# Journal of American Folk-Lore/Volume 12/Issue 46/Tales of the Smith Sound Eskimo

TALES OF THE SMITH SOUND ESKIMO.
The following tales were collected during the winter of 1897–98 from the Smith Sound Eskimo then in New York city, in the charge of the American Museum of Natural History. They are as far as possible a literal translation of the original texts. But as the Eskimo tell their tales in very abridged form, it has been necessary to add occasional connecting and explanatory matter secured through an interpreter. Since the value of these tales is chiefly for comparison, notes have been added, though no detailed comparisons have been attempted. The chief works referred to are: for Greenland (and Labrador), H. Rink, "Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo," a selection and translation from the same author's Danish "Eskimoiske Eventyr og Sagn;" for East Greenland (Angmagsalik), Holm, "Sagn og Forttaellinger fra Angmagsalik;" for Baffin Land and the Central Eskimo generally, F. Boas, "The Central Eskimo," in the Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology; for Labrador (Ungava Bay), L. M. Turner, "Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory," in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Other works referred to are cited by their full titles.
I. THE TUTUATUIN.
In the house a child was awake, while the old people slept. He stayed awake, playing with seal knuckle-bones. A Tutuatuin came to the window and called to him from the outside:—
"Come out, human being, we will play; come out through the door."
His father said:—
"Put on my boots and my trousers, and your mother's jacket, and go." He then put on his father's boots and trousers and his mother's jacket. He went out, and the Tutuatuin brought him into his own house underground. The Tutuatuin said:—
"Whose boots are those?"
"My father's boots."
"Whose trousers?" the Tutuatuin asked.
"My father's."
"Whose jacket are you wearing?"
"I am wearing my mother's jacket."
"Go out, go away!"
The boy went out.
II. INUKPAN.
Inukpan, also called Inukpakssua, was a very large man, who did not really exist, but whom stories tell about. It is said that he was so large that people could stand on his big toe, and walk about on it, and that the flat skin-thong of his boot-string could be used as a kayak-covering by ordinary men. It is also said that, seeing several bears, he called them only foxes, and, picking them up between his fingers, crushed them dead. At one time, when he was out in his kayak, he saw five kayakers some distance away. He went after them, soon reached them, and then scooped up all five, kayaks and all, in the hollow of his hand. He took them to his house, which was enormously large, and put them over the lamp. Then, however, he fell asleep, and the men climbed down, went out, and ran home before he awoke.
III. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A TUNEQ.
A tuneq married an old woman. After he had married her, they walked away and entered his house. The tuneq then went away to the sea, and soon returned, carrying a ground-seal on his back. This they cut up and lived upon, until they had eaten it all. Then they went away until they came to a house where there were a number of people. They entered this, went to bed, and slept. Next day the tuneq went away. Thereupon a number of sea-gulls came to the house and went in. The people caught them, picked their feathers, cut them in pieces, put them in a pot over the fire, and ate them.
IV. THE TORNIT AND THE ADLIT.
Among some savage and murderous adlit, who were even cannibals, were two tornit, who were in consequence much afraid. One night, when his companions had all gone to sleep, one of them got up and went out. Then he prepared a sledge and harnessed the dogs, and softly called his companion, the other tornit. Then they cut the thongs that held the crossbars to the runners of the other sledges, and, getting on their own sledge, started off. Just then, however, the dogs barked, and the adlit, awakened by the noise, came out of ​the house. They immediately prepared to pursue, but when they started, their sledges of course broke down, and the tornit escaped.
V. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A DOG.
Near the head of Qangirdluxssuang Bay (on Inglefield Gulf) lived a man and his daughter. The girl, however, refused to marry any one. Finally, when she refused suitor after suitor, her father grew angry and threatened to make her marry a dog. She warned him that if he said this often she might take him at his word. Indeed, one of the dogs just then broke his line and came into the house. She soon married him. When she grew pregnant her father and the other people drove her away, and the dog carried her across the water to an island, named Qemiunaarving, off the mouth of the bay. The dog used to bring her food from her father, floating it over by means of a skin of a ground-seal, which was prepared like an ordinary seal-skin float. One day the father, desiring to kill him, filled the skin with stones and tied it to him, hoping thus to drown him. But the dog was so strong that he kept on swimming in spite of the stones (which would have drawn down any other being), and finally, although he almost sank, reached the island in safety.
