Raven. "When the people want to kill one of them, they have to put a
log under it so it cannot sink. It takes many people to kill one, for
when the animal falls on the lower log, other logs must be placed
above it and held down, while two men take large clubs and beat it
between the eyes till it is dead."
Next they came to a round hole in the sky with a ring of short grass
growing around the border and glowing like fire.
"This is a star called the Moon-dog," said Raven.
"The tops of the grass blades have been cut away or have burned off,"
said Man.
"Yes, my mother took some, and I took the rest to make the first fire
down on earth," said Raven. "I have tried to make some of this same
kind of grass on earth, but it will not grow there.
"Now close your eyes and get upon my wings and I will take you to
another place," said Raven.
Man did as he was told, and they dropped through the flame-bordered
star hole and floated down and down for a long time. They came to
something that seemed denser than the air, and caused them to go more
slowly, until they finally stopped.
"We are now standing on the bottom of the sea," said Raven. "I came
down here to make some new kinds of water animals. Looking through the
water must look like a fog to you, but you must not walk about; you
must lie down, and if you become tired you may turn over upon the
other side."
Raven then left Man lying on one side, where he rested for a long
time. Finally he awoke feeling very tired, but when he tried to turn
over, he could not.
"I wish I could turn over," he said to himself; and in a moment he
turned very easily.
But as he did this, he was horrified to see that his body had become
covered with long, white hairs, and that his fingers had become long,
sharp claws. However, he was so drowsy that he soon fell asleep again.
After a long time he awoke and again felt tired from lying so long in
one position. He turned as before and fell asleep again for the third
time. When he awoke the fourth time Raven stood beside him.
"I have changed you into a white bear," said Raven. "How do you like
it?"
Man tried to answer but could not make a sound. Raven waved his magic
wing over him and then he said:
"I do not wish to be a bear, for then I would have to live on the sea
while my son would live on the shore, and I would be unhappy."
Raven made one stroke of his wings and the bearskin fell from Man and
lay on one side, while he sat up in his human form, thankful that he
did not have to spend the rest of his life as a polar bear.
Then Raven pulled a quill from his tail and put it into the empty
bearskin for a backbone, and after he had waved his wings over it a
white bear arose and walked slowly away; and ever since that time
white bears have been found on the frozen seas.
"How many times did you turn over?" Raven asked.
"Four times," answered Man.
"That was four years. You slept there just four years," said Raven.
"Come now and I will show you some of the animals I made while you
slept.
"Here is one like the shrew-mouse of the land; but this one always
lives on the ice of the sea, and whenever it sees a man it darts at
him, entering the toe of his boot and crawling all over him. If the
man keeps perfectly quiet, it will leave him unharmed. But if he is a
coward, and lifts so much as a finger to brush it away, it instantly
burrows into his flesh going directly to his heart and causing death.
"Here is another, a large leather-skinned animal with four long,
wide-spreading arms. This is a fierce animal, living in the sea, which
wraps its arms around a man or a kayak and pulls them into the water.
If the man tries to escape by getting out of his kayak upon the ice
and running away, it will dart underneath and break the ice under his
feet. Or if he gets on the shore and runs, it burrows through the
earth as easily as it swims through the water. No one can escape if
once it pursues him."
"Why did you make such an animal?" asked Man.
"This is like man's own misdeeds, from which he cannot escape,"
replied Raven.
Raven then showed Man several other animals: one somewhat like an
alligator, another with a long scaly tail with which it could kill a
man at one stroke; some walruses, and otter, and many kinds of fish.
They finally came to a place where the shore rose before them, and the
ripples on the surface of the water could be seen.
"Close your eyes and hold fast to me," said Raven.
As soon as he had done this, Man found himself standing on the shore
near his home, and was very much astonished to see a large village
where he had left only a few huts. His wife had become an old woman
and his son was an old man. The people saw him and welcomed him back,
making him their Headman, and giving him the place of honor in their
gatherings. He told them all he had seen and heard since he left them,
and taught the young men many things about the sea animals.
