34 A Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



shut in without food. The eldest kept telling the two younger ones that their 

 parents must be dead, whereupon they wept, but after a time began to smg. 

 The second one sang, "What form shall I take to go out? Let me change into a 

 red fox and go out— mag." So he turned into a red fox and went out. Then 

 the youngest began to sing, "What form shall I take to go out? Let me change 

 into a raven and go out — kr-r-r kr-r-r." So he became a raven and went out. 

 The eldest thought for a while, then decided that he could best overtake the 

 other two if he changed into a wolf, and in this mind he sang in his turn, "What 

 form shall I take to go out? Let me change into a wolf and go out— mw hu." 

 So he turned into a wolf and went out. He told his younger brothers to keep 

 following him, but as they went along, the red fox fell behind. The two m 

 front disappeared behind a high hill. When the fox reached the top, he saw 

 below him a caribou that his eldest brother had just killed. The raven ate the 

 bowels of the caribou, the red fox the back fat all by himself, and the wolf the 

 liver. So they lived thereafter. 



Cf. Rasmussen, p. 142. 



7. The Castaway 

 (Translation of Text VII. Told by Qapqana, a Colville river Eskimo woman) 



There were some people once living on' the seashore. In spring they used 

 to go inland along a river, but when the caribou season was over and the winter 

 returned, they went back to the coast. Amongst them was a couple who had one 

 child, a girl. She had once an older brother, but he died. When the girl grew up 

 men wooed her, but she refused them all. A rich man's sons wooed her, but she 

 refused them. Her father wanted to turn her out, but when he spoke of it to 

 the girl's mother, she objected. However, as the father insisted on turning her 

 out, her parents took her away, proposing to abandon her. They went back 

 along the river up on to the tundra, taking the girl with them and only one pot. 

 When they reached the place, the girl went off to bring water for her parents, 

 and as she was going off, her mother gave her a small ulo. She hurried along, 

 looking about for good water, and after finding it started back again; but far 

 away towards the river she saw her parents hurrying off in the distance. The 

 girl cried, then set to work with her little knife and made a hole in the bank. 

 She went to sleep, and on waking kept enlarging the hole till at length she made 

 a large dwelling of it. In the morning she said to herself, "I shall starve here. 

 I had better search for jetsam along the seashore." So she went down to the 

 shore and found some worms and small fish, which she collected and took home. 

 Next morning she gathered more of the fish, made a large heap of them, and 

 went to look for dead seals. As she was walking along she found a seal, which 

 she took home and cut up with her ulo. Then she made a lamp and a drill, 

 and taking them inside the house, lit the lamp with the drill. She found a 

 second seal and cut that up. One skin she used to cover the doorway; the 

 other she converted into a window. She looked about again for a third, and found 

 a bearded seal, which she cut up also. However, she did not carry it home at 

 once, but took it in the winter; thus she obtained a supply of food for that 

 winter. Down by the sea she saw her father pulling a sled, and cried afresh at 

 the sight. But she did not see him in the winter, though she frequently saw on 

 the coast the men who had wanted to marry her. When spring came she used to 

 gather eggs. One day when the atmosphere was free from mirage she went 

 out to get eggs, and saw some packs of caribou meat, which she took home and 

 ate. From the skin of the caribou she made a pair of trousers, and from the 

 leg skins a pair of boots. After they were finished, she went out again in the 

 morning and found more packs, which she carried home likewise in great joy. 

 Her father, she thought, was giving them all to her. From some of the skins in 

 this pack she made a coat, but when it was finished she had no fringes for either 

 the bottom or the top; so in the morning she went out again, and found more 



