XXIX 



ORIGIN OF THE WINDS 



IN a village on the lower Yukon lived a man 

 and his wife who had no children. One day the 

 woman said to her husband, " Far out on the tun- 

 dra there grows a solitary tree. Go to that and 

 bring back a piece of the trunk, and make a doll 

 from it. Then it will seem that we have a child." 



The man went out of the house and saw a long 

 track of bright light like that made by the moon 

 shining on snow, leading off across the tundra in 

 the direction he had been told to take. It was 

 the Milky Way. Along this path he traveled far 

 away until he saw before him a beautiful object 

 shining in the bright light. Going up to it, he 

 found it was the tree of which he came in search. 

 The tree was small, so he took his hunting-knife, 

 cut off a part of the trunk, and carried the frag- 

 ment home. 



He sat down in the house and carved out from 

 the wood an image of a small boy, and his wife 

 made two suits of clothing for it and dressed it in 



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