XIX
TAKING AWAY THE SUN
People were becoming such good hunters that they killed a great many
animals, more than Raven was willing to have killed, lest the animals
become too few for the large number of people now on earth. For this
reason, Raven took a grass basket and tied a long line to it and,
going down to earth, caught ten reindeer which he took up to the
skyland. The next night he let the reindeer down near one of the
villages and told them to run fast and break down the first house they
came to, and destroy the people in it.
The reindeer did so and ate up the people with their sharp, wolf-like
teeth; then they returned to the sky. The next night they came down
again and destroyed another house and ate up the people.
"What shall we do?" cried the people to one another. "They will
destroy all of us if they keep on coming."
"I know what I am going to do," said the man who lived in the third
house. "They will come to my house the next time, and I'm going to
cover it with deer fat and stick sour berries all over in the fat."
When the reindeer came the third night, they got their teeth full of
fat and sour berries, and ran off shaking their heads so hard that
their long, sharp teeth fell out. Afterward small teeth, such as
reindeer now have, came in their places, and these animals became
harmless.
But Raven had not accomplished his purpose, for only two families had
been destroyed, and there were still too many inhabitants left. He
said, "If something isn't done to stop people from killing so many
animals, they will keep on until they have killed everything I have
made. I believe I will take away the sun from them, so that they will
be in the dark and will die."
He took Man up to the sky with him, so that he would be safe from the
trouble to come. Then he said, "You remain here while I go and take
away the sun."
He went away and took the sun, and put it into his skin bag, and
carried it far off to a part of the skyland where his parents lived,
thus making it very dark on earth. There in his father's village he
stayed for a long time, keeping the sun carefully hidden in the bag.
The people on earth were terribly distressed when it remained dark so
long. They prayed to Raven and offered him rich presents of food and
furs, but he wouldn't bring back the sun. They kept on begging him,
saying at last: "We have crept around in the darkness finding our
storehouses and getting the meat, till now it is almost gone, and we
are likely to starve. Let us have light for a little time at least, so
we may get more food."
So Raven yielded a trifle and held up the sun in one hand _for two
days_ while all the people went hunting; then he put it back and
darkness returned. Another long time would pass and the people would
make many offerings before he would let them have light again. This
was repeated many times.[2]
In this same sky village with Raven and his parents lived an older
brother of Raven who thought the punishment of men was being carried
too far. This brother felt sorry for the people on earth, but he
didn't say a word about it to anyone. He thought out a plan which he
kept to himself.
After a time he pretended to die, and was put away in a grave box in
the customary manner. As soon as the mourners left his grave, he arose
and went out a short distance from the village, where he hid his raven
mask and coat in a tree. Then he turned himself into a young boy and
went back to his father's house, where he skipped about in a lively
manner, and amused the parents so much that the father at last became
very fond of him.
When he had gotten them in the habit of indulging him, he began to cry
for the sun as a plaything. He kept this up until the father went to
the bag and took out the sun and let him have it for a while, being
careful to see that it went back into the bag when anyone was coming,
or when the boy was going out of doors.
One day the boy played with it for a time in the house, all the while
watching his chance, and when no one was looking, he ran outside, fled
to the tree where he put on his raven coat and mask and flew away with
it. When he was far up in the sky, he heard his father's voice,
sounding faint and far below, saying:
"Don't hide the sun. If you will not bring it back, let it out of the
bag sometimes. Don't keep us always in the dark, if you mean to keep
the sun for yourself."
The father went into the house, and the Raven boy flew on to the place
where the sun belonged, and put the bag down. It was early dawn and he
saw the Milky Way leading far onward, and followed it to a hole
surrounded by short grass which glowed with light. He plucked some of
the grass and, standing close beside the edge of the earth just before
sunrise time, he stuck it into the sky. It has stayed there ever since
as the beautiful Morning Star.