The woman gave birth to a great many children, both persons and dogs. When they were somewhat older, she one day ordered them to kill their father, the dog, which they did, devouring him. Then she called her children in pairs, a male and a female together. "You two be qablunat (Europeans), and go away from here, and dress in clean clothes, and do not inspire fear." "You two be nakassungnaitut, and be savage, and also go away," she said to the next two. "You two be wolves," she went on to another pair; "do not pursue ​people nor frighten dogs, and go away." "And you two be tornit," she said, "and go away from here; but you shall have no dogs, and shall fear them, but you shall not make people afraid." "And you be inugaudligat," she added to the last pair. Thus she sent them all away. The qablunat sailed away in the sole of a boot. And then she went back to live with her father.
Another version relates that the father wanted his daughter to marry the dog. She, however, was unwilling, and in order to escape fled to the island. The dog pursued her, however, and married her. Her father, pitying her, brought her food in his kayak. After sending off her children, she finally starved on the island.
VI. THE ORIGIN OF THE NARWHAL.
There was a blind boy (or young man) who lived with his mother and sister. They went to a place where there was no one and lived alone. One day, when they were in their tent, a bear came up to it. Though the boy was blind he had a bow, and the woman aimed it at the bear for him. The arrow struck the bear and killed it. The mother, however, deceived her son and told him he had missed it. She cut it up and then cooked it. The young man now smelled the bear-meat, and asked his mother whether it was not bear he was smelling. She, however, told him he was mistaken. Then she and her daughter ate it, but she would give him nothing. His sister, however, put half her food in her dress secretly, to give him later. When her mother asked her why she was eating so much (noticing that she seemed to eat an unusual quantity), the girl answered that she was hungry. Later, when her mother was away, she gave the meat to her brother. In this way he discovered that his mother had deceived him. Then he wished for another chance to kill something, when he might not be thus deceived by his mother.
One day, when he was out of doors, a large loon came down to him and told him to sit on its head. The loon then flew with him toward its nest, and finally brought him to it, on a large cliff. After they had reached this, it began to fly again, and took him to a pond [the ocean?]. The loon then dived with him, in order to make him recover his eyesight. It would dive and ask him whether he was smothering; when he answered that he was, it took him above the surface to regain his breath. Thus they dived, until the blind boy ​could see again His eyesight was now very strong; he could see as far as the loon, and could even see where his mother was, and what she was doing. Then he returned. When he came back, his mother was afraid, and tried to excuse herself, and treated him with much consideration.
One day he went narwhal-hunting, using his mother to hold the line. "Spear a small narwhal," his mother said, for she feared a large one would drag her into the water by the line fastened around her. He speared a small one, and she pulled it ashore. Then they ate its blubber. The next time two appeared together, a small white whale and a large narwhal. "Spear the small one again," she told him. But he speared the large one, and when it began to pull, he let go the line, so that his mother was dragged along, and forced to run, and pulled into the water. "My knife," she cried, in order to cut the rope. She kept calling for her knife, but he did not throw it to her, and she was drawn away and drowned. She became a narwhal herself, her hair, which she wore twisted to a point, becoming the tusk.
After this, the man who had recovered his sight, and his sister, went away. Finally they came to a house. The brother was thirsty, and wanted water. He asked his sister for some, telling her to go to the house for it. She went up to it, but was at first afraid to go in. "Come in, come in!" cried the people inside, who were murderous adlit. When she entered, they seized her and ate her. She had stayed away a long time, and finally her brother went to look for her. He entered the house, but could not find her. An old man there, after having eaten of her, tried to say he did not have her, and did not know where she was. The brother, however, kept stabbing the inmates of the house with a tusk he had, trying to make them confess, but vainly, and finally killed them. Then her brother put her bones together and went away, carrying them on his back. Then the flesh grew on the bones again, and soon she spoke, "Let me get up!" But he said to her, "Don't get up!" At last she got up, however. Then they saw a great many people, and soon reached them. By this time his sister had quite recovered; she ate, and went into a house. She married there, and soon had a child. Her brother also married.
VII. THE MAN WHO MARRIED A GOOSE.
A man who was walking, once upon a time, came to a pond, where there were a number of geese. These geese had taken off ​their garments and had become women, and were now swimming in the pond. The man came up to them without being seen, and seized their feather-garments. He gave them all back but two, whereupon the women put them on and flew away. Finally he gave one of the two remaining ones hers, whereupon she also flew off. The last woman, however, he kept with him, took to his house, and married. Soon she became pregnant and gave birth to two children.
