NELSON] CONCEPTION OF NATURAL PHENOMENA 449 
grasping it about the haunches. It is a spirited carving, illustrating 
an incident in one of the Eskimo tales. 
Figure 165 is copied from a figure painted on the bottom of a wooden 
tray (number 38642) obtained at Nulukhtulogumut, and represents a 
mythical creature described in the tales of that region. 
In the Raven tale are described reindeer which came from the sky: 
and which had teeth like dogs. These are said still to exist, but are 
invisible except to shamans, who see them on the plains and describe 
them as having a large hole through the body, back of the shoulders. 
People supposed to be gifted with clairvoyant powers sometimes see 
and shoot at them, believing them to be like other deer, but no ordi- 
nary weapon can kill them. Carvings of these animals were seen among 
the people south of the Yukon mouth. 
In the far north there are said to be men having tails and two faces— 
one in front and one behind. 
CONCEPTION OF NATURAL PHENOMENA 
The aurora is believed to be a group of boys playing football, some- 
times using a walrus skull as the ball. The swaying movement of the 
lights back and forth represents the struggles of the players. When 
the light fades away the Eskimo utter a low whistle, which they say 
will call the boys back. 
The galaxy is said to be the track made by Raven’s snowshoes when 
he walked across the sky during one of his journeys while creating the 
inhabitants of the earth. 
The Pleiades are called the “ Little foxes,” and are said to be a litter 
of fox cubs. ; 
The stars of Orion’s belt are called the ‘Great stretchers,” being 
regarded as posts on which rawhide lines are being stretched. 
The vertical bar in a parhelion is called the ‘‘Sun’s walking stick,” 
and shooting stars are termed star dung. 
Sirius is the ‘* Moon-dog,” which makes high winds when it is near 
the moon. 
TRADITIONAL SHOWERS OF ASHES 
The’ Eskimo have various traditions of occurrences long past. One 
very old woman on the lower Yukon told me she had heard related by 
old people when she was a girl that showers of matter like ashes fell 
there very long ago. The first shower of ashes she heard of was quite 
deep, killing fish in the rivers and causing the death of many people 
by starvation. 
At St Michael an old man related that before the Russians came to 
the country he knew of one fall of a strange substance like ashes 
which covered the ground like a slight fall of snow and adhered to what- 
ever it fell upon so that when rubbed off from wood it left a polished 
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