512 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
as her husband drew his kaiak upon the shore she cast her sealskin into 
the water and leaped after it. Her husband saw this with alarm, and 
ran quickly to the top of a hill to see what had become of his wife. He 
saw her sitting upon the extended sealskin, which was supported at 
each corner by a bladder, floating rapidly away from tie shore, for when 
the woman leaped into the sea, the sealskin she threw in had suddenly 
opened out and a float appeared at each corner. This caught her upon 
its surface and held her up safely. Very soon after she began to float 
away a storm arose and night shut her from her husband’s sight, and 
he went home scolding angrily, blaming every oue but himself for his 
loss. 
On and on floated the woman, seated on the magic sealskin, and for 
several days no land could be seen. She used all ber food, but still 
she floated on until it became unbroken night. After a time she became 
so exhausted that she fell asleep, and was awakened by several sharp 
shocks and could hear the waves breaking on a pebbly shore. Realiz- 
ing this, she began to try to save herself; so she stepped from the seal- 
skin and was greatly pleased to find herself standing on a beach made 
up of small rounded objects, into which her feet sank ankle deep at 
every step. 
These round objects made her curious, so she stopped and picked up 
two handfuls of them, putting them in her food dish, after which she 
went slowly on into the deep blackness. Before she had gone far she 
came to a house, and, feeling along its side, found the entrance and 
went in. The passageway was dimly lighted by an oil lamp, showing 
many deerskins piled on one side, and on the other were pieces of flesh 
and bags of whale and seal oil. When she entered the house there 
were two oil lamps burning, one on each side of the room, but no one 
was at home. Over one of the lamps hung a piece of seal fat, and over 
the other a piece of reindeer fat, from which the oil dropped and fed 
the flames, and in one corner of the room was a deerskin bed. 
She entered and sat down, waiting for what would come to her. At 
last there was a noise in the entrance way, and a man said, “TI smell 
strange people.” Then the man came into the room, frightening the 
woman very badly, for his face and hands were coal black. ‘ He said 
nothing, but crossed the room to his bed, where, after stripping the 
upper part of his body, he took a tub of water and washed himself. 
The woman was relieved to see that his chest was as white as her 
own. While sitting here she saw a dish of some cooked flesh suddenly 
placed inside the door by an unseen person, from which the man helped 
his guest and then took his own meal. When they had done eating he 
asked her how she came there, and she told him her story. He told 
her not to feel badly, and went out and brought in a number of deer- 
skins, telling her tv make clothing from them for herself and her child, 
for she had kept her child safely upon her back all the time. When 
she told him that she had no needle, he brought her one of copper, 
