598 '1"HK CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



slio Tilacki'iied her liauds with soot and when the same again hap- 

 |iiii(il liisiiicared the man's back with it. When the lamps were re- 

 li,i;ht((l slic s;iw that the violator was her brother. In great anger she 

 sharpened a knife and cut off her breasts, which she offered to him, 

 saying: "Since you seem to relish me, eat this."' Her brother fell 

 into a passion and she fled from him, running about the room. She 

 seized a piece of wood (with which the lamps are kept in order) which 

 was burning brightly and rushed out of the house. The brother took 

 another one, but in his pursuit he fell down and extinguished his 

 light, which continued to glow only faintly. Gi'adually both were 

 lifted up and continued their course in the sky, the sister being 

 transformed into the sun, the brother into the moon. Whenever 

 the new moon first a^ipears she sings: 



Aningaga tapika, takii-n tapika qaumidjatedlirpoq ; qaumatitaudle. 

 Aningaga tapika, tikipoq tapika. 



(My brother up there, the moon up there begins to shine ; he will be bright. 



My brother up there, he is coming up there.) 



THE FLIGHT TO THE MOON. 



There exists another tradition in regard to the spirit of the moon, 

 which is also known to the Greenlanders. While in the first tradi- 

 tion the moon is a man carrying a glowing light, in the other she 

 is the moon man's house (Rink, p. 440). The legend, as told by the 

 Oqomiut and Akudnirmiut, is the narrative of the flight of an ang- 

 akoq to the moon and is as follows: 



A mighty angakoq, who had a bear for his tornaq, resolved to pay 

 a visit to the moon. He sat down in the rear of his hut. turning his 

 back toward the lamps, which had been extinguished. He had his 

 hands tied up and a thong fastened around his knees and neck. Then 

 he summoned his tornaq, which carried him rapidly through the air 

 and brought him to the moon. He observed that the moon was a 

 house, nicely covered with white deerskins, which the man in the 

 moon used to dry near it. On each side of the entrance was the 

 upper jjortion of the body of an enormous walrus, which threatened 

 to tear in pieces the bold intruder. Though it was dangerous to pass 

 by the fierce animals, the angakoq, by help of his tornaq, succeeded 

 in entering the house. 



In the passage he saw the only dog of the man of the moon, which 

 is called Tirie'tiang and is dappled white and red. On entering the 

 main room he ijerceived, to the left, a small additional building, in 

 which a beautiful woman, the sun. sat before her lamp. As soon as 

 she saw the angakoq entering she blew her fire, behind the blaze of 

 which she hid herself. The man in the moon came to meet him 

 kindly, stepping from the seat on the ledge and bidding the stranger 

 welcome. Behind the lamps great heaps of venison and seal meat 

 were piled u]). but the man of tlie moon did not yet offer him any- 



