Eskimo Folk-Tales — Tales 01-03

THE TWO FRIENDS WHO SET OFF TO TRAVEL ROUND THE WORLD

Once there were two men who desired to travel round the world, that they might tell others what was the manner of it.

This was in the days when men were still many on the earth, and there were people in all the lands.

Now we grow fewer and fewer.

Evil and sickness have come upon men.

See how I, who tell this story, drag my life along, unable to stand upon my feet.

The two men who were setting out had each newly taken a wife, and had as yet no children.

They made themselves cups of musk-ox horn, each making a cup for himself from one side of the same beast's head.

And they set out, each going away from the other, that they might go by different ways and meet again some day.

They travelled with sledges, and chose land to stay and live upon each summer.

It took them a long time to get round the world; they had children, and they grew old, and then their children also grew old, until at last the parents were so old that they could not walk, but the children led them.

And at last one day, they met--and of their drinking horns there was but the handle left, so many times had they drunk water by the way, scraping the horn against the ground as they filled them.

"The world is great indeed," they said when they met.

They had been young at their starting, and now they were old men, led by their children.

Truly the world is great.

THE COMING OF MEN, A LONG, LONG WHILE AGO

Our forefathers have told us much of the coming of earth, and of men, and it was a long, long while ago.

Those who lived long before our day, they did not know how to store their words in little black marks, as you do; they could only tell stories.

And they told of many things, and therefore we are not without knowledge of these things, which we have heard told many and many a time, since we were little children.

Old women do not waste their words idly, and we believe what they say.

Old age does not lie.

A long, long time ago, when the earth was to be made, it fell down from the sky.

Earth, hills and stones, all fell down from the sky, and thus the earth was made.

And then, when the earth was made, came men.

It is said that they came forth out of the earth.

Little children came out of the earth.

They came forth from among the willow bushes, all covered with willow leaves.

And there they lay among the little bushes: lay and kicked, for they could not even crawl.

And they got their food from the earth.

Then there is something about a man and a woman, but what of them?

It is not clearly known.

When did they find each other, and when had they grown up?

I do not know.

But the woman sewed, and made children's clothes, and wandered forth.

And she found little children, and dressed them in the clothes, and brought them home.

And in this way men grew to be many.

And being now so many, they desired to have dogs.

So a man went out with a dog leash in his hand, and began to stamp on the ground, crying "Hok--hok--hok!"

Then the dogs came hurrying out from the hummocks, and shook themselves violently, for their coats were full of sand.

Thus men found dogs.

But then children began to be born, and men grew to be very many on the earth.

They knew nothing of death in those days, a long, long time ago, and grew to be very old.

At last they could not walk, but went blind, and could not lie down.

Neither did they know the sun, but lived in the dark.

No day ever dawned.

Only inside their houses was there ever light, and they burned water in their lamps, for in those days water would burn.

But these men who did not know how to die, they grew to be too many, and crowded the earth.

And then there came a mighty flood from the sea.

Many were drowned, and men grew fewer.

We can still see marks of that great flood, on the high hill-tops, where mussel shells may often be found.

And now that men had begun to be fewer, two old women began to speak thus: "Better to be without day, if thus we may be without death," said the one.

"No; let us have both light and death," said the other.

And when the old woman had spoken these words, it was as she had wished.

Light came, and death.

It is said, that when the first man died, others covered up the body with stones.

But the body came back again, not knowing rightly how to die.

It stuck out its head from the bench, and tried to get up.

But an old woman thrust it back, and said: "We have much to carry, and our sledges are small."

For they were about to set out on a hunting journey.

And so the dead one was forced to go back to the mound of stones.

And now, after men had got light on their earth, they were able to go on journeys, and to hunt, and no longer needed to eat of the earth.

And with death came also the sun, moon and stars.

For when men die, they go up into the sky and become brightly shining things there.

NUKÚNGUASIK, WHO ESCAPED FROM THE TUPILAK [1]

Nukúnguasik, it is said, had land in a place with many brothers.

When the brothers made a catch, they gave him meat for the pot; he himself had no wife.

One day he rowed northward in his kayak, and suddenly he took it into his head to row over to a big island which he had never visited before, and now wished to see.

He landed, and went up to look at the land, and it was very beautiful there.

And here he came upon the middle one of many brothers, busy with something or other down in a hollow, and whispering all the time.

So he crawled stealthily towards him, and when he had come closer, he heard him whispering these words: "You are to bite Nukúnguasik to death; you are to bite Nukúnguasik to death."

And then it was clear that he was making a Tupilak, and stood there now telling it what to do.

But suddenly Nukúnguasik slapped him on the side and said: "But where is this Nukúnguasik?"

And the man was so frightened at this that he fell down dead.

And then Nukúnguasik saw that the man had been letting the Tupilak sniff at his body.

And the Tupilak was now alive, and lay there sniffing.

But Nukúnguasik, being afraid of the Tupilak, went away without trying to harm it.

Now he rowed home, and there the many brothers were waiting in vain for the middle one to return.

At last the day dawned, and still he had not come.

And daylight came, and then as they were preparing to go out in search of him, the eldest of them said to Nukúnguasik: "Nukúnguasik, come with us; we must search for him."

And so Nukúnguasik went with them, but as they found nothing, he said: "Would it not be well to go and make search over on that island, where no one ever goes?"

And having gone on to the island, Nukúnguasik said: "Now you can go and look on the southern side."

When the brothers reached the place, he heard them cry out, and the eldest said: "O wretched one!

Why did you ever meddle with such a thing as this!"

And they could be heard weeping all together about the dead man.

And now Nukúnguasik went up to them, and there lay the Tupilak, still alive, and nibbling at the body of the dead man.

But the brothers buried him there, making a mound of stones above him.

And then they went home.

Nukúnguasik lived there as the oldest in the place, and died at last after many years.

Here I end this story: I know no more.