One day, when her husband had gone away, she found some wings, which she took into the house, and hid behind the skin-coverings of the walls. When her husband again went away, she put these on herself and her two children, whereupon they turned to geese and flew away. When the husband returned, they were already far away. However, he decided to follow them, and set out. He walked along the beach, where the tide was low, and kept travelling in this manner a long time. Finally he came to a large pot (Qolifsiuxssuang), where it was hot, and he had (cooked) codfish to eat. He stepped over this, and went on his way once more. Then he came to a large man, named Oayungayung, or Qayungayuqssuaq, who was chopping with an axe, making seals and walruses. He threw the chipped pieces into the water, saying to them, "Be a qajuvaq," and they would be hooded seals, or "Be an uxssung," and they would be ground-seals. Qayungayuq then offered to take him to his wife. He took him into his boat, but told him to keep his eyes closed, and they started off. Soon the husband heard voices of people, and was preparing to look, when Qayungayuq forbade him. This happened several times until they reached the shore.
Meanwhile the two children had seen their father coming, and had gone indoors to inform their mother. She, however, said that they were mistaken, for they had gone entirely too far for him ever to come. The children then told her to come out and look for herself, but she was so certain that she did not even do this. Soon the children came in again, saying that their father was coming, and again she refused to believe them or to look. Then the man himself entered, and now she quickly feigned to be dead. Her husband took her up, carried her away, and buried her, covering her with ​stones. Then he went back and sat down, pulling his hood down as a sign of mourning. Meanwhile his wife arose again, and began walking about the tent in which her husband was. Then he took his spear and killed her. Thereupon a great many geese came, which he also killed, but two (the two boys?) went away.
The following is added to one version: Irqayudlung had a daughter. Some people went to get her, but she did not want to marry, and ran away. She stumbled, however, and fell, and became a great many auks and gulls.
VIII. QAUTIPALUNG.
There was a woman named Qautipalung, who had an unmarried daughter. One day some people came in a boat to get this daughter to be wife to one of them. But when the girl saw the suitor, she said to her mother, "He is much too old; don't let him have me!" When the man heard that his suit was rejected, he said that he would go away, but that the girl would be turned to stone. Qautipalung now was frightened and asked him to stay, but he refused and went on his way. "The boat is going away," Qautipalung said to her daughter, and the girl made herself ready to go out-doors. When she got out-doors the boat was already some distance away, and she began to run after it over the land to catch up with it. But as she ran her feet turned to stone, so that she fell down on her face, and the rest of her body turned to earth. As she fell, the bag she had in her hand was spilled, and the contents, falling out, turned into small auks, that flew away, crying tuu, tuu, tuu.
IX. THE ORIGIN OF THE BEAR.
A sealskin fat-bag became a bear, when there were no bears at all.
X. THE ORIGIN OF THE SNOW-BUNTING AND THE PTARMIGAN.
The snow-bunting and the partridge were once persons. Then they turned into birds, flying from the land, and crying.
XI. NAULAXSSAQTON.
A seal-hunter was watching for a seal at its blow-hole near Igluluaxssuin. He was not far from the land, and on shore some children were playing at a cliff, in a large crack in the rocks. The seal-hunter, fearing their noise would frighten his seal, said to them, "Make less noise." They, however, did not hear him, and con​tinued. Then he called out, "Close on them, you up there," and the cleft closed up, imprisoning the children. The people tried to chop through the rock, to get at the children, but could not rescue them, nor even make a hole large enough to pass food down. They did, however, succeed in making a small hole, through which they heard the children crying for water. They poured water down through this opening until the children starved to death. The place is still to be seen in Akpalearqssuk, though the hole is now altogether closed up.
The fathers of the dead children then said of the hunter, "We will kill him." They prepared and made ready, putting on their boots, and left, going after him with dogs and sleighs. The hunter fled, running on foot, they pursuing him. As he ran he gradually rose from the ground, and finally reached the sky, where he was turned into a star. This is the star Naulaxssaqton.
XII. THE PLEIADES.
A number of dogs were pursuing a bear on the ice. The bear gradually rose up into the air, as did the dogs, until they reached the sky. Then they were turned into stars. The bear became a larger star in the centre of a group. The constellation (the Pleiades) is called "nanuq," "bear."
XIII. THE RAVEN.
1. A raven flew above a person, carrying something in his bill. "What have you in your bill, raven?" the person asked. "A man's thigh-bone," the raven answered. "I eat it because I like it. I am going to swallow it."
2. A man, who was an angakoq, went visiting. He entered the raven's house. The raven at once began to give orders to his son. He said: "Go out and get excrements." His son went out and soon returned, bringing a large excrement. The raven told the man to eat of the excrement. The raven said, "Eat!" But the man did not eat of the excrement. The gull said to him: "Come over here to me." The man came and went in its house. The gull went out and brought back trout. The man began to eat the trout. He ate them up. Then he left the house, went away, and arrived home.
