262 THE HUDSON BAY ESKIMO. 



So tliey put all tLeir belongings into the umiak and when they were 

 on the way they seized the woman and cast her overboard. She strug- 

 gled to regain the side of the boat, and when she seized it, the others cut 

 ott' her fingers which fell into the water and changed to seals, walrus, 

 whales, and white bears. The woman in her despair, screamed her de- 

 termination to have revenge for the cruelty perpetrated upon her. The 

 thumb became a walrus, tlie first finger a seal, and the middle finger a 

 white bear. When the former two animals see a man they try to es- 

 cape lest they be served as the woman was. 



The white bear lives both on the land and in the sea, but when he 

 perceives a man revengeful feelings fill him, and he determines to de- 

 stroy the person who he thinks mutilated the woman from whose finger 

 he sprang. 



Origin of the gtullemots. — While some children were playing on the 

 level top of a high cliff overhanging the sea, the older children watched 

 the younger ones lest they shouhl fall down the bluflf. Below them the 

 sea was covered with ice, and the strij) along the shore had not yet 

 loosened to permit the seals to approach. Soon afterward a wide 

 crack opened and the water was filled with seals, but the children did 

 not observe them. The wind was cold, and the children romped in 

 high glee, encouraging each other to greater exertion in their sports 

 and shouted at the top of their voices. The men saw the seals and 

 hastened to the shore to put their kaiaks into the water to pursue 

 them. At this the children increased their shouts, whicth friglitened 

 the .seals till they dived out of sight. One of the men was angry, and 

 exclaimed to the others, "I wish the cliff woidd topple over and bury 

 those noisy children for scaring the seals." In a moment the cliff 

 tipped over and the poor children fell among the fragments of huge 

 rocks and stones at the bottom. Here they were changed into guille- 

 mots or sea pigeons, with red feet, and even to this day they thus 

 dwell among the debris at the foot of cliffs next to the water of the sea. 



Origin of the raven. — The raven was a man, who, while other people 

 were collecting their household property preparatory to i-emoving to 

 another locality, called to them that they had forgotten to bring the 

 lower blanket of deerskin used for a bed. This skin in the Eskimo lan- 

 guage is called kak. The man used the word so often that they told 

 him to get it himself. He hurried so much that he was changed into 

 a raven, and now uses that sound for his note. Even to this day when 

 the camp is being removed the raven flies over and shouts "Kak! 

 kak!" or, in other words, "Do not forget the blanket." 



Origin of the quadrangular xpot/t on the /oo»'s hacJc. — A man had two 

 children that he wished might resemble each other. He painted the 

 one (loon) with a white breast and square spots on the back. The 

 other (raven) saw how comical the loon appeared, and laughed so much 

 that the loon became ashamed and escaped to the water, where it 

 always presents its white breast in order to hide the spots of the back 



