Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 10 (North American).djvu/48

8 first three are low-roofed and uncomfortable, only the fourth and lowest is roomy and pleasant. The upper world is beyond the visible sky, which is a huge dome revolving about a mountain-top; it is a land with its own hills and valleys, duplicating Earth. Its "owners" are the Inue of the celestial bodies, who once were men, but who have been translated to the heavens and are now the celestial lights. The road to the upper world is not free from perils: on the way to the moon there is a person who tempts wayfarers to laughter, and if successful in making them laugh takes out their entrails. Perhaps this is a kind of process of disembodying; for repeatedly in Eskimo myth occur spirit-beings which when seen face to face appear to be human beings, but when seen from behind are like skeletons.

The Sun and the Moon were sister and brother—mortals once. In a house where there was no light they lay together, and when the sister discovered who had been her companion, in her shame she tore off her breasts and threw them to her brother, saying, "Since my body pleaseth thee, taste these, too." Then she fled away, her brother pursuing, and each bearing the torches by means of which they had discovered one another. As they ran they rose up into the heavens; the sister's torch burned strong and bright, and she became the Sun; the brother's torch died to a mere ember, and he became the Moon. When the Sun rises in the sky and summer is approaching, she is coming "to give warmth to orphans," say the Eskimo; for in the Far North, where many times in the winter starvation is near, the lot of the orphan is grimly uncertain.

The Greenlanders are alert to the stars, especially those that foretell the return of the summer sun; when Orion is seen toward dawn, summer is coming and hearts are joyous.