3. A small snowbird was crying because she had lost her husband. While she was crying, the raven, who had no wife, came ​along. When the raven reached her he said, "Why are you crying?" "I am crying for my husband, because he has been away so long a time," said the snowbird. "My husband went out to look for food for me, and has not come back." The raven told her that her husband was dead; that he had been sitting on a rock, when this became loosened and fell through the ice, and that he had fallen with it. "I will marry you," he said. "You can sleep here under my armpit. Take me for a husband; I have a pretty bill; I have a pretty chin; I have good enough nostrils and eyes; my wings are good and large, and so are my whiskers." But the little snowbird said, "I don't want you for my husband." Then the raven went away, because the snowbird did not want to marry him.
After a while the raven, who was still without a wife, came to some geese who had become persons. The geese were just going away. The raven said, "I too, I who have no wife, I am going." The geese, because they were about to leave, now became birds again. One of them said, "It is very far away that we are going. You had better not go with us," meaning the raven. "Don't come with us." The raven said, "I am not afraid to go. When I am tired, I shall sleep by whirling up." Then they started, the raven going with them. They flew a great distance (having now become birds), passing over a large expanse of water, where there was no land to be seen. Finally, when the geese wanted to sleep, they settled and swam on the water, and there they went to sleep. The raven also grew very tired, and wanted to sleep, but of course could not swim. So he whirled upwards towards the sky. But as soon as he went to sleep, he began to drop from up there. When he fell into the water he woke up and said, "Get together, so that I can climb on your backs and go to sleep there." The geese did as he told them, and he was soon asleep on their backs. Then one of the geese said, "He is not light at all. Let us shake him off, because he is so heavy." Then they shook him off their backs into the water. "Get together," cried the raven. But they did not do so, and thus the raven was drowned.
4. The hawk was busy marking the raven with spots. Meanwhile a man was coming from behind towards them, so that they did not see him (especially as they were absorbed in their occupation). The man came nearer. (An obscure passage follows.) Suddenly the hawk was startled, and spilled the soot over the raven, so that the latter became black, while the raven bespattered him, so that he became marked with small spots.
XIV. TERIENIAQ.
A man named Niviuk (butterfly?) was looking for his wife, Terieniaq (fox). Finally he found her. A qogluvissin, a huge worm, had her and would not release her. The man went into its house, and grappled with it, wrestling. The qogluvissin said, "Who is it that is scorching me? who is burning me?" The man was bending and folding it, threw it down, and burnt it, thus killing it.
XV. THE GULL.
High up on a cliff lived a large gull. Once he saw an unmarried girl come cut of a house. "Will you not be my husband a little," said the girl, who was still wearing a child's hood. The gull flew down, and, picking her up by the tip of her hood with his bill, carried her to his habitation to be his wife far up on the cliff. But then the gull went away to get something to eat for his wife. He flew far away over the sea to get whale-meat. When he was gone, the girl let herself down from the cliff by a rope, and ran home. The gull, coming back, saw her, but was too late to catch her, and in his grief flew about, crying, kotiuk. Thereupon a man came out from the house, and shot him, hitting him under the wing.
This (or another?) girl is also said to have been swallowed by a narwhal, but to have been puffed out again by it.
XVI. THE UINGNIAQSSUQSSUIN.
Once upon a time the uingniaqssuqssuin (swordfish?) entered a bay where there was a walrus and cut off his flippers. The walrus struck him on the head with his tusks, and then the swordfish swam off. They are called "Having knives" (ssavilingaptaon).
XVII. THE BLACK BEAR.
Two brothers left their home, going far away over the sea. Finally they reached land again. Here they saw an agli (black bear), a large animal living in a hole in the ground, and having no claws from digging, but possessing large teeth. They threw stones at him but missed him, and he retreated into his cavern. The brothers entered the cavern, and one of them thrust his spear down the agli's throat into his vitals. His young ones jumped at the men and bit at them like dogs, and they came out again, leaving the spear ​in the agli, from which wound he soon died. The two brothers now separated. One went ptarmigan-hunting, and was lost, but the other finally reached his home again. When his mother saw him return (whom she believed dead), she defecated from amazement and surprise.
XVIII. THE AGLIRTOQ WOMAN AND THE BEAR.
A woman ran away from men. She came to a snow-house, owned by a bear. The bear was inside, but had changed himself to a man. This woman, who was aglirtoq (under restrictions), went into the house. After a while the bear, who was also in the snow-house (but whom she had not seen, as the house was a double one), got up and went into the entrance passage, where he put on his big skin and thus became a bear. Then he went down to the water and dived. He stayed under a long time, but finally reappeared, carrying a seal in his mouth. This bear then skinned it, and brought the seal into the house. Then he cut up the seal he had caught, and gave that aglirtoq woman some of the skin [fat?] to eat. She gave her children some of the skin and then went away, going home. When she arrived, she told her story: "There is a bear who has a snow-house. I went in. He caught a seal and I ate of his catch. He gave me its skin to eat."
