_Central Eskimo_
Once an Eskimo visited the Moon. He put out all the lamps in his
house, and sat down with his back to them, and at once his guardian
spirit carried him through the air.
Moon’s house was not very large. It is white because it is covered
with white deerskins, which Moon always has drying there. On each
side of the entrance is the upper half of a walrus’s body, with very
long teeth. It is very dangerous to pass here, because the teeth try
to bite you. Moon’s dog is dappled red and white. He lives in the
passage, and is the only dog in the moon.
Moon always sits in the outer room, but in an inside room, the
Eskimo saw Sun. She is Moon’s wife. The moment she saw the Eskimo,
she brightened her fire and got behind the glow of it, therefore the
Eskimo could not look at her for the brightness. Moon had great
piles of deer meat lying about, and piled up; yet he did not offer
any to the Eskimo until he and Sun had danced a very strange dance.
There are great plains in Moon Land, and large herds of deer roaming
over them. Moon allowed the Eskimo to choose one animal, which at
once fell through a hole in Moon Land to the earth below. In a large
house were many seals swimming. The Eskimo chose one seal and it at
once fell to the earth and into the ocean.
That is why the Eskimo have deer and seals. If this Eskimo had not
visited Moon, they would not have them.