442 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.axn. 18 



they are made to nurse. One was described to me as having been born 

 at rikmiktalik many years ago; it devoured its mother's breast, and 

 when the jjeople ran into the house in response to her cries the child 

 escaped through the smoke hole in the roof. When they followed it 

 outside, it was seen sitting between the horns of a reindeer, riding 

 toward the mountains, where it disappeared. 



Other curious beings are believed by the people of the lower Yukon 

 to exist in the moon, but are said sometimes to be found on the earth. 

 These are man-like creatures without head or neck, but having a broad 

 mouth, armed with sharp teeth, across the chest. A wooden image of 

 one of these was obtained by me, but it has since been lost. 



The a-mi'-lcnJc is said to be a large, slimy, leathery-skin sea animal 

 with four long arms; it is very fierce and seizes a hunter in his kaiak 

 at sea, dragging both under the water. When it pursues a man it is 

 useless for him to try to escape, for if he gets upon the ice the beast 

 will swim below and burst up under his feet; should he reach the 

 shore the creature will swim through the earth in pursuit as easily as 

 through the water. 



]S^ear St Michael the people believe that these creatures swim from 

 the sea up through the land to some land-locked lakes in the craters of 

 extinct volcanoes and to similar inland places. Several dry lake-beds 

 were shown to me in that vicinity as having been drained by these ani- 

 mals when they swam out to the sea, leaving a channel made by their 

 passage through the earth. It is said that if the d-mi'-huk returns the 

 water follows from the sea and again fills the lake. The idea of this 

 creature may have had its origin in the octopus. 



Wi'-lu-gM-ynJc is the sea shrew-mouse — a small animal, exactly like 

 the common shrew-mouse in size and appearance, but it possesses cer- 

 tain supernatural powers. It lives on the ice at sea, and the moment it 

 observes a man it darts at him with incredible swiftness, piercing the 

 toe of his boot and crawling all over his body in a moment. If he 

 remains perfectly quiet it disappears by the hole through which it 

 entered without doing him any injury and, after this, he becomes a 

 very successful hunter. If a man stir ever so little, however, while the 

 animal is on him, it instantly burrows into his flesh, going straight to 

 the heart and killing him. Hunters are very much afraid of this ani- 

 mal, and if they chance to come across a shrew-mouse on the ice at sia 

 they stand motionless until the creature goes away. In one case, of 

 which I chanced to hear at St Michael, a hunter who was out on the 

 sea ice in that vicinity during winter stood in one spot for hours, while 

 a shrew-mouse remained near him, and the villagers all agreed that he 

 had a narrow escax)e. 



Az'-i-icu-gum M-mukh'-ti, the walrus dog. This anim-;' :s believed to 

 be found in company with large herds of walrus, and is very fierce 

 toward men. It is a long, slender animal, covered with black scales 

 which are tough but may be pierced by a good spear. It has a head, 



