NELSON] THE ORIGIN OF WINDS 497 



sky people or shades were satisfied by the offerings and ceremonies of 

 the earth people, they would cause an image of the kind of animal 

 that was needed to grow to the proper size, endow it with life and send 

 it down to the earth, where it caused its kind to become again very 

 numerous. 



ORIGIN OF WINDS 

 (From the lower Yukon) 



In a village on the lower Yukon lived a man and his wife who had 

 no children. After a long time the woman spoke to her husband one 

 day and said, &quot;I can not understand why we have no children; can 

 you!&quot; To which the husband replied that he could not. She then 

 told her husband to go on the tundra to a solitary tree that grew there 

 and bring back a part of its trunk and make a doll from it. The man 

 went out of the house and saw a long track of bright light, like that 

 made by the moon shining on the snow, leading oft across the tundra 

 in the direction he must take. Along this path of light he traveled 

 far away until he saw before him a beautiful object shining in the 

 bright light. Going up to it, he found that it was the tree for which 

 he came in search. The tree was small, so he took his hunting knife, 

 cut oft a part of its trunk and carried the fragment home. 



When he returned he sat down and carved from the wood an image 

 of a small boy, for which his wife made a couple of suits of fur clothing 

 in which she dressed it. Directed by his wife, the man then carved a 

 set of toy dishes from the wood, but said he could see no use for all 

 this trouble, as it would make them no better oft than they were 

 before. To this his wife replied that before they had nothing but 

 themselves to talk about, but the doll would give them amusement 

 and a subject of conversation. She then deposited the doll in the place 

 of honor on the bench opposite the entrance, with the toy dishes full 

 of food and water before it. 



When the couple had gone to bed that night and the room was very 

 dark they heard several low whistling sounds. The woman shook her 

 husband, saying, &quot;Do you hear that? It was the doll;&quot; to which he 

 agreed. They got up at once, and, making a light, saw that the doll 

 had eaten the food and drank the water, and they could see its eyes 

 move. The woman caught it up with delight and fondled and played 

 with it for a long time. When she became tired it was put back on 

 the bench and they went to bed again. 



In the morning, when the couple got up, they found the doll was 

 gone. They looked for it about the house, but could find no trace of 

 it, and, going outside, found its tracks leading away from the door. 

 These tracks passed from the door along the bank of a small creek 

 until a little outside the village, where they ended, as the doll had 

 walked from this place on the path of light upon which the man had 

 gone to find the tree. 

 18 ETII 32 



