the woman in the southland. He stood in the passage to the house and
heard the husband talking to himself. So he waited until all the
people were asleep. Then the son of the headsman crept into the house
and began to drag the woman away. He caught her by her shoulders.
Then the husband was awakened. He ran to the passage and caught the
woman by her feet. So the men pulled until they pulled the woman in
two. The son of the headsman carried the upper part of her body to the
north. Then they began to carve wood to make each woman complete. Thus
there were now two women.
The woman in the south was a good dancer; but she could not do fine
needlework in sewing the furs, because her hands were wooden. The
woman in the north was a poor dancer, because her feet were wooden,
but she could sew with fine stitches in the furs. So all the women of
the north are skilful with their hands, and all the women of the south
are good dancers, even to this day. Thus you may know that the tale is
true.
[Illustration: The Yukon, Taken at Midnight in June
_Photograph by C. L. Andrews_]
[Illustration: Islands in Sitka Sound
_Photograph by C. L. Andrews_]
THE FIRST TEARS
_Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)
One day Man hunted for seals along the seashore. Many seals were
there, but as Man crept carefully up to them, they slipped into the
water. At last only one seal was left on the rocks. Man crept up to it
carefully, but just as he was about to catch the seal, it slipped into
the water.
Then Man stood up. His breast was full of a strange feeling. Water
began to drop from his eyes. He put up his hand and caught the drops;
thus he saw that they were really water. Then loud cries came from his
breast and more water came out of his eyes. Now Man's son saw him
coming. He called to his wife that Man was making a strange noise. So
they went down to the seashore. They were surprised to see water
coming out of his eyes. Then Man told them he had tried to catch
seals. He had crept carefully up, but they slipped into the water.
Thus all the seals had escaped. Then water began to come out of the
eyes of the son and his wife. Loud cries came from their breasts. In
this way people first learned to cry. Afterward, Man and his son
killed a seal; then they made snares for more seals from its skin.
ORIGIN OF THE WINDS
_Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)
A long time ago a man and his wife had no children. So one night the
man went out of the house to find a solitary tree that grew on the
tundra. First he saw a long track of bright light, like that made by
the moon shining on the snow. It led across the tundra. So far, far
along the trail of bright light travelled the man until he saw a
beautiful tree, all alone, shining in the bright light. He took out
his hunting knife, cut off part of the trunk, and went home again over
the bright trail.
When the man reached home, he carved a boy doll from the wood and his
wife made fur clothes for it. Then the man carved little wood dishes
from the scraps of wood. The wife set the doll on the bench opposite
the entrance, in the place of honor. She placed before it food and
water.
That night, when all was dark, they heard low whistling sounds. The
woman said, "Do you hear that? It was the doll." When they made a
light, they saw that the doll had eaten the food and drunk the water.
They saw that its eyes moved.
In the morning, the doll was gone. The man and his wife could not find
it, but they saw the tracks of the boy doll leading away from the
door. The tracks followed the direction of the trail of light which
the man had followed the night before. So the man and his wife went
into the house.
But Doll followed the bright path until he came to the edge of day,
where the sky comes down to the earth. There were holes in the sky
wall covered with gut-skin.
In the east, Doll saw the gut-skin cover over the hole in the sky wall
bulging inward. Doll stopped and said, "It is very quiet in here. I
think a little wind will make it better." Doll drew his knife and cut
the cover loose about the edge of the hole. A strong wind blew
through, bringing with it a live reindeer. Looking through the hole,
Doll saw another world, just like the earth. Then he drew the cover
loosely over the hole, and said to East Wind, "Sometimes blow hard,
sometimes lightly. Sometimes do not blow at all."
Doll walked along the sky wall to another opening at the southeast.
The gut-skin cover bulged inward. Then Doll cut the cover loose at the
edges, and a great gale swept in. It brought reindeer, trees, and
bushes. Then Doll fastened the cover lightly and said, "Sometimes
blow hard, sometimes lightly. Sometimes do not blow at all."
[Illustration: Tool and Trinket Boxes
_From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution_]
[Illustration: Spoons and Ladles
_From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution_]
Then Doll came to a hole in the south, and the gut-skin cover bulged
inward. He cut the edges loose and a hot wind rushed in. It brought
rain, and spray from the great salt sea which lay beyond the sky hole
on that side. Then Doll closed the opening lightly and said to South
Wind, "Sometimes blow hard, sometimes lightly. Sometimes do not blow
at all."
