Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-05-25
An Esquimau Story.

There was once woman who had q
son and daughter. As the son grew
up he became hunter, and one day he
killed thong seal, from the skin Of
which he proposed to cut some thongs.
But the mother wanted the skin for some
other purpose, and she and the boy
quarreled about it.
Then she went and pronounced a
charm on the sealskin, and when he
went to cut it up the end of thong
few up, struck his eyes and made him
blind. a
The winter came on, they were desti-
tute of seal meat, and had to live entirely
on mussels, for the blind hunter could
60 hunting no more.
But one day bear appeared at the
window and begun to eat away at the
window pane, which was made of skin.
The mother and daughter fed to the
other side of the house, but the STRIPPING
asked for his bow. His sister gave it to
him; he bent it, asked her to take aim
for him, and then he shot and killed the
animal. The mother said: "Thou hast
missed" But the sister whispered :
"Thou hast killed the bear"
They had now plenty of meat, but the
mother refused to give the boy any, pre-
tending that as he had not killed the
bear there was none, and only gave him
mussels. But the sister gave him his
share of the bear meat in secret.
Finally in the spring a flock of wild
geese restored the boys sight and he re-
sumed his hunting occupations.
He, with his sister, used to 60 out on
the edge of the ice, where the seals and
white whales "a kind of dolphin) were
seen, and he would kill them with his
harpoon. He had no hunting bladder,
but he used to tie the harpoon line
round his sisters waist instead, and
when the animal was struck they would
drag it up on the ice by means OF the
line.
One day he asked his sister: "Dost
thou like our mothers"
She made no answer, but upon his re-
peating the question she replied:
CT am fonder of thee than of her."
"Then tomorrow, he replied, "she
shall serve us for bladder.
The next day he accordingly proposes
to his mother that she should help him
in the hunt, and to this she consents
without the slightest suspicion. He ties
the line round her waist as he had done
to his sister, but she now begins to grow
frightened at "the look that is in his
eyes," and when she sees him preparing
throw the harpoon she cries:
"My son, choose a small whale,
choose small one."
Just then large white whale rises to
the surface of the water at the edge OF
the ice near his feet. He throws his har-
poon into the animal and then lets go
the line. .a.
The whale instantly begins to drag bis
mother toward the edge of the ice, she
struggling with all her might to get free
and crying out for a knife to cut the
line.
But her son only reproaches her for
her cruelty in having made him blind,
and says g." This is my revenge
Then she cries out "Oh, my ullo !"
my ullo it was I that sucked thee, it
was that sucked thee I" And this she
continues crying until the whale drags
her into the water. She floats for few
moments on the surface, still crying
ooh, my son it was that sucked
thee, it was I that sucked thee p then
disappears forever.
The brother and sister gaze a few
minutes at the spot where she went
down, and tlen, terror stricken, turn and
fee.
But the cry of their mother continues
ringing in their ears, and follows them
wherever they 60.
They finally fly from the village to the
interior of the country, far away from any
human kind. with this voice still pursu,
ing them, still ringing in their ears :
" It was I that sucked thee, it was !
that sucked thee! !" like the refrain of
Macbeth shall sleep no more," in
Shakespeare's sublime tragedy.
They disappear, and nobody who
knew them ever sees or hears OF them
again.
But they are not dead.
Their death would not carry out the
Eskimo idea, and the poet has added
one more act to the tragedy in which
there is a grandeur of conception not
unworthy of Shakespeare himself.
The event recorded in this act takes
place long time afterward; nobody
knows how long. It may be hundred
years, for all, even the children who
knew the matricides, have grown old and
died, The tradition of the crime is al
most forgotten.
The scene is laid in the interior of the
house of the angakok, or priest ma.
gician. It is night-a winter night In
the Arctic, with an Arctic moon throw
ing it's glamour over the plains and
mountains of ice and snow. Inside the
house the priest magician is performing
conjuration, and the people are
gathered around, silent and trembling,
listening to his muttered incantations.
Suddenly they hear cry outside, and
the angakok says: "Something evil is
approaching"
They go to the door and look out.
There they behold gigantic hunter a
little distance away, standing in the
moonlight. His hair is white as the
snow on which he stands, and it hangs
down over his shoulders in long, silvery
locks.
But his face is black as night.
They watch him for moment, and he
sazes at them with burning, fiery eyes.
Then the angakok comes forward and
asks the stranger who he is and what he
wants.
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