480 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.ann.18 



THE CIRCLING OF CRANES 



(From St Michael aud other places ou Norton sound) 



One autumn day, very long- ago, the cranes were preparing to go 

 southward. As they were gathered in a great flock they saw a beau- 

 tiful young woman standing alone near the village. Admiring her 

 greatly, the cranes gathered about, and lifting her on their widespread 

 wings, bore her far up iu the air and away. While the cranes were 

 taking her up they circled below her so closely that she could not fall, 

 and their loud, hoarse cries drowned her calls for help, so she was 

 carried away aud never seen again. Ever since that time the cranes 

 always circle about in autumn, uttering their loud cries while preparing 

 to iiy southward, as they did at that time. 



THE DWARF PEOPLE 



(From St Michael and Pikmiktalik) 



Very long ago, before we knew of the wliite men, there was a large 

 village at Pikmiktalik. One winter day the people living there were 

 very much surprised to see a little man aud a little woman with a child 

 coming down the river on the ice. The man was so small that he wore 

 a coat made from a single white fox skin. The woman's coat was made 

 from the skins of two white hares, and two muskrat skins clothed the 

 child. 



The old people were about two cubits high and the boy not over the 

 length of one's forearm. Though he was so small, the man was dragging 

 a sled much larger than those used by the villagers, and he had ou it a 

 heavy load of various articles. When they came to the village he easily 

 drew his sled up the steep bank, and taking it by the rear end raised 

 it on the sled frame, a feat that would have required the united 

 strength of several villagers. 



Then the couple entered one of the houses and were made welcome. 

 This small family remained in the village for some time, the man taking 

 his i)Iace in the kashim with the other men. He was very fond of his 

 little son, but one day as the latter was playing outside the house 

 he was bitten so badly by a savage dog that he died. The father in his 

 anger caught the dog up by the tail and struck it so hard against a 

 post that the dog fell into halves. Then the father in great sorrow 

 made a handsome grave box for his son, in which he placed the child 

 with his toys, after which he returned into his house and for four 

 days did no work. At the end of that time he took his sled and witli 

 his wife returned up the river on their old trail, while the villagers sor- 

 rowfully watched them go, for tliey had come to like the pair very 

 much. 



Before this time the villagers had always made a bed for their sleds 



