Alaskan and Mackenzie Delta Traditions 51 a 



and fell asleep. He was awakened by something tugging at his leg, and looking 

 down he saw a red fox. He sat up. The fox pulled back its hood, changed into 

 a man, and said, "Where have you come from?" "Oh, I have come from a long 

 way off in pursuit of my wife. Now I have reached this lake and cannot get 

 across; I shall never find her now." But the fox said, "You see that big mountain 

 on the other side; you must climb that. There will be dead Eskimos lying all 

 about the path, but you must take no notice of them; you must keep on and on 

 and on, however tired you are. If you stop only once you will surely die, and 

 never see your wife again. Never mind the dead bodies, keep on going until 

 you reach the top. Then when you get there you will see down below a large 

 village containing many people. One house will be bigger than the rest; that 

 is where your wife lives. Around it there will be plenty of reindeer, and inside 

 abundance of everything that you can wish. Your boy you will find as tall as 

 yourself, and your little girl has grown too. Now sit on my back and close 

 your eyes; don't look, but just hold on tight." So the young man climbed on 

 to the fox's back, closed his eyes, and the fox started off. Presently it stopped — 

 the lake was far behind them and they were at the foot of the mountain. Here 

 the young man alighted, and the fox said alienamiuk ("We are both glad," 

 i.e. "Goodbye"). "Goodbye," said the youth. "Some day I'll requite you 

 with a piece of caribou meat or something." "Very well," said the fox, "Only 

 remember, don't stop until you get to the top, however tired you may be." 



So the young man set out to climb the mountain. All day he walked, never 

 turning to right or left, never heeding the dead bodies with which his path was 

 strewn. No darkness came to obscure the way now, but his legs began to ache 

 long before the top was in sight. Still he struggled on. Once he stumbled and 

 almost fell, so terrible was the aching in his limbs; but looking up he saw the 

 summit just a little way beyond, and with one last effort he managed to gain it. 

 Slowly he recovered and looked around him. There below was the village, as 

 the fox had told him; and there was the big house with the reindeer near by. 

 Hurriedly he descended and approached the houses. But now two men came 

 from the big house directly towards him. "What does this mean?" he said to 

 himself; "What do they want?" He searched about, found a stout willow 

 stick and hid behind a bush. The men came close up and were passing by 

 when he sprang out and smote them one after the other on the back of the neck 

 and slew them. Quickly he dug a hole in the ground and buried them, then 

 hurried on to the big house. In the passage he stopped to brush the snow off 

 his clothes and boots. Suddenly the door opened and a boy came out, said 

 tiayayat/a and quickly went inside again, calling out "Mother, father is here." 

 But the young woman within laughed at him. The boy went outside again and 

 the young man said to him, "Boy, give me some water, I'm thirsty; tell your 

 mother to bring it out." So the boy went inside and told his mother that his 

 father wanted her to take him out some water. Still she did not believe, but 

 said, "What are you talking about, my son? Your father is a long way from 

 here. Your father's mother was a bad woman, so we left them;" and she refused 

 to go out. Then her husband went inside himself and found another man 

 sitting on the sleeping platform. "What are you doing here?" the young man 

 said; "She is my wife, not your's." The other man was afraid and said never a 

 word, but presently took his mittens and coat and departed. Then the young 

 man turned to his wife and said, "How the boy has grown, and the girl too." 

 But his wife answered, "You are not my husband. He is far far away and can 

 never come here." "0, but I have come. I am he. You know the river beside 

 the house. I followed you up the river and walked day after day, never stopping 

 until I reached here." "No Eskimos ever come here," she rejoined. "This is 

 my country, the ducks' country. I think you must be some other man, not my 

 husband." "Do you remember the big mountain on this side of the lake? I 

 climbed right up that mountain, never stopping once. My legs ached, my body 

 ached, often I nearly stopped, often nearly dropped down, but I was afraid I 



