XIII 

 WHAT THE ESKIMO BELIEVES 



HOW MEN WERE CREATED 



THE first human beings who appeared on the 

 Diomede Islands were a man and a woman who 

 came down from the sky. These two lived on 

 the island for a long time, but had no children. 



At last the man took some ivory from a walrus 

 and carved out five images from it. Then he took 

 some wood and carved five more images, and set 

 all of them aside. The next morning the ten im- 

 ages had turned into people. Those from the 

 ivory dolls were men, hardy and brave; those 

 from the wood were women, soft and timid. 



From these ten people came the inhabitants of 

 the islands, 



THE FLOOD 



In the first days that people can remember 

 there was a flood which covered all the earth ex- 

 cept one very high peak in the middle. The 

 water rose up from the sea and covered all the 



49 



