6 



AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAELETS 



advance. Acconliiii;- to the mytli, disaster would come if he should 

 succeed in catchiiiii' her, for with his embrace would come the end of all 

 thino-s. 



'J'his leoxMid of t\\v sun and the moon has many variations among the 

 Eskimo })eoj)le and is sometimes termed the Sedua Cycle, Sedna also 

 signifying the sun. It is ])ossihle that we have here not only an allegory 

 of the great Arctic day and night, but also the proof that there has taken 

 root in Eskimo imagination the idea of man's search after the unattain- 

 able. 



C'cpi/riglit 19IIS Inj Frmik Willurt Stokes. 



POLAR BEAR AT BAY. 



From the painting on the North Wall. 



The right ])ortion of the jiainting, realistic in the extreme, repre- 

 sents the twilight before the aj)proach of the long night, the dramatic 

 interest resting in an encounter between an Eskimo hunter and a polar 

 bear. The hunter has left his sledge and, accompanied l)y his team, has 

 followed in the chase, lie has used his arrows and is now near enough 

 to give a thrust with his lance, the bear's attention l)eing held by the 

 dogs. 



That part of the ])ainting at the (>xtreme left tells the Eskimo's method 

 of stalking j)i'ey. In the foregi'ound on an ice-floe a himter, harpoon in 

 hanil, is crawling slowly toward two ring seals, which lie basking in the 



