Alaskan and Mackenzie Delta Traditions 43 a 



13. A Letter 



(Translation of Text XIII, a portion of a letter written to me by Palaiyaq while 

 working for the Canadian Arctic Expedition among the Copper Eskimos.) 



Today three Copper Eskimos brought two seals over to try to sell. I shall 

 tell you too about some other (Copper) Eskimos, some stories about shamans. 

 There was a shaman who cut off his legs and his arms. The people say that 

 during shamanistic performances the children are not allowed to go outside; 

 further that those who do go out at such times generally die. Even an adult 

 was once killed by a shaman for this reason. The people say too that Uloqsaq 

 and another shaman, when holding a s6ance, forbade the children to go out for 

 fear that they might die. Moreover, the people say that Uloqsaq drew worms 

 and bones out of some persons who were ill. I was told other stories, but some 

 of them I have not narrated. It is finished.^ 



TRADITIONS RECORDED IN ENGLISH 



A. BIRD AND ANIMAL STORIES 



14. The Separation of the Red and White foxes 



(Told by Fred, an Eskimo of Nome, Alaska) 



The red fox and the white fox were living together. The red fox set hooks 

 through holes in the ice and caught a number of tomcod, which they ate frozen 

 in the evening. The white fox said, "I'll make some hooks too and set them; 

 perhaps I shall get some tomcod." So he spent the next day in making hooks. 

 Early the following morning he went out on to the ice, dug some holes, and 

 set his hooks. All the morning he kept examining his hooks, but he caught not 

 a single fish. In the afternoon he noticed something out on the ice — something 

 strange. "What is it?" he said; "It certainly was not there before. What 

 can it be? Is it a block of ice? Or perhaps a seal or a walrus?" He went towards 

 the object. "What is it? I can't make it out yet;" and he went a little nearer, 

 and again nearer still. Then he saw that it was a great walrus lying asleep on 

 the ice. "What shall I do? How am I to kill it? I have no weapon, not even a 

 stick. Suppose I run back home and get something. But then it may be gone 

 before I come back. I don't know how it lives, what it feeds on. No, I had 

 better go back home." So the white fox returned home empty-handed. The 

 red fox was vexed, and said to himself, "What is the use of living with this 

 fellow; he never catches anything." So in the morning the red fox ran away 

 to the mountains and the two have lived apart ever since. 



15. The Red Fox's Adventures 



(Told by Mike, an Eskimo of South Head, Siberia, who married a Mackenzie 

 river woman and lived for many years at Herschel island) 



A wolf and a fox were once together. They had no food, so they decided 

 to fish through a crack in the ice of a lake. The fox told the wolf to let his tail 

 down through the crack into the water. The wolf did so, and the fox covered 

 it all round with snow, tehing the wolf to stay there even if his tail should hurt a 

 little, for soon he would catch a big fish. The fox then went away. Soon the 

 wolf's tail froze and he was unable to pull it out, so in despair he bit it off and 

 started out to follow the fox, intending to punish him for his treachery. But the 

 fox, seeing the wolf coming, covered his eyes with some leaves as though he were 

 snow-blind. When the wolf came up he said, "Why did you tell me to do that?" 

 The fox blinked up and replied, "What do you mean? It must have been some 



iFor this man Uloqsaq see Vol. XII of this series, "The Life of the Copper Eskimos," p. 197, et seq. 



