A small boy, who had neither father, mother, nor any living relatives, was dwelling with some people who maltreated him in every way their fancy could suggest. He was kept in the entry way to the hut, like a dog, and was permitted to eat only of the skin of walrus when they had it to give him. At other times they would throw to him what they themselves would not eat. They forbade him to have a knife with which to cut his food, and he was compelled to gnaw the bones like a dog. A little girl, the daughter of the head of the family with whom he lived, would secretly take to him a knife with which to divide the tough skin of the walrus. She also carried food of better quality to him when she could do so clandestinely. These kind attentions pleased him very much, and made him long for an opportunity to escape. But how was he to better his condition when the hand of everybody was raised against him on account of his treatment at home? The little girl who had so often befriended him could not assist him to escape from such a life. He endeavored to lay a plan, but it came to naught. There seemed no help for him. One night he abandoned all hope and threw himself on the ground in despair. While there he gazed at the bright moon, and the more intently his gaze was fixed upon it the more he thought he discerned the face of a man in it, and at last he cried to the man to come and help him escape from his miserable life. The man came down from the moon and gave the poor boy a frightful beating, but the more he was beaten the larger he seemed to grow. After a while he became so strong that he could handle a large rock as easily as he had hitherto handled a little stone. A large, round bowlder from the beach was no more to him than a bullet held in the hand of a strong man.

The moon man then told the boy that he was large enough to take care of himself and do as he pleased with the people who had treated him so badly. With this the two parted, and the moon man went to his hole in the sky, while the boy walked along the beach picking up rocks and tossing them along the shore until the character of the water’s edge was entirely changed. When the boy arrived at the hut it was daylight, for he had tarried so long on the beach testing his strength that the night had slipped away.

The people were terrified when they saw to what enormous proportions the abused boy had grown. He became frenzied the instant he saw his former persecutors, and seizing first one and then the other in his hands dashed them against the rocks. The blood and brains ran in streams. One of the men, seeing his doom, begged for his life and promised his kaiak, spears, sled, and wife if he should be spared. The enraged boy continued the slaughter until only the little girl who had so often befriended him was left. She became his wife, and in the course of a few hours the man, whose name was Kou jé yuk; became of a natural size again and passed his life in comfort.

This story was obtained from a man from Labrador. The Eskimo assert that this occurred near Ohak (often pronounced Okak), now a missionary station. They show the rock, which a little imagination gives the appearance of having dried blood and brains still upon it.

[ The origin of the sun, moon, and stars.—]

At a time when darkness covered the earth a girl was nightly visited by some one whose identity she could not discover. She determined to find out who it could be. She mixed some soot with oil and painted her breast with it. The next time she discovered, to her horror, that her brother had a black circle of soot around his mouth. She upbraided him and he denied it. The father and mother were very angry and scolded the pair so severely that the son fled from their presence. The daughter seized a brand from the fire and pursued him. He ran to the sky to avoid her but she flew after him. The man changed into the moon and the girl who bore the torch became the sun. The sparks that flew from the brand became the stars. The sun is constantly pursuing the moon, which keeps in the darkness to avoid being discovered. When an eclipse occurs they are supposed to meet.

[ Auroras.—]

Auroras are believed to be the torches held in the hands of spirits seeking the souls of those who have just died, to lead them over the abyss terminating the edge of the world. A narrow pathway leads across it to the land of brightness and plenty, where disease and pain are no more, and where food of all kinds is always ready in abundance. To this place none but the dead and the raven can go. When the spirits wish to communicate with the people of the earth they make a whistling noise and the earth people answer only in a whispering tone. The Eskimo say that they are able to call the aurora and converse with it. They send messages to the dead through these spirits.

[ The sky.—]

The sky is supposed to be an immense dome, of hard material, reared over the earth, long from east to west and shorter from north to south. The edges of the land and sea are bounded by high, precipitous sides, shelving outward or sloping inward to prevent anything living on the earth from going to the region beyond. There is the source of light and heat. The dome of the sky is very cold, and at times covered with crystals of frost which fall in the form of snow or frost films to the earth, and then the sky becomes clear. The clouds are supposed to be large bags of water, controlled by two old women who run with them across the sky, and as the water escapes from the seams it falls in the form of rain to the earth. The thunder is their voice and the lightning is their torch. If a spark falls from this on anyone he dies and goes to the region above.