XXI 



WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LONE 

 WOMAN OF ST. MICHAEL 



THE women south of St. Michael are poor 

 seamstresses but fine dancers, while those to the 

 north are expert needlewomen but poor dancers; 

 and this is the way the Eskimo explain it. 



Very long ago there were many men living in 

 the northland, but there was no woman among 

 them. Far away in the southland a single woman 

 was known to live. At last the shrewdest young 

 man of the northland started and traveled south- 

 ward till he came to the woman's house, where he 

 stopped and became her husband. 



He was very proud of himself for getting 

 ahead of the other young men in the north. One 

 day he sat in the house thinking of his former 

 home, and he said, " Ah, I have a wife, while 

 even the son of the Headman has none." 



Meanwhile, the Headman's son had also set 

 out to journey toward the south, and while the 

 husband was talking thus to himself, the son 



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