XIX. QIGEXSSUUNG.
In a house was sleeping Qigexssuung (an evil old woman); in another near by, a woman with a child, which she was still carrying in her hood. Into this house came Qigexssuung. The woman woke up, and, seeing her, hurried out and away, leaving her child. Qigexssuung thereupon cut off the child's head and ate some. Later she ate the rest, too.
XX. THE BEAR.
A woman had a bear for a child. At first it was small, but soon it grew very large. It used to go out and hunt seals and bring them home, thus providing for her.
One day, however, he was hunted. First the dogs caught him, and then the men came up and speared him and thus killed him. When his mother heard this she began to cry, and cried until she was turned to stone. She can be seen even now at Ita.
XXI. KIVIUNG.
1. A woman put a boy on the water, and he floated away, sinking and rising. Each time that he came up he looked more like a ground-seal, until the people who were looking for him could not distinguish him from one. His name was Uxssung (ground-seal). The men pursued him in their kayaks, but he caused them all to drown. He saved only one, who had been good to him, whose name was Kiviuk. Kiviuk came to a far distant land, where he met two women, with whom he stayed. A large man tried to shoot him with his bow, but was unable to.
2. Kiviung was going far away, paddling in his kayak. He was following a woman who was travelling on the ice. Far away Kiviung followed her, because he was an angakoq and knew everything. Finally, far away at Tinussaving, he caught and cut up many narwhals. Then Kiviung, still paddling after her, at last caught up with her. Then he cohabited with her. Then Kiviung went back to his wife, going in his kayak. When he reached her, Kiviung said: "There! Where is it? I see her in Tinussaving. There she lives and cuts up many narwhals, and lives on them."
XXII. IGIMĀSSUXSSUQ.
Igimāssuxssuq, or Igimarassuxssuq, was a very large man, who lived at Qangaxssut (Cape Parry), and killed and ate people. His wife became afraid, and weeping ran away to Akpan (Saunders Island). He followed her, going over the ice, until he also reached the house. "Let me come into the house," he said. The door of the house was small, and Igimassuxssuq was a large man, but at last he managed to squeeze into the house. [When the people asked him where those were whom he had eaten] he said, "Some one else has eaten them." Then his wife tied his hands with thongs, and the people said: "Let his wife stab him with a knife." Then his wife stabbed and killed him.
It is also said that another man later strangled her, and slashed her open in front.
XXIII. QAUAXSAQSSUQ.
Oauaxsaqssuq was a boy that was maltreated by all. In the daytime his mother hid him in the beds, but at night she had to take him out. Then he slept either in the doorway or on the roof, over the lamp-hole, in order to get at least a little warmth. He was generally lifted and carried by the nostrils, the crooked fingers being inserted in them. He always remained small, but his feet grew very large. He was a great angakoq (shaman), and was very strong. Finally he grew tired of the bad treatment he received, and showed his strength, after which, though he never killed any one, he was much dreaded and feared.
Once he was indoors, lying on the bed without any boots on, when a man arrived inquiring for him. "Qauaxsaqssuq has gone into the house over there, and is inside," he was told. Then the man called to Qauaxsaqssuq from outdoors, "Qauaxsaqssuq! Three large bears have come over from the land, and are now on the ice. Come out!" "Yes," said Qauaxsaqssuq, and hastened to dress and put on his boots. Then he came out and saw the three bears. Holding only a knife in his hand, he ran after them. He had no dogs to harry the bears and bring them to bay, but he soon caught up with them. He first seized the old one and twisted off its head, so that it was immediately dead. Then he took the cubs and knocked their heads together, and twisted their necks until they were dead. Then he took them up, the old one on one side, the cubs on the other, and carried them home. He brought the three bears to the assembled people, who proceeded to cut them up, put them in pots, cook them, and eat them.
Qauaxsaqssuq was immensely strong, and what was heavy for others was very light for him. In spite of his small size, he could easily lift the largest rocks. He had enemies, who however were afraid to do anything against him openly. So once, when he went away to Qavanganiq, where he had a kayak, they secretly cut a hole in the skin-covering of his kayak. When Qauaxsaqssuq got into his boat, and out into the water, the boat began to fill with water, and thus it was that Oauaxsaqssuq drowned.