Doll walked along the sky wall to the west. There he saw another
opening, covered by gut-skin. So he cut the edges loose, and West Wind
swept in, bringing with him rain, with sleet and spray from the gray
ocean. Then Doll fastened the edges of the gut-skin loosely, and said
to West Wind, "Sometimes blow hard, sometimes lightly. Sometimes do
not blow at all."
So Doll passed along the sky wall to the northwest. When he cut the
edges of the gut-skin covering, a blast of cold wind rushed in,
bringing snow and ice. Doll became cold; he almost froze. Therefore
Doll closed the hole quickly, saying, "Sometimes blow hard, sometimes
lightly. Sometimes do not blow at all."
Again Doll went along the sky wall to the north, but it became so cold
he had to leave it. So he went toward the centre of the earth, away
from the sky wall, until he saw the opening to the north. Then he went
to the hole in the sky wall, but so great was the cold that Doll
feared to cut the strings. He waited. Then he cut the strings quickly.
The terrible North Wind swept in, bringing with him great masses of
snow and ice. North Wind strewed the snow and ice all over the earth
plain. Then Doll closed the hole very quickly, yet he fastened it
loosely. He said to North Wind, "Sometimes blow hard, sometimes
lightly. Sometimes do not blow at all."
Then Doll travelled into the midst of the earth plain. He looked up
and saw the sky arch, resting upon long, slender poles, like a tepee,
but of beautiful blue material. Then Doll went back to the village
where he was made.
ORIGIN OF THE WIND
_Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)
A long time ago, when all were men, there was no wind. Now Bear used
to go about with a bag on his back. The animal people wanted to know
what was in the bag. Many times they asked Bear but he would not tell
them. One day Bear fell asleep with the bag on his back. Then a man
saw him asleep. The man cut the bag and found the wind in it.
Therefore the wind escaped and has never since been caught.
NORTH WIND
_Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)
After Raven left the Land Otters, he came to Taku. There North Wind
lived in a cliff at the mouth of the inlet. Raven stayed there with
him.
Now North Wind is very proud and shines all over with what the Indians
think are icicles. So the Indians never say anything against North
Wind, no matter how long it blows, because the spirits give it power.
Years ago people thought that there were spirits in all the large
cliffs upon the islands and would pray to those cliffs. This was
because Raven once lived in this cliff with North Wind.
[Illustration: Skagway River, from Porcupine Hill]
[Illustration: Middle Lake and Bridge on the '97 Trail
_Copyrighted by C. L. Andrews_]
EAST WIND AND NORTH WIND
_Tlingit_
A high-caste man married first the daughter of East Wind. When he
heard of the pretty daughter of North Wind he married her also. He
took her back to the village where his first wife lived.
Then people said to the daughter of East Wind, "There is a pretty
woman here. Her clothes sparkle all over. They make a tingling noise."
The daughter of East Wind was very jealous. She made the east wind to
blow. It began to grow warm and cloudy. Then the daughter of North
Wind lost all her sparkling clothing. The icicles and the frost melted
away. Then the daughter of North Wind was no longer beautiful.
CREATION OF THE KILLER WHALE
_Tlingit_
A man named Natsayane, belonging to the Seal People, made the killer
whales. He first tried to carve them out of red cedar, then out of the
hemlock, and then out of all other kinds of woods. He took each set of
figures to the beach and tried to make them swim; but they only
floated on the surface. Last of all he tried yellow cedar. Then the
killer whales swam.
Natsayane on one marked white lines from the corners of its mouth back
to its head. He said, "This is going to be the white-mouthed killer
whale."
When Natsayane put them into the water, he said, "Go up into the
inlets. Go up into the head of the bays. Hunt for seal, for halibut,
and for things under the sea. Do not hurt human beings." Before this
people did not know what a killer whale was.
When the Killer whale tribe start north, the Seal People say, "Here
comes another battle. Here come the warriors." They say this because
the killer whales are always after seals. The killer whale which
always swims ahead is the red killer whale, called the "killer whale
spear" because it is long and slender.
