Long, long ago, when the world was new, there was no daylight in Alaska.
It was dark all the time, and the people in Alaska were living in the
dark, just doing the best they could. They used to quarrel about whether
it was day or night. Half of the people slept while the other half
worked; in fact, no one really knew when it was time to go to bed, or if
in bed when to get up, because it was dark all of the time.
In one village lived a crow. The people liked this crow because they
thought him very wise; in fact he told them so himself; so they let him
live in their kasga.
The crow used to talk a lot too, and tell of all the wonderful things he
had seen and done, when he had spread his wings and flown away on his
long journeys to distant lands.
The people of Alaska had no light but the flame of their seal-oil lamps.
One evening the crow seemed very sad and did not speak at all. The
people wondered what was the matter, and felt sad too because they
missed their lively crow, so they asked him: “Crow, what makes you so
sad?”
“I am sorry for the people of Alaska,” said the crow, “because they have
no daylight.”
“What is daylight?” said they. “What is it like? We have never heard of
daylight.”
“Well,” said the crow, “if you had daylight in Alaska you could go
everywhere and see everything, even animals from far away.”
This seemed very wonderful to them all, and they asked the crow if he
would try to get them that “daylight.”
At first the crow refused all their entreaties. “I know where it is,”
said he, “but it would be too hard for me to get it here.”
Then they all crowded around and begged him to go to the place where
daylight was and bring them some.
Still the crow refused, and said he could not possibly get that light;
but they coaxed him nicely, and the chief said, “O Crow, you are so
clever and so brave, we know you can do that.”
At last the crow said, “Very well, I will go.”
The next day he started on his journey. Of course it was dark, but it
was not stormy, and when he had said goodby to all the people he spread
his wings and flew away toward the East, for the sun comes from the
East.
He flew on and on in the dark, until his wings ached and he was very
tired, but he never stopped.
After many days he began to see a little bit, dimly at first, then more
and more, until the sky was flooded with light.
Perching on the branch of a tree to rest, he looked about him to see if
he could find where the light came from. At last he saw that it was
shining from a big snow house in a village nearby.
Now in that snow house lived the chief of the village, and that chief
had a daughter who was very beautiful. This daughter came out of the
house every day to fetch water from the ice hole in the river; which is
the only way the Eskimos can get fresh water in winter. After she had
come out, the crow slipped off his skin and hid it in the entrance of
the house; then he covered himself with dust, and said some magic words,
which sounded something like this:
“Ya-ka-ty, ta-ka-ty, na-ka-ty-O.
Make me little that I won’t show.
Only a tiny speck of dust,
No one will notice me, I trust.”
Then he hid on a sunbeam in a crack near the door, and waited for the
chief’s daughter.
When she had filled her seal-skin water-bag, she came back from the
river, and the crow, who looked like nothing but a speck of dust
floating on the sunbeam, lighted on her dress and passed with her
through the door into the house where the daylight came from.
[Illustration: “At last he saw that it was shining from a big snow
house”]
Inside, the place was very bright and sunny, and there was a dear little
dark-eyed baby playing on the floor, on the skin of a polar bear which
had recently been killed.
That baby had a lot of little toys, carved out of walrus ivory. There
were tiny dogs and foxes, and little walrus heads, and kayaks (Eskimo
canoes). He kept putting the toys into an ivory box with a cover, then
spilling them out again.
The chief was watching the baby very proudly, but the little one did not
seem satisfied with his toys.
When the chief’s daughter came in she stooped to pick the baby from the
floor, and a little speck of dust drifted from her dress to the baby’s
ear. The dust was the crow, of course.
The baby began to cry and fuss, and the chief said, “What you want?” and
the crow whispered into his ear, “Ask for the daylight to play with.”
The baby asked for the daylight, and the chief told his daughter to give
the baby a small, round daylight to play with.
The woman unwound the rawhide string from his hunting bag and took out a
small wooden chest covered with pictures, which told the story of the
brave things the chief had done. From the chest she took a shining ball,
and gave it to the child.
The baby liked the shining ball, and played with it a long time; but the
crow wanted to get that daylight, so he whispered in the little one’s
ear to ask for a string to tie to his ball. They gave him a string, and
tied the daylight to it for him; then the chief and his daughter went
out, leaving the door open behind them, much to the delight of Crow, who
was waiting for just that chance.
When the little boy got near to the door in his play, the crow whispered
again in his ear, and told him to creep out into the entrance with his
daylight.
The baby did as the crow told him, and as he passed the spot where the
crow’s skin was hidden, the speck of dust slipped out of the child’s
ear, back into the crow’s skin and the crow was himself again. Seizing
the end of the string in his beak, away flew Mr. Crow, leaving the
howling baby on the ground.
The child’s cries brought the chief and his daughter and all the people
of the village rushing to the spot; and they saw the crow flying away
with their precious daylight.
In vain they tried to reach him with their arrows, but he was too
quickly out of sight.
When the crow came near the land of Alaska he thought he would try the
daylight to see how it worked, so when he passed over the first dark
village, he scratched a little bit of the brightness off, and it fell on
the village and lighted it up beautifully. Then every village he came to
he did the same thing, until at last he reached his home village, where
he had started from. Hovering over it, he shattered the daylight into
little bits, and scattered them far and wide.
The people greeted him with shouts of delight. They were so happy they
danced and sang, and prepared a great feast in his honor. They were so
grateful to him they couldn’t thank him enough for bringing that
daylight.
The crow told them that if he had taken the big daylight, it would never
be dark in Alaska, even in winter, but he said that the big daylight
would have been too heavy for him to carry.
The people have always been thankful to the crow since then, and never
try to kill him.