Myths and Traditions from Northern Alaska, the Mackenzie 

 Delta and Coronation Gulf. 



By D. Jenness 

 Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, Canada 



INTRODUCTION. 



The myths and traditions that are contained in the present volume were 

 collected along the Arctic coast between December, 1913, and June, 1916. 

 They are divided into two parts; the first comprises the Alaskan stories, with 

 which are included one story from the Siberian coast and four others from the 

 Mackenzie river delta; the second comprises the tales collected among the 

 Copper Eskimos, from the regions of Dolphin and Union strait and Coronation 

 gulf. 



Even a surface examination will show that there is a great difference in 

 the tales from the two regions. The Alaskari stories are more sophisticated, as 

 a rule; they are longer and more detailed, and have a definite beginning and 

 ending. The various incidents, too, are placed in their proper setting with just 

 the descriptive touches required to give them an air of reality. The Copper 

 Eskimo tales, on the other hand, have the appearance of disjointed fragments 

 without any setting, and lacking both beginning and ending. They were never 

 told straightforwardly, as in Alaska, but had to be drawn out of the natives 

 piecemeal, word by word and sentence by sentence, with many repetitions and 

 digressions by way of explanation. The English translations tend to gloss over 

 their crude and disjointed character, which is far more noticeable in the original 

 Eskimo. 



This difference in the tales from the two regions seems to have its origin in 

 a difference of mentality. In Alaska story-telling is one of the most favourite 

 pastimes wherever three or four natives are gathered together, especially in the 

 long evenings of winter. The old tales and traditions are repeated again and 

 again in semi-stereotyped forms to never-wearying audiences, until they become 

 almost as familiar to the young men of twenty as they are to the old men of fifty 

 and sixty years. There are special "raconteurs," men who are famous for their 

 knowledge of the old tales and traditions, and these men are welcomed in every 

 household. Many of the stories are so long that two or three evenings are re- 

 quired for their narration. 



Among the Copper Eskimos, on the other hand, there appears to be very 

 little interest in the old traditions. A shaman will occasionally refer to some 

 story in the dance-house, and those natives who are ignorant of it will be en- 

 lightened by their neighbours; but for the most part the traditions are told by 

 the parents to their children, or by a hunter to his companions, on various odd 

 occasions, without any special cause or ceremony. There are no professional 

 story-tellers, and no prestige to be gained by a knowledge of the old traditions. 

 Consequently a man may live to old age and die without ever learning more 

 than half a dozen of the tales that have been handed down by his forefathers. 

 Many natives seem to have a smattering of a few stories without knowing one 

 of them perfectly. 



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