Copper Eskimo Traditions 81 a 



(6) Told by Milukattak 



Once there was a woman who was always changing her husbands till at 

 last her father made her marry a dog. Her children were a brown bear, a white 

 bear, human beings and dogs. The human children wandered ofif to different 

 places, and became different, some turning into white men, others forming the 

 different tribes of Eskimos. 



(c) Told by Ilatsiaq 



A woman's father once said to her, "You don't want to marry any man, 

 you had tatter marry a dog." The result of the union was a litter of pups, 

 which turned into brown bears when they grew up and devoured their grand- 

 father, then ran away. 



id) Told by Uloqsaq 



In the first times there were no men and only a single woman. She mated 

 with a dog, and bore therefrom a litter of dogs and human beings. The latter 

 increased in numbers, and the woman proceeded to plant them out in different 

 places. Some in one place became white men, others in another place Indians, 

 while still others became Eskimos. Thus the different countries were populated. 



(e) Told by Ikpakhuaq 



There once lived a man with a wife and one daughter. The daughter, as 

 fast as she married one man, deserted him and married another. At last her 

 father married her to a dog and marooned her on an island. There the woman 

 bore two children. After a time the man went to visit his daughter, leaving his 

 wife on the mainland. As soon as his kayak put in to the beach he was ap- 

 proached by a brown bear and a white bear, his daughter's children, whom their 

 mother had sent to kill their grandfather. They licked all along the side of his 

 kayak till the man became angry and attacked them, whereupon the brown bear 

 turned on him and killed him. The woman continued to have the dog for her 

 husband, and used the two bears to drag her sled, but the brown bear ever 

 since that time has been very savage and goes out of its way to attack mankind. 

 Finally the woman went into the water to live. Now when the Eskimos are 

 plagued with bad weather their shamans call upon this woman to relieve them. 

 Sometimes she is kind and helps people, but sometimes she is angry and tries 

 to kill them by sending bad weather and breaking up the ice. 



Cf. Rink, story 148; Kroeber, p. 167; Rasmussen, p. 104f.; Meddelelaer om Gr*nland, Vol. XXXIX, p. 270f.; 

 Boaa, Bulletin, A.M.N.H., Vol. XV, pt. I, p. 369 with references; Hawkes, p. 152; Nelson, p. 482f.; Joehelson, p. 374 

 (19), Petitot, p. 301£. 



D. QUASI-HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 



73. The "Golden Age" 



(Told by Ikpakhuaq) 



Long ago there were but few Eskimos living on Victoria island. No caribou 

 ever visited that country, and there were neither trout nor salmon in the lakes 

 and streams. The only food which the people could obtain consisted of snow- 

 buntings and longspurs, and the very small sticklebacks that live in the lakes. 



74. Raids by White Men 

 (Told by Avranna) 



Long ago there was a settlement of Eskimos on the bank of the Nagyuktok 

 river in the south of Victoria island. A party of white men came along and 

 killed all the inhabitants except two men, who took refuge in some holes in the 

 banks Two white men pursued them, but one of them, as he peered over the 



