reading notes: eskimo folk tales part a

 a bear with a coke

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the warriors went out and caught a bear for food. the bear had a cub who they gave to an old lonely women. she raised this cub and it grew to understand human. it played with the children until it became to big, then the men, and then eventually went hunting with them. it caught a lot of good food for them to eat, but another tribe almost killed it not knowing it was friend. the old woman gave it a collar so it could be recognized. a man in the north heard of this bear that nobody dared kill, so he set out to kill it. the woman warned the bear to never harm a human, unless they attack first. the bear came home with this dead north man and the woman had to get rid of the bear for surely others would come to fighht him. she drew a big black circle on his side and set him free. people still speak of occasionally seeing a bear as big as a glacier with a big black spot on its side.

a lame little boy lost his parents and sister. ghosts came into his house and drank and party and left before the villagers ever saw. nobody believed his tales so they tied him up. his parents and sister untied him and turned him into a ghost.

there was once a giant dog that could swim in the frigid ocean and catch whales and narwhals. this giant dog ate a man, so him and the owners had to move. the dog was in the habit of doing this, so a man with three large dogs cam to kill the giant one. the giant dog crushed all of their skulls. the dog would visit a near by island and eat an islander and bring back a leg as a trophy. the islanders were very scared of dogs from then on.


Story source: Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).