FABLES OF THE ALEUTIANS 
75 
to take notice of their superstitions, rites, and funeral solem¬ 
nities. It must of course be very difficult to trace the origiii of 
a people so remote and savage, which lias no other documents 
than what oral tradition affords, blended as it is with a thousand 
fables, and confused bv a thousand contradictions. In such 
cases, the best means of getting at the truth, is to compare the 
customs, manners, and language of one people with those of 
another, and from thence to draw our conclusions. At the same 
time, I have not neglected any information which could possibly 
be collected from their incongruous relations, and for that 
reason took particular pains to converse with the old men on 
this subject. 
From the thin population found in these islands, I concluded 
that they could not have been long inhabited, and that the 
inhabitants probably knew something by tradition of the place 
whence they came; but I could gain no satisfactory answer 
to my enquiries; for the two tales related to me by a 
couple of old men, did not at all accord, and afforded me no 
due to a farther solution. “ One informed me, that God, after 
the creation of these islands, also created men who were ori¬ 
ginally immortal, and when they had reached old age, went on 
a lofty mountain and threw 7 themselves into a lake, from whence 
they came out possessed of renovated youth ; but that God in the 
mean time fell in love with one of their virgins, and took her to 
be his wife, who once, in a familiar conversation, reproached 
him with having committed a fault in the creation of the Aleu¬ 
tian Islands, bv giving them so many mountains, and no wood. 
Upon this God was extremely indignant, and killed her brother, 
which was the introduction of mortality among men.” 
According to the other fable, the Aleutians are said to descend 
from a dog, that fell from the sky on the island of Umnak, which 
had two puppies, a male and a female, that had dog’s paws; 
but the progeny of these were perfect men. As they multi¬ 
plied, and the island became too small for them, dissensions 
arose, and they were compelled to seek habitations elsewhere, 
some going eastward to Cape Alaksa, others to the cluster of 
islands in the west, whence they received various appella¬ 
tions. The inhabitants of Atta, are called Sagignas; those of 
the Andrejeuow Islands Negochas; those of the Rat Islands, 
Kogochas; those of the Volcanic Islands, Akoganas; those of 
Umnak and Unalaschka, Kagulangas; those of Umnak and the 
other circumjacent islands, Kigegonas; those of Umnak, San- 
nach, and Uega, Kagantagumas-; those of Kadjak, Kanagas; 
those of Cook’s River, Kenaizas; and those of Prince William’s 
Bay, Schugatschas. Not a single Aleutian can assign a reason 
for these different appellations ; notwithstanding which, all these 
