266 THE HUDSON BAY ESKIMO. 



rocks and tossing them along the shore until the character of the water's 

 edge was entirely changed. When the boy arrived at the hut it was 

 daylight, for he had tarried so long on the beach testing his strength 

 that the night had slipped away. 



The people were terrified when they saw to what enormous propor- 

 tions the abused boy had grown. He became frenzied the instant he 

 saw his former persecutors, and seizing first one and then the other in 

 his hands dashed them against the rocks. The blood and brains ran 

 in streams. One of the men, seeing his doom, begged for his life and 

 promised his kaiak, spears, sled, and wife if he should be spared. The 

 enraged boy continued the slaughter until only the little girl who had 

 so often befriended him was left. She became his wife, and in the 

 course of a few hours the man, whose name was Kou j6 yuk, became 

 of a natural size again and passed his life in comfort. 



This story was obtained from a man from Labrador. The Eskimo 

 assert that this occurred near Ohak (often pronounced Okak), now a 

 missionary station. They show the rock, which a little imagination 

 gives the appearance of having dried blood and brains still upon it. 



The origin of the sun, moon, and stars. — At a time \yhen darkness 

 covered the earth a girl was nightly visited by some one whose identity 

 she could not discover. She determined to find <mt who it could be. 

 She mixed some soot with oil and painted her breast with it. The next 

 time she discovered, to her horror, that her brother had a black circle 

 of soot around his mouth. She iipbraided him and he denied it. The 

 father and mt)ther were very angry and scolded the pair so severely 

 that the son fled from their presence. The daughter seized a brand 

 from the fire and pursued him. He ran to the sky to avoid lier but she 

 flew after him. The man changed into the moon and the girl who bore 

 the torch became the sun. Tlie sparks that flew from the brand became 

 the stars. The sun is constantly pursuing the moon, which keeps in 

 the darkness to avoid being discovered. When an eclipse occurs they 

 are supposed to meet. 



Auroras. — Auroras are believed to be the torches held in the hands 

 of spirits seeking the souls of those who have just died, to lead them 

 over the abyss terminating the edge of the world. A narrow pathway 

 leads across it to the land of brightness and plenty, where disease and 

 pain are no more, and where food of all kinds is always ready in abun- 

 dance. To this place none but the dead and the raven can go. When 

 the spirits wish to communicate with the people of the earth they make 

 a whistling noise and the earth people answer only in a whispering 

 tone. The Eskimo say that they are able to call the aurora and con- 

 verse with it. They send messages to the dead through these spirits. 



The s'ky. — The sky is supposed to be an immense dome, of hard ma- 

 terial, reared over the earth, long from east to west and shorter from 

 north to south. The edges of the land and sea are bounded by high, 

 precipitous sides, shelving outward or sloping inward to prevent aay- 



