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



THE FIRE BALL 

 (From Sledge island) 



In the village of Kin-i'-gim (Cape Prince of Wales), very long ago, 

 there lived a ])oot orj)bau boy who had no one to care for him and was 

 treated badly by everyone, being made to run here and there at the 

 bidding of the villagers. One evening he was told to go out of the 

 kashim and see how the weather was. He had no skin boots, and being 

 winter, he did not wish to go, but he was driven out. Very soon he 

 came back and said there was no change in the weather. After this 

 the men kept sending him out on the same errand until at last became 

 back and told them that he had seen a great ball of fire like the moon 

 coming over the hill not far away. The people laughed at him and 

 made him go out again, when he saw that the fire had come nearer 

 until it was quite close. Then the orphan ran inside telling what he 

 had seen and hid himself because he was frightened. 



Soon after this the people in the kashim saw a fiery figure dancing on 

 the gut-skin covering over the roof hole, and directly after a human 

 skeleton came crawling into the room through the passageway, creep- 

 ing on its knees and elbows. When it came into the room the skeleton 

 made a motion toward the people, causing all of them to fall upon their 

 knees and elbows in the same position taken by the skeleton. Then 

 turning about it crawled out as it had come, followed by the people, 

 who were forced to go after it. Outside the skeleton crept away from 

 the village, followed by all the men, and in a short time everyone of 

 them was dead and the skeleton had vanished. Some of the villagers 

 had been absent when the skeleton, or tunghdJc, came, and when they 

 returned they found dead people lying on the ground all about. Enter- 

 ing the kashim they found the orphan boy, who told them how the 

 X)eople had been killed. After this they followed the tracks of the tun- 

 ghdJc through the snow and were led up the side of the mountain until 

 they came to a very ancient grave, where the tracks ended. 



In a few days the brother of one of the men who had been killed 

 went fishing upon the sea ice far from the village. He stayed late, and 

 it became dark w^hile he was still a long way from home. As he was 

 walking along the tunghdJc suddenly appeared before him and began 

 to cross back and forth in his path. The young man tried to pass it 

 and escape, but could not, as the tungJidJc kept in front of him, do what 

 he might. As he could think of nothing else, he suddenly caught a 

 fish out of his basket and threw it at the tmigJidJc. When he threw 

 the fish it was frozen hard, but as it was thrown and came near the 

 tungJidJc, it turned back suddenly, passing over the young man's shoul- 

 ders, and fell into his basket again, where it began to flap about, having 

 become alive. 



Then the fisherman j^ulled oft' one of his dogskin mittens and threw it. 

 As it fell near the tungJidJc the mitten changed into a dog, which ran 