XXIV. THE TORTURED GIRL.
A poor family had a daughter who did not want to marry. In another family, better provided with meat than hers, were two young men, suitors for her. When she refused them, her parents grew angry. They hung her from her feet until they supposed she was ​dead. When the body was dry, they hung it in a cave. The two brothers went to look for the body, and at last found her still alive. When the girl saw them coming she sang:—
Tartuka issialugi tingoga nuyaralugi omatiga nakturalugo. My kidneys are my eyes, My liver is my hair, My heart is my belly.
The brothers then put her body on a skin blanket and carried it out.
XXV. AKSSAIT IQOXIE (HE CUT OFF HER FINGERS).
They were all sleeping in the house, when she began to eat her father and mother. Her parents awoke, and went out of the house. The people now all ran away, and entered an umiak (large skin-boat). Her father, however, went to the house for a knife, and brought his daughter down to the water. Because she had not wanted to marry, he cut off her fingers when they were in the boat. The fingers became the various kinds of seals (except Phoca barbata), and walruses, and narwhals.
XXVI. THE SUN AND THE MOON.
The sun and moon were sister and brother. He loved her incestously. She cut off her breast, saying to him, "Tangmarma mamalunga" ("I who altogether taste good," or "Enjoy the taste of all of me"). Then she fled and he pursued. Both carried torches. He stumbled and fell, his torch being extinguished. They gradually ​rose from the ground until they reached the sky. They now live in the sky, in a double house having but one entrance (qarearing). In one house lives Aningāna or Aningān, the moon, with his wife Akoq, or Aqong; in the other, Serxineq, the sun. In front of the house stands Aningān's sledge, piled full of seal-skins. He has a number of large spotted dogs, with which he often drives down to the earth.
XXVII. ANINGAN.
1. A girl lived with her grandmother. One day, Aningāna, the moon-man, came down, importuning her to allow him to cohabit with her. She first asked her grandmother for permission, who granted it. Then she went out with Aningāna. When they came in again, they found there was nothing to eat. Aningāna, however, did not go out to get food, but said, "For the cohabitation I shall cause to present themselves to you a great number of foxes." Having said this, he went away, while the grandmother and grandchild remained in the house. Soon a fox entered the house of his own account, and then another, and still another; and a fourth came into the house, and a fifth, and a great many, so many, in fact, that the house was crowded, and the old woman almost smothered. Thereupon the women said, "Sh!" thus driving out part of the foxes. The rest they killed and ate. The foxes thereafter did not come in again.
2. Aningān drove down to earth and brought back a woman, whom he put into his house. He cut or stabbed the soles of her feet, so that she could not leave him. Aqong (his wife) desired Aningān, and panted, "āx, āx." He, however, did not desire her, and threw her away from him toward the window (that is, off the bed). He forbade the woman he had brought to look into another house. She, however, disobeyed him, and in consequence the side of her face was burnt. She looked down from the sky, and saw a poor little boy in ragged clothes wandering about, unable to find his mother, and she wept to see him.
XXVIII. IRDLIRVIRISISSONG.
Irdlirvirisissong has a house in the sky, and sometimes visits her cousin, Aningān. Her nose is turned up on the sides, and she carries a plate called qengmerping for her dogs, of whom she has a number. She waits for people who die, so that when they come she can feed her dogs on their intestines. She dances about, saying, "Qimitiaka nexessaqtaqpaka" ("I look for food for my dear dogs"). If ​the people laugh, she cuts them open, and gives their entrails to the dogs. Otherwise they are spared. Aningān warns the people not to laugh. When an angakok comes up to visit Aningān, he turns his head aside so that his laughter may not be seen. If he begins to laugh, Aqoq says, "Qongujukpouq" ("He laughs"). Irdlirvirisissong goes driving with her dogs.
XXIX. QALUTALING.
Qalútaling is a woman who lives at the bottom of the sea. She says, "Psh, psh, psh!" (the "sh" being pronounced through one corner of the mouth and being drawn out). She can be heard but not seen by men. She is also known as "Amautiling" (having a hood), and can carry men in her hood.
XXX. FRAGMENTS.
1. A woman who was beaten by her hubsand ran away into the wilderness. A large tuneq found her. When he felt sleepy, she went away. On the great ice-cap she saw an old woman, and, following her tracks, went in her house. Then she went home (?). When she got back, her husband said, "Why do you come in now, when I am no longer looking for you?" Thereupon she speared him, and, when he ran away, followed him and speared him in the stomach, so that he died. After she had thus killed her husband, she herself was killed by the people.
2. Talitaxssuang, an evil man, stabbed a person while asleep. He entered the house, killed the person, and pulled him out by the legs.
