, 1886-10-03

the black darkness and loved the white
highland he made the polar bear as
white as the snow to show that they be-
longed to his following. Afterward
came the hares, and were made white.
Then came the wolves, and their coats
were changed, but = some of them al
lowed themselves to be caught by his
renegade children - the Innuits- and
trained to draw their sledges over the
snow, he changed his mind and made
them a light gray INT turned the dogs
black again, and told the wolves that
until they brought back their erring
brethren he would not make them pure
white. So to this day the Esquimau
dogs are dark, the wolves from which
they sprang are nearly white, and
wherever the latter meet the former
they kill them and suck their blood.
Then came the ptarmigan, the timid
bird, and was made white; but so fear
full was it that the elder god would
take away even the short wings it had
given it that when the elders returned
from the south they found the ptarmi-
gan in a dusky coat, and not until they
had gone again did it put on its new
feathers of white.
And so the willy fox, fearing that the
elders would not supply it with all the
eggs it could eat in the summer if it
wore the enemy's Uniform, returned to
its coat of blue during that time, md
with many sly winks and hypocritical
assumptions put on its white fur as soon
as the last of them We're gone and COM
menced worshiping the southern god SO
far away. Blu the musk-ox, and the
walrus, and the big whale had all ruled
under Tornarsuk and Loyalty believed
that he would be back and restore the
old manner of things, and they all re-
tanned their old coats of black. "Give
me something begged the musk-ox.
with which to chew the winters hard
grass" His prayer was to the southern
god and he made him teeth, but made
them white and so hat all the others
could see. Give me something to
search for the mussels and clans that
since the intense cold have burrowed
deep in the bottom of the sea-" be-
seeched the walrus, and he made him
tusks, but he made them white. "Give
me something, oh! southern god, in
which / may wrap myself to keep me
from freezing in your chilly waters"
asked the whale, and he covered him
with a foot or two of fat, but he made
it white, as his emblem.
Most loyal of all to the elder duck
were the %Innuits, who had been the
cause of all the wrangling that was end
ing in h destruction of the country,
and against them and their god all the
wrath of the great southern deity was
held. He told all the animals and birds
that until they became loyal once again
to him, and became white, he would not
convert Aksharnak into an Eden as of
yore; but if by the time his sun was
weary of visiting the cold northland
they had not relented he would send pe0-
pie whose faces were white to that land.
and when the dark-faced men ana
women and dark-skinned animals and
fishes were all dead Aksharnak would
be as before. And now, my friends,
whose fathers fathers father told this
so very long ato, and whose listeners
laughed at tie thought of such curious
people as those with skins on them like
the pc,ar bear, let me say that the white
Zen from the south are truly among us,
and it is too late for us to repent, but
over our bodies will bloom many kinds
of brilliant flowers hat we see moi in
our summers now, and or our graves
will shine a never-setting SUM-"
And in the silence which followed this
narrative | could not help but think that
however poorly or POLITICALLY it may be
worded, whether in legend, story, or
plain facts, this simple people, too. like
all the Others of our continent, recognize
their inevitable extinction before the adj
vancing march of the whites. Frederick
Schwatka.