the Point Barrow Eskimos. 597 
essential variation of names or incidents, and without being able 
to get more details, is the skeleton of one of the semi-mythical 
traditions so common in Greenland, which may really refer to ` 
some actual occurrences in ancient times, but which have been 
localized and adapted to suit the region in which the narrator 
ives. 
~ 
The death of Kokpausina bears a strong resemblance to the 
`“ final catastrophe of the Greenland story of Kagsuk (see Rink’s 
“ Tales,” &c., p. 431), which is said to have taken place in Green- 
land, in the districts of Holsteinborg and of Sukkertoppen, and 
according to Dr. Rink is perhaps a variant of an older tale only 
localized in this: way. In this story the wicked Kagsuk, after 
committing various deeds of violence, at last murders the sons of 
two old men “clever in magic spells.” To revenge themselves 
they prepare “ bows of an arm’s length,” and while others engage 
Kagsuk’s attention in front they creep up behind, escaping obser- 
vation by magic, and shoot him dead. 
It seems hardly too bold a statement to say that if Kagsuk and 
Kokpausina were real persons at all they were one and the same 
man, who lived neither at Sukkertoppen nor at Pernye, but some- 
Where in the common home of the prehistoric Eskimos, before 
the Greenlanders started on their weary journey towards the east 
and the men of Point Barrow on’ their perhaps longer journey 
_ towards the setting sun. : 
It is interesting to note that the five very strong and (appa- 
tently) wicked brothers who appear in this story are evidently 
€ same as the “band of five brothers, generally called ‘a lot of’ 
brothers or men ” who, according to Dr. Rink, figure in so many 
of the Greenland tales as the personification of haughtiness or ee 
brutality, ne 
E EEE ee | ee ae ee a ges PE 
pi 
: 6. A murder at Cape Smyth. Udlimau was once given as the 
name of one of Kokpausina’s four brothers, but the narrator 
afterwards corrected himself and said, as did other natives also, 
that Udlimau was a bad man who long ago lived at Utkliavwing 
(Cape Smyth) and who murdered Kumnero as he lay asleep be- 
i his wife by cutting him across the bowels. The house where s 
-S murder was committed was pointed out to us in the village. 
kg is probably an account of an actual occurrence, as is the fol- 
owing: : š : é 
~ 7. The people who talked like dogs. Long ago, when there — 
