THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [BTH.ANN. 18 



the water and fasten it to the shore; lay my paddle, spears, and lines 

 upon it in their proper places; dress my body in the waterproof shirt 

 and put me into the kaiak, fastening the shirt to the manhole as you 

 have seen me do when going to sea. Every evening for three days 

 place fish, deer fat, and berries before my body that my inn a may be 

 satisfied. Do you promise me this?&quot; Ta-ku- ka promised and wept 

 silently. Pi-tikh -cho-lik did not leave the house again, and he died on 

 the third day. Then Ta-ku -ka cried very much, but did as she had 

 been told. Every morning she saw that the shade had eaten, for all 

 the food before the body was gone. On the fourth morning, when she 

 went to the shore to lament for her dead as usual, she saw that the 

 kaiak with all its contents had disappeared. Then she threw herself 

 upon the ground and lay there for a long time in her sorrow; finally she 

 remembered her children and went back to the house to care for them. 

 For a long time Ta-ku -ka worked very hard, gathering berries or 

 catching and drying fish to prepare her store of winter food. 



One day while gathering berries she wandered far from home and 

 went to the top of a mountain; there she looked out over the land and 

 far away saw puffs of smoke drifting upward from the ground. This 

 was the first sign she had ever seen of other people, and she decided 

 to go to see what they were like. After some time she drew near the 

 place and crept softly to the edge of the hill, that fell away sharply on 

 one side to the sea, but sloped gradually toward a portion of the inland 

 side. Near the water were three houses, from one of which came the 

 smoke she had seen. 



Here Ta-ku -ka waited quietly to see what kind of people were there, 

 and soon a woman came out, shading her eyes with one hand and look 

 ing out to sea; then she hurried back to the house, calling to someone 

 within. At this two other women came out, and all went down to the 

 water s edge, where they began to sing a love song and to dance upon 

 the sand facing the sea. Ta-ku -ka had been so interested in watching 

 these women and their handsome fur garments that she had not noticed 

 anything else, but now the low, pleasant sound of a man s voice rising 

 in song struck her ear and made her heart beat faster. She looked 

 beyond the women and saw a man urging his kaiak swiftly toward the 

 shore, singing and playfully throwing his seal spear before him, and 

 picking it up as he passed. 



When he came near, Ta-ku -ka recognized the song as one that 

 Pi tikh -cho-llk used to sing to her in the old days; then the kaiak 

 man came on shore and the women met him with exclamations of 

 pleasure. Ta-ku -ka could scarcely believe her eyes when she saw that 

 the man was indeed her husband, whom she had believed to be dead. 

 He went into the house with the women, and Ta-ku -ka felt a strange, 

 fierce anger in her heart, such as she had never known before. She 

 stood on the hillside listening to the songs and laughter coming from 

 the house until far into the night. 