FUTURE LIFE
_Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)
After Raven had created people, a man died. Raven came into his house
and saw his wife and children weeping around him. Raven raised with
both hands the blanket of the dead man and held it over his body. So
he brought him back to life.
Now Raven and the man both told the woman there was no death. She
would not believe them. Then Raven said to her, "Lie down and go to
sleep."
When the woman slept she saw a wide trail. There were many people on
it and many fierce animals. Good people had to pass this trail in
order to live again. At the end of the trail there was a broad river,
and a canoe came to her from the other side. When she crossed the
river, people came to her. They said, "You had better go back. We are
not in a good place. We are hungry here and can get no water to drink.
We are cold."
That is why people burn the bodies of the dead and place food in the
fire for them to eat. If they were not burned their spirits would be
cold. That is why food and drink are given to them at the feast of the
dead.
[Illustration: Face of Davidson Glacier]
[Illustration: "The Land of the Dead"--Graveyard at Rasboinsky
_From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution_]
THE LAND OF THE DEAD
_Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)
A young woman on the Lower Yukon died. When she died she went to sleep
for a while. Then some one shook her arm and said, "Get up. Do not
sleep. You are dead." Then she saw she was in her grave box and the
shade of her grandfather was shaking her. Then she went with her
grandfather back to the village, but the country she knew had
disappeared. In its place was a strange village which reached as far
as the eye could see.
As she entered the village, the old man told her to go into one of the
houses. As soon as she entered it, a woman picked up a stick of wood
and raised it to strike her. The woman said, "What do you want here?"
So the young woman ran out, crying to her grandfather. He said, "This
is the village of the dog shades. Now you see how living dogs feel
when beaten by people."
They came to another village. Here she saw a man lying on the ground
with grass growing up through his joints. He could move, but he could
not rise. The grandfather said this shade was punished for pulling up
and chewing grass stems when he was on earth. Then the grandfather
suddenly disappeared.
The girl followed a trail to another village, but she came to a swift
river. This river was made up of the tears of people who on earth weep
for the dead. When the girl saw she could not cross the river, she
began to weep. At once a mass of straw floated down the river to her.
Upon this, as a bridge, she crossed the stream. Before she reached the
village the shades smelled her. They crowded around her, saying, "Who
is she? Where does she come from?" They looked for the totem marks on
her clothing.
Some one said, "Where is she? Where is she?" and her grandfather came
toward her. He led her into a house nearby and there was her
grandmother. The old woman asked her if she were thirsty. The girl
looked about and saw only one water vessel made like those of her own
village. This had in it their own Yukon water. It had been given them
at the festival of the dead by the girl's father. The other tubs had
only the water of the village of the shades. The old woman gave the
girl a piece of deer fat. This, too, had been given at the festival of
the dead. Then the grandmother explained that the guide had been the
grandfather because the last person thought of by a dying person
hurries away to show the road to the new shade. Thoughts are heard in
the land of the shades.
THE GHOST LAND
_Tlingit_
The young wife of a chief's son died and the young man was so
sorrowful he could not sleep. Early one morning he put on his fine
clothes and started off. He walked all day and all night. He went
through the woods a long distance, and then to a valley. The trees
were very thick, but he could hear voices far away. At last he saw
light through the trees and then came to a wide, flat stone on the
edge of a lake.
Now all the time this young man had been walking in the Death Trail.
He saw houses and people on the other side of the lake. He could see
them moving around. So he shouted, "Come over and get me." But they
did not seem to hear him. Upon the lake a little canoe was being
paddled about by one man, and all the shore was grassy. The chief's
son shouted a long while but no one answered him. At last he whispered
to himself, "Why don't they hear me?"
At once a person across the lake said, "Some one is shouting." When he
whispered, they heard him.
[Illustration: Perry Island, Bogosloff Group, Newly Risen from the
Sea]
[Illustration: "The end of the Death Trail"]
The voice said also, "Some one has come up from Dreamland. Go and
bring him over."
When the chief's son reached the other side of the lake, he saw his
wife. He was very happy to see her again. People asked him to sit
down. They gave him something to eat, but his wife said, "Don't eat
that. If you eat that you will never get back." So he did not eat it.
