AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAELETS 



ESKIMO GODDESS OF THE SUN. 

 From the painting on the North Wall. 



Copyright UioS hij Frtiiik Wilbni St<iki 

 Courtesy oj ScribiHr's Magazine. 



Against the vivid g-old and red of the center of the ])aintino; is por- 

 trayed the artist's conception of the Eskimo myth of the " Sini and the 

 Moon." There is presented a giant mirage of two figures in full pursuit 

 through the air. These figiu-es are Ahn-ing-ah-neh, a hunter, typifying 

 the moon and ushering in the long winter, and Sukh-eh-nukh, standing 

 for the sun, a goddess accompanied by summer and plenty. Ahn-ing- 

 ah-neh is dressed in winter garb and is driving his team of dogs. The 

 lower part of the figure, like the dogs and sledge, are shadowy in the 

 painting, but the upj)er j)art reaching forward in the chase, the head 

 and the right arm with its lashing whij^ stand out strong and dark as the 

 forward part of a night cloud that sweeps over the glacier-covered heights. 

 Sukh-eh-nukh is represented by a figure uncovered to the waist (the 

 Eskimo, both men and women, occasionally strip oli' the upper garments 

 in the summer sun). She carries in her right hand an Eskimo lamp, 

 .shown as a sun-dog or j)arhelion such as is often seen near the horizon 

 at sunrise and sui.sct in the .Vrctics. She is a part of a cunnilus smnmer 



