168 CBUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



beneath the sea, where she became queen, living in a house built 

 of stone and whalebone, and guarded by her husband, the dog. 

 She cannot walk, but ' hunches ' over the ground with one foot 

 beneath her body. Her father was also drowned later, and now 

 lives with her, wrapped up in his tent cover, and is employed 

 torturing the souls of the wicked. The souls of sea animals go 

 to her after remaining three days by the body after death. This 

 is the reason a great deal of respect is shown to the bodies of 

 these animals, and is the origin of a number of taboos in connec- 

 tion with them. If the soul is displeased on its departure for 

 the abode of ISTuliayok it informs her, and causes her hands to 

 swell ; then., she revenges herself by bringing ill-luck or sickness 

 upon the Eskimos. If all the ceremonies are properly observed 

 they please the soul of the animal, and other animals will allow 

 themselves to be killed by such considerate people. 



It thus appears that the Eskimos existed before their goddess, 

 there being no legend regarding the first Eskimo. The Eskimo 

 story differs in regard to the origin of the white race and the 

 Indians, who are the offspring of Nuliayok and her dog. One 

 story runs that Nuliayok was deceived by the dog, who took the 

 form of a young man. When her father found her with a litter 

 of white and red pups he was very angry, and rjlaced her with 

 her strange progeny upon an island, sending food to her by the 

 dog. Later he drowned the dog, and brought her food in his 

 kyak. ISTuliayok, to revenge the death of the dog, set the pups on 

 her father, and so killed him. Being now without any source of 

 food for herself or the pups, she made two large slippers ; into 

 one she put the white pups and into the other the red, and set 

 them afloat before a north wind, so that they landed on southern 

 lands and became the ancestors of the whites and the Indians. 



There is a goddess of the land-animals called Pukimma, who 

 appears to be closely identified with Nuliayok, and may be the 

 same personage under a different name. 



