44 A Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



other fox, not I; you see I am snow-blind." So the wolf went away. Then the 

 fox dropped the leaves and set out to look for food. He came upon a moose and 

 said to him, "I know where there is plenty of food. Come with me and I will 

 show you. The wolf is there already." The fox led the moose down a steep 

 cliff where his victim, having no claws to hold on by, slipped and fell to the 

 bottom, and was killed. The fox lived on the carcase until it was all consumed, 

 then set out again on his wanderings. He met a brown bear limping, and asked, 

 "What is the matter with you?" The brown bear replied, "Some men shot two 

 arrows into me." "Oh," said the fox, "I'll soon make you well." So he kindled 

 a fire and told the brown bear to lie down. Then he heated on the fire a long 

 flat stone with sharp edges, and, taking it up with two other stones, pressed it 

 into the wound. The bear howled with the pain, but the fox told him to lie 

 still and not to mind, for soon he would be cured. Again he heated the stone, 

 and this time he pressed it deeper into the wound until the inside of the bear 

 was all burnt up and the animal killed. The fox then ate the carcase. 



16. The Red Fox's Adventures 

 (Told by Jennie Thomsen, an Eskimo woman of Cape Prince of Wales) 



One summer a red fox left her young ones at home and sallied forth in 

 search of food. She met a black bear on the tundra and greeted him with "How 

 do you do, cousin." The bear returned the greeting and said, "I'm hungry." 

 "So am I," said the fox. "Let's go and look for something; I'll go this way and 

 you go that." "Oh, I only frighten the ptarmigan," the bear said; "When 

 I try to catch them they just fly up." "Ptarmigan are easy enough to kill," 

 returned the fox, "It's men that I am afraid of." "I am not afraid of men," 

 the bear said, "But I can't catch ptarmigan." "Well," the fox said, "I'll get 

 you some ptarmigan quickly enough; you just wait here." So the bear waited, 

 and soon the fox came back with some ptarmigan. The bear was very grateful 

 and said, "Thank you, thank you, fox;" and when he had eaten them he said: 

 "You were very good, you brought me some ptarmigan; now I'll go and bring 

 you a man. You wait for me here." So the fox waited and waited, and after 

 a long time the bear returned. But he brought no man with him; instead he 

 was staggering as he walked, and the blood was dripping on to the ground, for 

 the man had shot him in the side with an arrow and the shaft had broken off, 

 leaving the head in the wound. The fox said, "Alas, my cousin! This is terrible. 

 However, I'll soon make you well." Then she made a fire, heated some stones 

 in it and said to the bear: "Lie down here and stretch your legs out. If I hurt 

 you, don't flinch; if you do you will kill yourself, for I shall not be able to ex- 

 tract the arrow." The bear lay down and the fox pressed the red-hot stones 

 into its flank, deeper and deeper the more the bear squirmed and groaned. 

 Presently the groans ceased — the bear was dead. Then the fox danced round 

 and round on her tiind legs, gleefully exclaiming: "What a clever person I am; 

 now I have plenty of food." She never returned to her young but stayed all 

 the summer in this place, living on the bear. Winter came round and she was 

 short of food again, for the whole of the bear had been eaten up except the bones, 

 which she gathered together into a heap. A wolf came along, and the fox went 

 to meet him. "How are you, cousin?" she said; and they shook iiands. The 

 wolf said "I'm hungry." "Are you?" replied the fox. "I'll show you how to 

 get something to eat. You see that river down there." There was a river 

 near by partly frozen over. Here and there were holes in the ice and pools of 

 water on the surface. "Go down there," the fox continued, "And catch some 

 salmon. I'll make you hooks. All you have to do is to sit beside a hole and 

 lower your hook into the water. You must sit quite still all day until the sun 

 is about to set; then pull up your hooks; there will be plenty of salmon on 

 them. Believe me, I've done it often myself." Well, the wolf sat down beside 

 a hole in the ice and waited. Meanwhile the fox went off — she was going to 