3. A little boy, named Aninang, had been killed by his mother. One night, when every one was asleep, he came back from the grave. Slowly he crept on, then suddenly jumped upon his father and mother and began eating them. The rest of the people ran away horror-stricken, on a cake of ice, and paddled away on it. Later a man accidentally came to the house in which the boy was, and, finding what had occurred, killed him with a knife.
4. An old man was sitting outdoors half asleep, when a large bear came up and ate him. A woman who saw this occurrence called her brother, who, though only a boy, seized a spear and speared the bear through both eyes, thus dispatching him.
5. A little boy who had neither father nor mother, Qituaxssung ​by name, was playing with a number of other boys. Suddenly he sank into the rock, but the others ran away and escaped. "My spear!" he cried, "where is it?" The people tried to spear him, but did not succeed. They also tried to tip over the stone, but only succeeded in making it rock. Finally the boy died inside. (The latter part of this story is very obscure, owing to a number of unidentifiable words.)
6. Imī′ne had two wives, but was a very poor hunter. He used to go out hunting with four other men, but though they got walrus, he never did. His wives twitted him about this, until one day he returned from the hunt, saying he had killed a walrus. They rejoiced exceedingly, but when he brought his booty, it was only a gull, and a small one at that. He had fooled them.
A. L. Kroeber.
* ↑ In another version, mother and father are interchanged.
* ↑ All that I could learn about the Tutuatuin was that he was a fabulous being with tangled hair.
* ↑ The same tale is found among the central tribes (Boas, p. 636). The Greenlanders also tell of Inugpait, giants that live across the sea (Rink, T. and T. p. 47). See, also, Rink, p. 430.
* ↑ A frequent element in Greenland tales. Cf. Rink, T. and T. p. 217.
* ↑ In Greenland, Avarunguak visits a giant who catches auks in the same manner (Rink, T. and T. p. 178). Cf. also the story about Aningan.
* ↑ The Tornit feared the Inuit, and finally fled from them (in Labrador and Baffin Land. Rink, T. and T. p. 469; Boas, p. 634).
* ↑ The cutting of sledge-lashings to escape from cannibals is found in a Greenland tale (Rink T. and T. p. 131), as well as in Labrador and East Greenland (Ibid. p. 448).
* ↑ A widespread tale. Cf. Holm, Sagn, p. 56; Rink, Eventyr, i. 90 (abstracted in T. and T. p. 471); Boas, p. 587, 637; Murdoch, American Naturalist, 1886, p. 594; Boas, Journal of American Folk-Lore, x. 207; Turner, p. 261. It is also found among the Indians of Northwest America. Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, pp. 311, 314; Boas, Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerika's, pp. 25, 93, 114, 132, 263; Krause, Die Tlinkit-Indianer, p. 269.
* ↑ In all other Eskimo versions the woman's father is thus killed; there are also only two kinds of beings produced, the Qavdlunat (Europeans), and the Adlet, Timerset, or Erqigdlit (dog-men), generally five of each. The tornit (giants) and the inuaudligat (dwarfs) are well-known fabulous Eskimo tribes, though ordinarily not connected with this tale. What the nakassungnaitut are I could not ascertain. The introduction of wolves is curious. See S. Rink, American Anthropologist, 1898, p. 191, upon this tale in general.
* ↑ These two conflicting versions are known also in Greenland.
* ↑ This tale also is of wide occurrence, being found among the Athabascan tribes, and even among the Heiltsuk on the Pacific coast. It varies remarkably little over this great extent of country. Cf. Holm, Sagn, p. 31; Rink, T. and T. p. 99; Boas, p. 625; Petitot, Traditions Indiennes, pp. 84, 226; Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 229.
* ↑ Rink, T. and T. p. 145; Boas, p. 615; Cranz, p. 262; Murdoch, op. cit. p. 595. In all these cases, fishes are produced from the chips of wood; in Baffin Land the worker's name is Exaluqdjung (from eqaluq, salmon). Here he is called Qajun- gajuq, and he makes seals (Central: qairolik, Smith Sound, angakoq-language: qajuvaq), saying to the chips: "qajuvin! be a seal!" Who Irqayudlung is I cound not ascertain; the name resembles Exaluqdjung. The last incident is also found in the story of Qautipalung.
* ↑ This obscure incident is made more intelligible by a version of this story from Cumberland Sound in the possession of Dr. Boas. In this the man must pass not only a boiling kettle, but a huge lamp, two bears, and approaching stones. Some of these obstacles are also mentioned in the accounts of Arnarquagssaq (Rink, T. and T. p. 41), in the tale of Giviok (Rink, p. 157), and that of Atungak from Labrador (Rink, p. 447).