Then his wife said, "You had better not stay here long. Let us go
right away." So they were taken back in the same canoe. It is called
Ghost's Canoe and it is the only one on that lake. They landed at the
broad, flat rock where the chief's son had stood calling. It is called
Ghost's Rock, and is at the very end of the Death Trail. Then they
started down the trail, through the valley and through the thick
woods. The second night they reached the chief's house.
The chief's son told his wife to stay outside. He went in and said to
his father, "I have brought my wife back."
The chief said, "Why don't you bring her in?"
The chief laid down a nice mat with fur robes on it for the young
wife. The young man went out to get his wife, but when he came in,
with her, they could see only him. When he came very close, they saw a
deep shadow following him. When his wife sat down and they put a
marten skin robe around her, it hung about the shadow just as if a
person were sitting there. When she ate, they saw only the spoon
moving up and down, but not the shadow of her hands. It looked very
strange to them.
Afterward the chief's son died and the ghosts of both of them went
back to Ghost Land.
THE SKY COUNTRY
_Tlingit_
Long ago, a man's wife was stolen from him. He cared for her so much
he thought he would follow her. So he began to walk. He thought he was
walking along the beach, but he was following a wide trail through the
woods. He walked on for a long time with his head bent down, until he
saw smoke ahead. When he came near he saw a woman tanning a skin. He
showed her a necklace he had made. He said, "I will give you this
string if you will tell me where my wife is."
The woman said, "She is over at the next camp."
So he at last reached his wife and stayed there a long time.
Now the people of this village wanted to kill him. They kindled a fire
and began to drag him to it. He said, "Oh, how glad I am! I want to
die." Then they stopped and began to drag him toward the water. The
man said he was afraid of water, so they threw him in. He came up in
the middle of the lake.
People said, "See him. He is looking at us."
The man laughed. He said, "The water is just where I like to be." He
said this because he was a good swimmer and there was much rain in his
country. He stayed in the water all the time he remained in that
country.
Now all this while the man and his wife had really been in the sky.
Now they wanted to get down. They started back to the house of a
certain woman. She was the spider. The house was her web. The woman
put them into a web and began to lower them to the earth. Before they
started, the woman said, "If you get caught on anything, jerk backward
and forward until the web comes loose." She thought they might get
caught on the edges of the clouds. So the man and his wife reached the
earth safely and the web was drawn up into the sky.
THE LOST LIGHT
_Eskimo_ (_Port Clarence_)
Once upon a time, all the people were together in a singing house.
While they were dancing the sun disappeared. No one knew where it had
gone. Because it was so dark, people could not go hunting and soon
their provisions were exhausted. Then they told the women to mend
their clothing carefully and to make as many boots as possible. These
they put into bags. Then the people set out to search for the sun.
They followed the seacoast. They travelled so far they wore out their
boots, so they put on new boots from their bags. Yet it was dark all
the time.
After many days they came to a country where were many, many seals and
walrus and deer. The language of the people was different from their
own. After a while they learned to talk it a little. They asked these
people where to find the sun.
These people said that the sun was far off. Before they came to the
sun's country they would come to five places. This was the first
place. But in the fourth place beyond there lived a woman who kept
both the sun and moon in her house.
So they went on. It was very cold and they ran as fast as they could
because it was so cold. Then their food gave out. But they reached a
country where there was plenty to eat. Here the people spoke a strange
language. After a while they learned to talk it a little. These people
told them that at the third place they reached they would find a woman
who kept the sun and moon in her house.
The people ran on. They ran because it was so very cold. Then when
their food was gone, they reached another country where there was
plenty of food. The language of the people was different from their
own. But after a while they learned to understand it a little. These
people said that at the second place which they would reach lived a
woman named Itudluqpiaq who had both sun and moon in her house, but it
was doubtful if they would be able to get them.
Then they went on again. They had to run as fast as they could to keep
warm. It was very cold. When their food was almost gone, they reached
the country of the dwarfs. It was a country with plenty of food,
walrus and seal and deer. The dwarfs tried to run away when they saw
the large men coming. But the people caught them. The dwarfs said that
at the next place lived the woman Itudluqpiaq who had both sun and
moon.
