It was a long way, and many caribou came after her and caught her parka in their teeth and tried to bite her, but as soon as they tasted the cranberry juice it was so terribly sour all their teeth fell out, leaving them unable to bite any more.
When the mother came to where her two sons were lying, they seemed to be asleep and covered with wounds from the bites of the caribou.
Crying, “Wake up, wake up!” in a loud voice, she kicked the soles of their feet, first one then the other. As she did this, each one in turn sat up and opened his eyes. They were very happy to see their mother, and she rejoiced to find them alive. Then she helped them to their feet and took them home and nursed them back to health.
As soon as their wounds healed, the boys went hunting as before, but without fear, for from that time on, the caribou have never had any long teeth.
A FOX STORY
Long ago, in the mountains of the Seward Peninsula, there lived a fox who had a family of babies in his den. It was summer time, and he was busy trying to find food for his little family. Every morning he used to go hunting, while Mother Fox stayed home to take care of the baby foxes, and see that they got into no mischief. When the young foxes grew big enough to hunt for themselves, Father Fox decided to go on a journey of adventure.
One day he climbed a high mountain. There was a deep ravine and then another mountain, and he thought he would like to cross the divide to see if there was any game on the opposite mountain. He had never been over there, and he hoped he might find some good, fat ptarmigans or rabbits on a new hunting-ground. Looking about, he saw a bear who was eating a newly killed caribou.
The fox called to the bear in a coaxing voice, saying, “Dear Cousin, give me a piece of that meat and some of the fat.”
“No!” growled the bear. “You get away from here right away! If you don’t I will kill you, too!” That bear was not at all polite, nor was he very generous, but the fox did not dare to say anything because he was really afraid of the bear, so he just went slinking away through the brush with his bushy tail dragging on the ground.