As the people ran on from the country of the dwarfs, they found ice and driftwood in their way. They kicked it all aside. At that time the people were very strong and able to lift heavy stones.
After they had run a long way, they saw a singing house. When they came near, they went very slowly because they were afraid. At last one of the men tied his jacket around his waist and his trousers around his knees. Then he crept cautiously through the entrance and put his head through the door at the bottom of the floor. He saw a young woman, Itudluqpiaq, sitting in the middle of the house toward the rear. Her father was sitting in the middle of the house on the right-hand side and her mother on the left-hand side. At the back of the house, in the right-hand corner on the rafter, hung a large ball; in the left-hand corner a small ball.
The man whispered, “Itudluqpiaq, we came to ask you for some light.”
The mother said, “Give them the small ball.”
The man refused the small ball. He asked for the large one. Then Itudluqpiaq took it down and gave it a kick. It fell right into the entrance hole.
The people took the ball and ran outside. Then they tore the ball to pieces and the daylight came out of it.
It was not so warm at once, but it grew warmer day after day. If they had taken the small ball it would have been light, but it would have remained cold. The small ball was the moon.
THE CHIEF IN THE MOON
Eskimo (Bering Straits)