2 A Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



It is possible of course that the sketchiness and incompleteness of the 

 Copper Eskimo mythology is rather more pronounced in this collection than it 

 should be, owing to the difficulty I experienced in inducing the natives to impart 

 their knowledge. Even those Eskimos with whom I had lived in the closest 

 association for over a year were reluctant to tell me anything for fear that their 

 fellow-countrymen might disapprove. Towards the end of our stay, indeed, as 

 more natives became gradually involved, they were more communicative, 

 and their reluctance will doubtless rapidly disappear with the influx of white 

 men and western natives into their territory. It may then be found that the 

 traditions known to these Eskimos are considerably more numerous and complete 

 than would appear from this collection. 



The original stock of mythological tales and traditions that were the inherit- 

 ance of the Eskimo race before its diffusion has probably undergone more change 

 in Alaska than among the eastern tribes, partly by reason of the contact that 

 the Alaskan Eskimos have had with the Indians of the interior and with the 

 Ural-Altaic races of northeast Siberia, partly also owing to the very passion of 

 the Alaskan natives for stories, a passion that has led to the creation amongst 

 them of a vast wealth of romantic tales and pseudo-historial traditions of which 

 we have as yet only a fragmentary knowledge. It is unfortunate that no large 

 collection of tales has been published from the Mackenzie river Eskimos, so that 

 we could discover whether the same development has taken place in that regon 

 also. In Coronation gulf, as I have already mentioned, the mine of mytho- 

 logical lore is very much poorer. The tales that are current there show a far 

 greater affinity with the tales recorded from Hudson bay and Baffin land than 

 with those of Alaska; they seem to indicate that the Copper Eskimos have had 

 closer relations with the tribes south-east of them than with those to the west. 

 A list of the mythological themes common to the various regions would make 

 this point more clear, but I have not considered it worth while to attempt such 

 a list for a small and isolated portion of the American continent, and folk-lorists 

 have not as yet compiled a systematic and comprehensive list that would em- 

 brace a wider area. 



No distinctions are made by the Eskimos, as far as I am aware, in the types 

 of stories that are current among them; all alike bear the same name, ompkat, 

 from Point Hope in North Alaska to as far east as Coronation gulf. It is very 

 difficult to say how far they are regarded as true records of past events. The 

 more sophisticated Eskimos of Alaska appeared to consider the animal stories 

 somewhat in the light of fairy-tales, but they still retained an absolute belief in 

 those that recounted shamanistic miracles or the activities of ghosts and other 

 ;supernatural beings. Among the Copper Eskimos, on the other hand, all the 

 tales seemed to be regarded as equally true. In the absence, then, of any dis- 

 tinctions made by the natives themselves, I have arranged the stories in this 

 •collection according to their subject-matter, both as a convenient method of 

 ^grouping and to give greater ease of reference. 



PHONETIC SYSTEM 