* ↑ In Baffin Land the angakoq-language word for nanuq, bear,, is uxsureling, (having fat, from uxsuq, fat).
* ↑ Cf., for the same story, Rink, T. and T. p. 232; Boas, p. 639; Turner, p. 262.
* ↑ In Greenland and East Greenland we find the same myth. It occurs also in Labrador and the Central Regions, though there it is transferred to Orion.
* ↑ Rink, T. and T. p. 451 (The Birds' Cliff), an abridgment of Eventyr og Sagn, i. 335; Boas, Journal of American Folk-Lore, ii. 128.
* ↑ The last part of this story is found in Rink, Eventyr, ii. 88.
* ↑ Cf. a similar fable of the owl and the raven, Boas, p. 641.
* ↑ A wife who had originally been a fox is mentioned by Rink, T and T. p. 143, and Turner, p. 264. Rink, p. 186, gives a story of a woman who married a huge reptile, that was later attacked and slain by her brothers.
* ↑ This tale is found in Greenland (Rink, T. and T. p. 126), and in Labrador (H. I. Smith, Journal of American Folk-Lore, vii. 211). Cf. also Rink, p. 465.
* ↑ A fabulous animal also in Baffin Land, where it is called agdlaq (Boas, p. 640).
* ↑ Cf. Rink, T. and T. p. 462; Boas, p. 638; and also Rink, p. 413; and, for a similar idea, Rink, p. 470.
* ↑ Cf. Rink, T. and T. p. 413; Boas, p. 638.
* ↑ This tale, though obscure and fragmentary, is given for purposes of comparison. A complete tale about Kiviung is found in Greenland (Rink, T. and T. p. 157) and in Baffin Land (Boas, p. 621). The first portion also occurs in Labrador (Rink, p. 469, The Swimmer) and Angmagsalik (Holm, Sagn, p. 47). See, also, Rink, p. 222.
* ↑ Found in Labrador and Greenland (Rink, T. and T. p. 106), the Central Regions (Boas, p. 633), and East Greenland (Holm, Sagn, p. 11).
* ↑ In Greenland, Kagsagsuk, Kausaksuk, Kausaksuk, etc.; in Labrador, Kaujakjuk (Rink, T. and T. p. 93); in Baffin Land, Qaudjaqdjuq (Boas, p. 630). See, also, Turner, p. 265.
* ↑ This, the narrator claimed, was an actual occurrence. While he was still a small boy, a visitor came to the house while he was lying on the bed between his parents, pretending to be asleep. Then his father sang the above song.
* ↑ I was unable to obtain any explanation of this seeming fragment, which I have translated literally. The story undoubtedly refers to Arnaquagssaq of the Greenlanders, or Sedna of the Central Eskimo, who is known as Nerivik at Smith Sound; but the Eskimo refused to identify positively the woman of this story with Nerivik. In two points—the eating of the parents, and the woman's unwillingness to marry—there is resemblance to the corresponding tale of the Central tribes (Boas, pp. 584, 586). See, also, Rink, Eskimo Tribes, p. 17; Turner, p. 262.
* ↑ Cf. Rink, T. and T. p. 237; Boas, p. 597; Turner, p. 276; Holm, Sagn, p. 34.
* ↑ In Greenland she says, "Since my body seems to please thee, pray take these and eat them." In Baffin Land her words are, "Since you seem to relish me, eat this;" at Point Barrow, in Alaska, "My whole person being delicious, eat this also." ("Ta-man′g-ma mam-mang-mang-an′g-ma nigh′-e-ro" that is, "Tamarma mamarmat âma neriuk.") In Angmagsalik, she says, "Since you like me so much, eat me."
* ↑ Compare Rink, T. and T. p. 441. The moon-man carries off a barren woman, and has a son by her. The moon frequently is said to have seduced unmarried girls (Cranz, p. 295). Compare, also, Holm, Sagn, pp. 72, 75.
* ↑ The whole tale seems mangled.
* ↑ Erdlaveersissok in Greenland (Rink, T. and T. pp. 48, 440); Ululiernang in Baffin Land (Boas, p. 598); in Angmagsalik she is the sun's mother (Jupiter). See Holm, Sagn, p. 80.
* ↑ Among the Central Eskimo, Kalopaling or Mitiling puts drowned hunters in his hood. He lives in the sea, and can only cry, "Be, be! be, be!" (Boas, p. 620).
* ↑ A number of anecdotes like this are collected in the Greenland story of Kasiagsak, the great liar (Rink, T. and T. p. 291).