Then he went back and tore off the skin covering and put the sun in
its place. Remembering that his father had called to him not to keep
it always dark, but to make it partly dark and partly light, he caused
the sky to revolve so that it moved around the earth carrying the sun
and stars with it, and making day and night.
Going down to earth he came to where the first people lived, and said
to them, "Raven, my uncle, was angry because you killed more animals
than you needed, and he took away the sun; but I have put it back and
it will never be changed again."
The people welcomed him warmly when they knew what he had done for
them. As he looked around upon them he recognized the Headman of the
sky-dwarfs.
"Why, what are you doing down here?" he asked.
"I and some of my people thought we would like a change, and so we
came down to live on earth for a while," replied the dwarf.
"What has become of Man?"
"Who is Man? I never heard of him," said Raven boy.
"He was the first person ever seen on earth. He was our Headman until
he went away with Raven," said the people.
"I will go into the skyland and find him," said Raven boy. He tried to
fly, but could get up only a little way. He tried several times,
getting only a short distance above the ground. When he found that he
could not get back to the sky, he wandered off and finally came to
where there were living the children of the three men who last dropped
from the pea-vine. There he took a wife and lived for a long time
having many children, all of whom were Raven people like himself and
could fly over the earth. But they gradually lost their magical
powers, and were no longer able to turn themselves into men by pushing
up their beaks. They became just ordinary ravens like those we see now
on the tundras or marshy plains.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] This story is probably the Eskimo's explanation of the very long
nights 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 the
Eskimo, there was a large village at Pik-mik-tal-ik. One winter day
the people living there were surprised to see a small man and a small
woman with a child coming down the river on the ice. The man was so
little that he wore a coat made of a single white fox skin. The
woman's coat was made from the skins of two white hares; while two
muskrat skins clothed the child.
The father and mother were about two cubits high, and the boy not over
the length of one's forearm. Though he was so small, the man was
dragging a sled much larger than those used by the villagers, and he
had on it a heavy load of various articles. He seemed surprisingly
strong, and when they came to the shore below the village, he easily
drew the sled up the steep bank, and taking it by the rear end raised
it on the sled frame, a feat which would have required the strength of
several of the villagers.
The couple entered one of the houses and were made welcome. This small
family remained in the village for some time, the man taking his place
among the other men and seeming entirely at home and friendly. He was
very fond of his little son; but one day when the latter was playing
outside the house, he was bitten so badly by a savage dog that he
died. In his anger the father caught the dog up by the tail and struck
it against a post so violently that the dog fell in halves.
In his great sorrow, the father made a handsome, carved grave-box for
his son and placed the child with his toys in it. Then he went into
his house and for four days he did no work and would see no one. At
the end of that time he took his sled, and with his wife returned up
the river on their old trail, while the villagers sorrowfully watched
them go, for they had come to like the pair very much.
Before this time the villagers had always made the body of their sleds
from long strips of wood running lengthwise; but after they had seen
the dwarf's sled with many crosspieces, they adopted that model.
Before this time, too, they had always cast their dead out on the
tundra to be devoured by the dogs and wild beasts; but after they had
seen the dwarf people bury their son in a grave-box with toys placed
about him, they buried their dead in that way and observed four days
of mourning as had been done by the dwarf; for they liked him and his
gentle manners.
And ever since that time the hunters coming home at dusk and looking
toward the darkening tundra, sometimes see dwarf people who carry bows
and arrows, but who disappear into the ground if one tries to approach
them. They are harmless people, never attempting to do anyone an
injury. No one has ever spoken to these dwarfs since the time they
left the village; but deer hunters have often seen their tracks near
the foot of the mountains.
XXI
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LONE WOMAN OF ST. MICHAEL
The women south of St. Michael are poor seamstresses but fine dancers,
while those to the north are expert needlewomen but poor dancers; and
this is the way the Eskimo explain it.
