Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/185

 Tales of the Smith Sound Eskimo. 173

tinued. Then he called out, "Close on them, you up there," and the cleft closed up, imprisoning the children. The people tried to chop through the rock, to get at the children, but could not rescue them, nor even make a hole large enough to pass food down. They did, however, succeed in making a small hole, through which they heard the children crying for water. They poured water down through this opening until the children starved to death. The place is still to be seen in Akpalearqssuk, though the hole is now alto- gether closed up.

The fathers of the dead children then said of the hunter, " We will kill him." They prepared and made ready, putting on their boots, and left, going after him with dogs and sleighs. The hunter fled, running on foot, they pursuing him. As he ran he gradually rose from the ground, and finally reached the sky, where he was turned into a star. This is the star Naulaxssaqton.

XII. THE PLEIADES.

A number of dogs were pursuing a bear on the ice. The bear gradually rose up into the air, as did the dogs, until they reached the sky. Then they were turned into stars. The bear became a larger star in the centre of a group. The constellation (the Pleiades) is called "nanuq," "bear." 1

XIII. THE RAVEN.

1. A raven flew above a person, carrying something in his bill. " What have you in your bill, raven ? " the person asked. " A man's thigh-bone," the raven answered. " I eat it because I like it. I am going to swallow it."

2. A man, who was an angakoq, went visiting. He entered the raven's house. The raven at once began to give orders to his son. He said: "Go out and get excrements." His son went out and soon returned, bringing a large excrement. The raven told the man to eat of the excrement. The raven said, "Eat!" But the man did not eat of the excrement. The gull said to him : " Come over here to me." The man came and went in its house. The gull went out and brought back trout. The man began to eat the trout. He ate them up. Then he left the house, went away, and arrived home. 2

3. A small snowbird was crying because she had lost her hus- band. While she was crying, the raven, who had no wife, came

1 In Greenland and East Greenland we find the same myth. It occurs also in Labrador and the Central Regions, though there it is transferred to Orion.

2 Rink, T. and T. p. 451 (The Birds' Cliff), an abridgment oiEventyr og Sagn, i. 335 ; Boas, Journal of A merican Folk-Lore, ii. 128.

�� �