Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/191

 Tales of the Smith Sound Eskimo. 1 79

dead. When the body was dry, they hung it in a cave. The two brothers went to look for the body, and at last found her still alive. When the girl saw them coming she sang : —

Tartuka issialngi tingoga ntiyarahigi omatiga nakturalugo. My kidneys are my eyes, My liver is my hair, My heart is my belly.

The brothers then put her body on a skin blanket and carried it out. 1

XXV. AKSSAIT IQOXIE (HE CUT OFF HER FINGERS).

They were all sleeping in the house, when she began to eat her father and mother. Her parents awoke, and went out of the house. The people now all ran away, and entered an umiak (large skin-boat). Her father, however, went to the house for a knife, and brought his daughter down to the water. Because she had not wanted to marry, he cut off her fingers when they were in the boat. The fingers became the various kinds of seals (except Phoca barbata), and wal- ruses, and narwhals. 2

XXVI. THE SUN AND THE MOON. 3

The sun and moon were sister and brother. He loved her incest- ously. She cut off her breast, saying to him, " Tangmarma mama- lunga" ("I who altogether taste good," or " Enjoy the taste of all of me"). 4 Then she fled and he pursued. Both carried torches. He stumbled and fell, his torch being extinguished. They gradually

1 This, the narrator claimed, was an actual occurrence. While he was still a small boy, a visitor came to the house while he was lying on the bed between his parents, pretending to be asleep. Then his father sang the above song.

2 I was unable to obtain any explanation of this seeming fragment, which I have translated literally. The story undoubtedly refers to Arnaquagssaq of the Greenlanders, or Sedna of the Central Eskimo, who is known as Nerivik at Smith Sound ; but the Eskimo refused to identify positively the woman of this story with Nerivik. In two points — the eating of the parents, and the woman's un- willingness to marry — there is resemblance to the corresponding tale of the Central tribes (Boas, pp. 584, 586). See, also, Rink, Eskimo Tribes, p. 17 ; Turner, p. 262.

3 Cf. Rink, T. and T. p. 237; Boas, p. 597; Turner, p. 276; Holm, Sagn,p. 34.

4 In Greenland she says, " Since my body seems to please thee, pray take these and eat them." In Baffin Land her words are, "Since you seem to relish me, eat this; " at Point Barrow, in Alaska, " My whole person being delicious, eat this also." (" Ta-mati'g-ma vmm-mang-mang-an'g-ma nigh'-e-ro" that is, " Tam- arma tnamarmat dma neriuk") In Angmagsalik, she says, " Since you like me so much, eat me."

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