Very long ago there were many men living in the northland, but there
was no woman among them. Far away in the southland a single woman was
known to live. At last the shrewdest young man of the northland
started and traveled 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 men
in the north. One day he sat in the house thinking of his former home,
and he said, "Ah, I have a wife, while even the son of the Headman has
none."
Meanwhile, the Headman's son had also set out to journey toward the
south, and while the husband was talking thus to himself, the son
stood in the entrance to the house and heard what he said. It angered
the son to hear the husband gloating over him. He hid in the passage
and waited until the people inside were asleep, when he crept into the
house and, seizing the woman by the shoulders, began dragging her
away.
Just as he reached the doorway he was overtaken by the husband who
caught the woman by her feet. The two held on like grim death and
tugged and pulled until it ended in the woman being torn in two. The
thief carried the upper half of the body away, while the husband was
left with the lower portion of his wife.
Each man set to work to replace the missing parts from carved wood.
After these parts were fitted on they came to life; and thus two women
were made from the halves of one.
Owing to the clumsiness of her wooden fingers, the woman of the south
was a poor needlewoman, but was a fine dancer. The woman of the north
was very expert in needlework, but her wooden legs made her a poor
dancer. Each of these women gave these traits to her daughters, so
that to the present time the same difference is noted between the
women of the north and those of the south, "thus showing that the
story is true."
XXII
WHY THE MOON WAXES AND WANES
In a certain village on the Yukon River there once lived four brothers
and a sister. The sister's companion was the youngest boy, of whom she
was very fond. This boy was lazy and could never be made to work. The
other brothers were great hunters and in the fall they hunted at sea,
for they lived near the shore. As soon as the Bladder feast in
December was over, they went to the mountains and hunted reindeer. The
boy never went with them, but remained at home with his sister, and
they amused each other.
One time, however, she became angry at him, and that night when she
carried food to the other brothers in the kashim or assembly house
where the men slept, she gave none to the youngest brother. When she
went out of the assembly house she saw a ladder[3] leading up into the
sky, with a line hanging down by the side of it. Taking hold of the
line, she ascended the ladder, going up into the sky. As she was going
up, the younger brother came out and, seeing her, at once ran back and
called to his brothers:
"Our sister is climbing the sky! Our sister is climbing the sky!"
"Oh, you lazy youngster, why do you tell us that? She is doing no such
thing," said they.
"Come and see for yourselves! Come, quick!" he cried, very much
excited.
Sure enough! Up she was going at a rapid rate.
The boy caught up his sealskin breeches and, being in a hurry, thrust
one leg into them and then drew a deerskin sock on the other foot as
he ran outside. There he saw the girl far away up in the sky and began
at once to go up the ladder toward her; but she floated away, he
following in turn.
The girl became the sun and the boy became the moon, and ever since
that time he pursues but never overtakes her. At night the sun sinks
in the west, and the moon is seen coming up in the east to go circling
after, but always too late. The moon, being without food, wanes slowly
away from starvation until it is quite lost to sight; then the sun
reaches out and feeds it from the dish in which she carried food to
the kashim. After the moon is fed and gradually brought to the full,
it is permitted to starve again, thus producing the waxing and waning
which we see every month.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Probably the Milky Way.
XXIII
CHUNKS OF DAYLIGHT
At the northern part of the continent, in the land of the midnight
sun, where in the long summer days the sun at midnight is just
slipping below the northern horizon and immediately is seen coming up
again, and where in the long nights of winter there is scarcely any
daytime at all, it is not strange that the legends of the people often
treat of daylight and especially of darkness. The long nights become
oppressive, and the people have different theories as to the cause of
it, which they weave into legends such as the following.
In the days when the earth was a child, there was light from the sun
and moon as there is now. Then the sun and moon were taken away and
the people were left for a long time with no light but the shining of
the stars. The shamans, or priests, made their strongest charms to no
purpose, for the darkness of night continued.
