartingoff, the mouse was fortunate enough to escape by running into a holemade by one of its kind, and the owl flew off. 

After a while the mouse ventured to come out of its shelter, thoughits heart still beat painfully from its recent fright. "I will be anowl, and in that way be safe, " thought the mouse, and with the wish itwas 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 longflight Sledge Island came in view and the owl thought it would gothere. When far out at sea its untried wings became so tired that onlywith the greatest difficulty did it manage to reach the shore, whereit 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, andthe old feeling of discontent arose again. "Those men were talking ina better-sounding language than mine. They seemed to understand eachother, 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 changedimmediately into a fine young man. But, of course, the feathers weregone and the Man had no clothing. Night came down upon the earth soonafter, and the Man sat down with his back against the stick of wood onwhich, as an owl, he had perched, and slept till morning. He wasawakened by the sun shining in his eyes, and upon arising, felt stiffand lame from the cold night air. 

He found some of the same grass which he had once been, and braided itinto a kind of mantle which kept out a little of the cold. Seeing areindeer grazing, he felt a sudden desire to kill it and eat itsflesh. 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 coveringthrough which he could not push his fingers. For a long time he triedto think how to remove the skin, and finally noticed a stone with asharp edge with which he managed to cut through the hide. Then hequickly stripped the animal with his hands, and tore out a piece offlesh which he tried to swallow as he had swallowed mice when he wasan owl. He found that he could not do this easily, so he tore offsmall bits and ground them with his teeth. 

He had already discovered that by striking two stones together theygrew warm and felt good to his cold hands. So now he struck themtogether until sparks came with which he lighted some dry weeds andbrush and had a fire to cook his meat and to warm himself. 

The next morning he killed another reindeer and the day following twomore and wrapped himself in their skins from head to foot, with theraw side next his own flesh, as the animals had worn them. The skinssoon dried on him and became like a part of his body. 

As the nights grew colder and colder, he collected a quantity ofdriftwood from the shore, with which he built him a rude hut, which hefound very comfortable. Walking over the hills one day he came near toa strange, black animal eating berries from the bushes. He crept up toit and grasped it by its hind legs. With an angry growl it turned toface him, showing its white teeth. He knew then that he must not letgo his hold of it, so he swung it high over his head and brought itdown on the ground with such force that the bear lay dead. 

In skinning the bear he saw that it contained much fat, and that hemight have a light in his house if he could find something that wouldhold the grease and yet not take fire itself. Going along the beach hefound a long, flat stone with a hollow in one surface, and in thisthe oil remained very well, and with a lighted moss wick he found itmuch pleasanter to get about his house at night. The bearskin he hungup 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, andneeded human society. He remembered the two young men he had seen onthe 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 livenot far from here. I should like to see someone like myself. I will goseek them. "

He went in search of people. Wandering along the coast for somedistance he came to two fine new kayaks lying at the foot of a hill, and in the kayaks were spears, lines, floats, and other huntingimplements. After examining these curiously, he noticed a path leadingup to a hill. He followed the path and on the top of the hill he founda house with two storehouses near it and several recently killed whitewhales and many skulls around it. 

Wishing to see the people in the house before showing himself, he wentwith noiseless steps into the entrance way and up to the door. Cautiously lifting one corner of the skin curtain that hung in thedoorway, he looked in. Opposite the doorway was a young man sitting atwork on some arrows, while a bow lay beside him. He dropped thecurtain 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 knownmy good will, " thought he. But in the end he thought, "If I enter andsay, 'I have come, brother, ' he will not hurt me. " So, raising thecurtain quickly, he entered. 

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

This the newcomer very gladly did, and the householder showed hispleasure and asked, "Are you really my brother? I am very glad to seeyou, brother, for I always believed I had one somewhere, though Inever could find him. Where have you lived? Have you known anyparents? How did you grow up?"

"No, I have never known any parents. I never was born and never grewup. I just found myself a man standing on the seashore. There I builtme a house and made myself as comfortable as I could; but I waslonely, so I came to find you. "

"I also never had any parents that I can recall. My earliestrecollection was of finding myself alone in this house, where I havelived ever since, killing game for food. I was alone until this friendcame to stay with me. Now you, my brother, shall live here too, and wewill never be parted again. "

 * * * * *

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

THE END