NELSON] ORIGIN OF LAND AND PEOPLE 483 



Oil the ice liills near where Pikmiktalik now is, taking for his wife a 

 she-wolf. By and by he had many chiklren, which were always born 

 in pairs — a boy aiid a girl. Each pair spoke a tongue of their own, dif- 

 fering from that of their parents and different from any spoken by their 

 brothers and sisters. 



As soon as they were large enough each i)air was sent out in a differ- 

 ent direction from the others, and thus the family spread far and near 

 from the ice hills, which now became snow-coyered mountains. As the 

 snow melted it ran down the hillsides, scooping out ravines and river 

 beds, and so making the earth with its streams. 



The twins peopled the earth with their children, and as each x)air 

 with their children spoke a language different from the others, the 

 various tongues found on the earth were established and continue 

 until this day. 



THE BRINGING OF THE LIGHT 13 Y EAVKN 

 (From Paimut, ou the lower Yukon) 



In the first days there was light from the sun and the moon as we 

 now have it. Then the sun and the moon were taken away, and peoj)le 

 were left on the earth for a long time with no light but the shining of 

 the stars. The shamans made their strongest charms to no purpose, 

 for the darkness of night continued. 



In a village of the lower Yukon there lived an orphan boy who always 

 sat upon the bench with the humble people over the entrance way 

 in the kashim. The other people thought he was foolish, and he was 

 despised and ill-treated by everj^one. After the shamans had tried 

 very hard to bring back the sun and the moon but failed, the boy began 

 to mock them, saying, "What tine shamans you must be, not to be able 

 to bring back the light, when even I can do it." 



At this the shamans became very angry and beat him and drove him 

 out of the kashim. This poor orphan was like any other boy until he 

 put on a black coat which he had, when he changed into a raven, lire- 

 serving this form until he took off the coat again. 



When the shamans drove the boy out of the kashim, he went to the 

 house of his aunt in the village and told her what he had said to them 

 and how they had beaten him and driven him out of the kashim. Then 

 he said he wished her to tell him where the sun and the moon had gone, 

 for he wished to go after them. 



She denied that she knew where they were hidden, but the boy 

 said, " I am sure you know Avhere they are, for look at what a finely 

 sewed coat you wear, and you could not see to sew it in that way if 

 you did not know where the light is." After a long time he i)revailed 

 upon his aunt, and she said to him, " Well, if you wish to find the 

 light you must take your snowshoes and go far to the south, to the 

 place you will know when you get there." 



