Alaskan and Mackenzie Delta Traditions 61 A 



tell us all about it," he said, and, taking hold of Amisunaq by the arm, he dragged 

 him out through the window and led him away to his house. There Amisunaq 

 told them all that had happened. As soon as it was broad day, all the men in 

 the village began to search for the missing children, but all they found were 

 huge footprints in the snow leading from the door of the dance-house, and a 

 great pressure ridge of ice on the beach in which were embedded the childrens' 

 mangled heads and trunks and limbs; it was the giant that lived under the 

 ice that had carried them off. The villagers determined to revenge the outrage, 

 but at the time they could do nothing. Amisunaq went to live with the old 

 man during the remainder of the winter and all through the following spring 

 and summer. Late in the autumn, just when the ice began to pack in from the 

 sea, the men all gathered in the dance-house one evening and played as the 

 children had done the year before; they sang the same song, and threw 

 Amisunaq out of doors in the same way. Everything happened as before; 

 first there was nothing, then a light far out on the ice, then a great fire on the 

 beach. But the men, instead of hiding, gathered round the trap-door. On 

 one side stood a man with an axe in his hand; opposite him another with a 

 large knife; on the third side a man wielded a great club, and a fourth held three 

 or four big stones. So they waited. Presently loud rending and crashing was 

 heard outside, and a gigantic arm was thrust in through the door. Axe, knife, 

 rocks, club, all fell at once; the arm was immediately withdrawn. Next morn- 

 ing the same huge tracks were visible in the snow outside the house, but this 

 time they were stained with pools of blood — the giant had gone away only to die. 



Cf. Rink, story 10; Rasmussen, p. 197; Ragmussen and Worater, p. 117; Boas, Bull. A.M.N.H., Vol. XV, pt. I, 

 p. 497; Nelson, p. SlOf. 



31. The Ptarmigan Thieves 

 (Told by Jennie Thomsen) 



At Tin City (the tapqaymiut lived in this neighbourhood long before any 

 township arose) there dwelt not very long ago an old woman with her two 

 grandchildren, a boy and a girl. The boy was very skilful at catching ptarmigan 

 in a net and kept the household well supplied with them; but after a time, when 

 he visited his net each morning, he always found it empty — someone had stolen 

 the ptarmigan in the night. He told his grandmother, "I can't catch any more 

 ptarmigan because someone is always stealing them from the net." The old 

 lady mumbled — she was so old that she could hardly speak — ^"Well, never mind, 

 my boy." "Oh, but I don't want you to go hungry," he said. "I'm going to 

 find out who it is." That night he lay in hiding near his net and watched. 

 Soon two men came along and he could hear their conversation. One said to 

 the other, "I don't like it at all. I feel very frightened; someone must be watch- 

 ing us, for I never felt like this before." His companion told him to come on 

 and not to be a fool. "You're dreaming," he said. "No, I'm not dreaming," 

 protested the first; "I tell you I don't like it. I feel nervous." "Oh, come on," 

 exclaimed the other. "Let's take these ptarmigan out." So one held the net 

 up on one side and the other on the other, and they stripped it of all the ptarmi- 

 gan. The boy said to himself, "What right have they to steal my ptarmigan?" 

 and suddenly called out poq-pjq-poq-pjq-pjq-pDq-pjq. The men dropped the 

 ptarmigan in their alarm and ran, but the boy was determined to find out who 

 they were and gave chase, shouting at their heels all the time poq-poq. He 

 pursued them over a low ridge (close to the present Tin City) and saw them 

 enter a small round house on the other side. Quietly he stole on to the roof, 

 lifted up a corner of the window and looked down. Inside was a shaman sitting 

 on the sleeping platform and the two thieves were breathlessly relating to him 

 their adventure. Suddenly the boy called out from the roof poq-poq-poq. The 

 thieves sprang up almost simultaneously, shrieking "The spirit, the spirit," 

 and pitched forward on to their faces and lay dead. The shaman, seeing his twc 



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