In a village of the lower Yukon there lived an orphan boy who always
sat upon the bench with the humble people, over the entrance way of
the kashim or assembly house. The other people thought he was foolish,
and he was despised and ill-treated by everyone. After the shamans had
tried very hard to bring back the sun and moon and had failed, the boy
began to ridicule them.
"What fine shamans you must be, not to be able to bring back the
light, when even I can do it," he said mockingly.
At this the shamans became very angry and beat him and drove him out
of the kashim. The orphan was like any other boy until he put on a
black coat which he had, when he became a raven and remained in that
form until he removed his coat. When the shamans drove him out, he
went to the house of his aunt in the village and told her what he had
said, and how the shamans had beaten him and driven him out of the
kashim.
"Tell me where the sun and moon have gone, for I am going after them,"
said he.
"They are hidden somewhere, but I don't know where it is," she
replied.
"I am sure you know where they are, for look what a neatly sewed coat
you wear, and you could not see to do that if you did not know where
the light is."
After a great deal of persuasion the aunt said: "Well, if you wish to
find the light you must take your snowshoes and go far, far to the
southland, to the place you will know when you get there."
The boy put on his black coat, took his snowshoes, and at once set off
for the south. For many days he traveled, while the darkness always
remained the same. When he had gone a very long way, he saw far ahead
of him a single ray of light, and that cheered and encouraged him.
As he hurried on, the light showed again plainer than before and then
vanished; and kept appearing and vanishing at intervals. At last he
came to a large hill, one side of which was in a bright light while
the other was in the blackness of night. Ahead of him and close to the
hill he saw a hut with a man who was shoveling snow from the front of
it.
The man was tossing the snow high in air, and each time he did this
the light was hidden, thus causing the changes from light to darkness
which the boy had noticed as he approached. Close beside the house he
saw a great blazing ball of fire--the light he had come to find.
The boy stopped and began to plan how he could secure the light and
the shovel from the man. After a time he walked up to the man and
asked, "Why are you throwing up the snow and hiding the light from
our 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 away
the snow from my door. I am not hiding the light. But who are you, and
where do you come from?"
"It is so dark at our village that I did not like to live there, so I
came here to live with you," said the boy.
"What? Will you stay all the time?" asked the man in surprise.
"Yes," replied the boy.
"That is well; come into the house with me," said the man.
He dropped his shovel on the ground and, stooping down, led the way
into the underground passage to the house, letting the curtain fall in
front of the door as he passed, for he thought the boy was close
behind him.
The moment the door flap fell behind the man as he entered, the boy
caught up the ball of light and put it in the turned-up flap of his
fur coat in front. Catching up the shovel in one hand, he ran away to
the north, running until his feet became tired. Then he whipped on his
magic coat and became a raven and flew as fast as his wings would
carry him. Behind he heard the frightful shrieks and cries of the old
man, following fast in pursuit.
When the old man found that he could not overtake the raven he cried
to him, "Never mind; you may keep the light, but give me my shovel."
"No; you made our village dark and you cannot have the shovel," called
the raven, and flew faster, leaving the man far in the rear.
As the raven boy traveled home, he tore out a chunk from the light
ball and threw it away, thus making a day. Then he went on for a long
way in the darkness, and threw out another piece of light, making it
day again. He continued to do this at intervals until he reached the
kashim in his own village, where he dropped the rest of the ball.
Then he went into the kashim and said, "Now, you worthless shamans,
you see I have brought back the light, and hereafter it will be light
and then dark, making day and night."
And the shamans could not answer.
XXIV
THE RED BEAR
On the tundra south of the mouth of the Yukon River an orphan boy once
lived with his aunt. They were all alone with no house within sight;
but the boy had heard that there were people living farther up the
river. One summer day he got into his kayak and rowed up the river
hoping to find other human beings. He traveled on until he came to a
large village where he saw many people moving about. There he landed
and began calling to the people expecting to make friends with them.