[Illustration: Walrus Tusks
_Photograph by B. B. Dobbs_]
[Illustration: A Shaman
_Copyrighted by Case and Draper_]
As the people ran on from the country of the dwarfs, they found ice
and driftwood in their way. They kicked it all aside. At that time the
people were very strong and able to lift heavy stones.
After they had run a long way, they saw a singing house. When they
came near, they went very slowly because they were afraid. At last one
of the men tied his jacket around his waist and his trousers around
his knees. Then he crept cautiously through the entrance and put his
head through the door at the bottom of the floor. He saw a young
woman, Itudluqpiaq, sitting in the middle of the house toward the
rear. Her father was sitting in the middle of the house on the
right-hand side and her mother on the left-hand side. At the back of
the house, in the right-hand corner on the rafter, hung a large ball;
in the left-hand corner a small ball.
The man whispered, "Itudluqpiaq, we came to ask you for some light."
The mother said, "Give them the small ball."
The man refused the small ball. He asked for the large one. Then
Itudluqpiaq took it down and gave it a kick. It fell right into the
entrance hole.
The people took the ball and ran outside. Then they tore the ball to
pieces and the daylight came out of it.
It was not so warm at once, but it grew warmer day after day. If they
had taken the small ball it would have been light, but it would have
remained cold. The small ball was the moon.
THE CHIEF IN THE MOON
_Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)
Far away in the moon lives a great chief and shamans with strong magic
visit him there. A long time ago a shaman went to visit the great
chief. He flew like a bird up as high as the sky because of his magic.
The sky was a land just like the earth, only the grass was long, and
grew downward toward the earth. And the grass was filled with snow.
When the wind blows up in the sky it rustles the long grass stems,
hanging downward, and loosens the snow. When the wind blows the snow
loose in the sky, it falls down upon the earth from the long grass
stems, and men call it a snowstorm.
Up in the sky, among the grass, are many small, round lakes. At night
these shine and men call them stars.
But the Malemut tribes say that the north wind is the breath of a
giant. When he builds a snow house and the snow flies from his shovel,
then there is a snowstorm upon earth.
THE BOY IN THE MOON
_Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)
Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a village on the great river,
lived four brothers and a sister. There was also a small boy who was a
great friend of his sister. The brothers were hunters and in the fall
hunted at sea, but after the Bladder-feast was over they went to the
mountains and hunted reindeer. But the boy was lazy.
Now the boy fell in love with the girl. One day the girl took up a
dish of meat and berries and went out of the house. There she saw a
ladder leading up into the sky, with a line hanging down by the side
of it. Taking hold of the line, the girl climbed the ladder going up
into the sky. Then her brothers saw her and began at once to scold the
boy.
The boy caught up his sealskin trousers. Being in a hurry, he thrust
his right leg into them and drew a deerskin sock upon the other foot
as he ran outside the house. There he saw the girl, far, far up in the
sky, and he began to climb the ladder to her. But the girl floated far
away, the boy following her.
[Illustration: Box Canyon on White Pass and Yukon Route]
[Illustration: Near Valdez Narrows]
Now the girl became the sun and the boy the moon. Ever he pursues her
but never overtakes her. When the sun sinks in the west, the moon
rises in the east, but always too late. The moon has no food, and
sometimes almost fades away. Then the sun reaches out the dish of meat
and berries and the moon becomes fat again.
THE BOY IN THE MOON
_Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)
Long ago, in the days of Raven, there was a great famine. No one in
the village had anything to eat. Then a boy dreamed that they would
kill many caribou. Then the hunters began to find caribou and to kill
them. The boy said when they killed all the caribou that the leader of
the herd must be given to him. The boy's uncle gave him caribou, but
not the leader, because he did not believe the boy dreamed what he
said. Then the boy cried two nights because he did not get the right
caribou.
The next morning the boy was gone. Now this boy wore trousers of
marten skin. When they searched for him, they found only the left leg
of his trousers on a pole in the smoke hole. So they knew the boy had
gone away through the smoke hole.
The boy went up into the moon. He was seen there the next night. His
father and mother knew it was the boy because the right leg was larger
than the left. The left leg had no trousers because it had been caught
in the smoke hole.
THE METEOR (?)
_Tsetsaut_