Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/178

 1 66 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

��TALES OF THE SMITH SOUND ESKIMO.

The following tales were collected during the winter of 1897-98 from the Smith Sound Eskimo then in New York city, in the charge of the American Museum of Natural History. They are as far as possible a literal translation of the original texts. But as the Eskimo tell their tales in very abridged form, it has been necessary to add occasional connecting and explanatory matter secured through an interpreter. Since the value of these tales is chiefly for comparison, notes have been added, though no detailed comparisons have been attempted. The chief works referred to are : for Greenland (and Labrador), H. Rink, " Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo," a selection and translation from the same author's Danish " Eskimoiske Eventyr og Sagn ;" for East Greenland (Angmagsalik), Holm, " Sagn og Fort- taellinger fra Angmagsalik ; " for Baffin Land and the Central Es- kimo generally, F. Boas," The Central Eskimo," in the Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology ; for Labrador (Ungava Bay), L. M. Turner, " Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Ter- ritory," in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Other works referred to are cited by their full titles.

I. THE TUTUATUIN.

In the house a child was awake, while the old people slept. He stayed awake, playing with seal knuckle-bones. A Tutuatuin came to the window and called to him from the outside : —

" Come out, human being, we will play ; come out through the door."

His father said : —

" Put on my boots and my trousers, and your mother's jacket, and go." He then put on his father's boots and trousers and his mo- ther's jacket. 1 He went out, and the Tutuatuin brought him into his own house underground. The Tutuatuin said : —

" Whose boots are those ? "

" My father's boots."

" Whose trousers ? " the Tutuatuin asked.

" My father's."

" Whose jacket are you wearing ? "

" I am wearing my mother's jacket."

"Go out, go away ! "

The boy went out. 2

1 In another version, mother and father are interchanged.

2 All that I could learn about the Tutuatuin was that he was a fabulous being with tangled hair.

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