[1] The actual statement both here and on page [39] is that the woman and the Man in the Moon beat the pups and the boy with sticks to make them grow. Is not our birthday beating, "one for each year and one to grow on" a survival of this ancient superstition?
VI
THE BIRD WIFE
Itajung, one of the Inuit tribe, was vexed because a young woman would not marry him, so he left his home and traveled far away into the land of the birds. He came to a small lake in which many geese were swimming. On the shore he saw a great many boots. He cautiously crept near and stole a pair and hid them.
Presently the birds came out of the water, and finding a pair of boots gone they were alarmed, and quickly forming into two long lines with their leader at the point where the lines met, they flew away crying, "Honk! Honk! Honk!"
But one of the flock remained behind crying, "I want my boots! I want my boots!"
Itajung came forth from his hiding-place and said, "I will give you your boots if you will become my wife."
"That I will not do," she replied.