342 THE HUDSON BAY ESKIMO. 



and began to shout aud pursue the auimal, which attained such speed 

 that when he came to the bank of the river he had not time to recall the 

 whales. He gave an extraordinary leap and cleared the entire expanse 

 of the water. He examined the net aud found the fire smouldering. 

 On arrival at his own home he said to his grandmother: "Did I not 

 tell you I would get the tire?" The old woman ventured to inquire 

 how he had crossed the river. He coolly informed her that he had 

 jumped across. 



The spirit guiding a child left by its parents. — An Indian and his 

 wife had but one child, which was so infested with vermin that when 

 the parents contemplated, going to the tents of some distant friends 

 the father advised the mother to leave the child behind. The next 

 morning after the mother had taken down the tent the little boy asked 

 her "Mother, are you not going to put on my moccasins?" the mother 

 replied, "I shall put them on after I have put on my snow-shoes." The 

 little boy said, "Surely you are not going to leave me!" She said, "No;" 

 but took hold of her sled and started off. The little boy cried out, 

 "Mother, you are leaving me," and endeavored to overtake her in his 

 bare feet; but the mother soon was out of sight. The little boy began 

 to cry and retraced his steps to the tent place. There he cried until 

 the spirit of a dead man came to him and asked, "Where is your 

 mother? " The boy replied, " She has gone away aud left me." "Why 

 did she leave you ! " asked the old man. " Because I was so covered 

 with lice," replied the boy. The spirit said it would remove all of the 

 lice but three. So it began to pick them off. After this was done the 

 spirit asked. "Where did your mother go?" The boy pointed out her 

 track. The spirit then said to the boy, "Would you like to go to your 

 mother?" Theboy answered, "Yes." The spirit put the boy on his back 

 and started in the path made by the sled of his mother. After a while 

 they came to a tree and in looking at it the boy saw a porcupine sitting 

 among the branches. The boy greatly desired to have the animal. 

 So he said, "Grandfather, I wish you would kill the porcupine." The 

 old man answered, "It will make too much smoke for me to kill it." 

 After a time they came across a hare which the boy again desired to 

 have. To this the man assented. So he put the boy down in the snow 

 and soon caught the hare antl killed it. It was now becoming dark, 

 so they made their camping place for the night. The spirit gave the 

 boy the hare.and told him to cook it. After the meat was cooked the 

 boy asked the old man what parts of the animal he preferred. The 

 old man said "Give me the lungs and kidneys." The boy gave him 

 those parts and consumed the remainder himself. They laid down 

 to sleep and in the morning they again started on the sled track. 

 About noon they came to the tents of the Indians, and among them 

 was the tent of the father and mother of the little boy. The spirit 

 l)laced the boy down on the outside near the door of the mother's tent 

 and told him to go in. The boy entered and saw his lather and mother 



