Part 12

_The hare._--The hare was a child who was so ill treated and abused by the other people, because it had long ears, that it went to dwell by itself. When it sees anyone the ears are laid down on the back, for, if it hears the shout of a person, it thinks they are talking of its long ears. It has no tail, because it did not formerly have one.

_The wolf_ was a poor woman, who had so many children that she could not find enough for them to eat. They became so gaunt and hungry that they were changed into wolves, constantly roaming over the land seeking food. The cry of the mother may be heard as she strives to console her hungry children, saying that food in plenty will soon be found.

_Lice_ are supposed to drop from the body of a huge spirit, dwelling in the regions above, who was punished by having these pests constantly torment him. In his rage to free himself the lice dropped down upon the people who condemned him to this punishment.

_Origin of mosquitoes._--A man had a wife who was negligent and failed to scrape his skin clothing properly when he returned from his expeditions. He endeavored to persuade her to mend her ways and do as a wife should do. She was again directed to remove the accumulated layer of dirt from the man's coat. She petulantly took the garment and cleaned it in such a slovenly way that when the husband discovered the condition of the coat he took some of the dirt from it and flung it after her. The

## particles changed into mosquitoes, and now (in spring), when the warm

days come and the women have the labor of cleaning clothes to perform, the insects gather around them, and the women are thus reminded of the slovenly wife and what befel her.

_Story of the man and his fox wife._--A hunter who lived by himself found when he returned to the place after an absence that it had been visited and everything put in order as a dutiful wife should do. This happened so often with no visible signs of tracks that the man determined to watch and see who would scrape his skin clothing and boots, hang them out to dry, and cook nice hot food ready to be eaten when he returned. One day he went away as though going off on a hunt, but secreted himself so as to observe the entrance of anything into the house. After a while he saw a fox enter. He suspected that the fox was after food. He quietly slipped up to the house and on entering saw a most beautiful woman dressed in skin clothing of wondrous make. Within the house, on a line, hung the skin of a fox. The man inquired if it was she who had done these things. She replied that she was his wife and it was her duty to do them, hoping that she had performed her labor in a manner satisfactory to him.

After they had lived together a short time the husband detected a musky odor about the house and inquired of her what it was. She replied that she emitted the odor and if he was going to find fault with her for it she would leave. She dashed off her clothing and, resuming the skin of the fox, slipped quietly away and has never been disposed to visit a man since that time.

The following is a story obtained from Labrador:

_The rivals._--Between two men there existed keen rivalry. Each asserted himself to be the stronger and endeavored to prove himself superior to the other. One of them declared his ability to form an island where none had hitherto existed. He picked up an immense rock and hurled it into the sea where it became an island. The other, with his foot, pushed it so hard that it landed on the top of another island lying far beyond. The mark of the footprint is visible to this day, and that place is now known as Tu kik´ tok.

_The jealous man._--A man fell in love with two women and was so jealous of them that he would not permit them to look upon others, much less speak to them. The women finally wearied of the restrictions placed upon them and resolved to desert the man. They fled along the coast until they were faint from hunger. At length they came upon the body of a whale cast on the shore. Here they determined to dwell for a time. The man sought for the women in every possible place with no success. A conjurer was consulted, and after much deliberation, he told the deserted man to journey to a place where he would find the carcass of a whale and to secrete himself in the vicinity and watch for the women. He started out accordingly and before long had the pleasure of seeing the two women. They detected the man hastening toward them and tried to secrete themselves until he should get by. He seized one of them, however, and bound her with thongs. The other was less disposed to submit, and the man put out her eyes to deprive her of the privilege of looking at any man. They remained about that locality for some time, and various animals of the land came to the carcass to feast upon the remains. The man caught a great number of foxes and other valuable furs and after a time returned to the camp whence he came.

_Story of the orphan boy._--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.

_The winds._--At each of the corners of the earth there dwells an immense but invincible spirit, whose head is many times larger than all the remainder of his body. When he breathes the wind blows and his breath is felt. Some breathe violent storms and others gentle zephyrs. The male spirits dwell at the north, northeast, northwest, and west. The females dwell at the remaining points, and each principal spirit has innumerable intermediate and less powerful attendants.

THE NENENOT OR "NASKOPIE."

The Indians of the Ungava district are locally known as Naskopie, a term of reproach applied to them by the mountaineers (the Montagnais of the early Jesuit missionaries) during the earlier days when the former acted falsely in one of their concerted struggles with the Eskimo of the eastern coast.

The name given to themselves is Nenenot, a word meaning true, or ideal red men. To the west of these people dwell a branch of the tribe along the east shore of Hudson bay. To the southeast dwell the mountaineers.

The western people differ greatly in customs and many words of their language from the Nenenots. The mountaineers differ but little in their customs, and only in speech as much as would be expected from the different locality in which they dwell.

These three tribes have distinct boundaries, beyond which they seldom wander. Of late years, however, a gradual influx of the western people has poured into the Ungava district, due to the decrease of the food supply along that portion of the eastern coast of Hudson bay.

The Nenenots appear, from the best information I could obtain on the subject, to have been driven to their present location during the wars waged against them by the Iroquois in times long gone by and remembered only in tradition.

They assert that their original home was in a country to the west, north of an immense river, and toward the east lay an enormous body of salt water. The former was supposed to be the St. Lawrence river and the latter to be Hudson bay. When they came to their present place they say that they found Eskimo alone, and these only along the coast. They are a branch of the Cree stock, as their language clearly indicates.

Many years ago war was waged upon them by the people whose name is remembered with terror even to this day. Most cruel atrocities were perpetrated, and in despair they fled from the land of their fathers, where they had lived as a numerous people, and were pursued by their merciless foes until but a remnant reached what is now known as the "Height of Land."

Being now driven to a strange land, where they found numerous Eskimo on all sides, only a few years elapsed before they encroached too greatly upon the land which the Eskimo had always held. Contention and struggles arose, culminating in a disposition to fight, and in the course of time desultory warfare, carried on by single combat or organized raids. This lasted for many years, even after the advent of the white men as traders along the coast. Some of the battles were attended with great slaughter on both sides. The Eskimo seldom ventured far from the coast on their raids, but fought bravely when attacked on their own ground. In most instances they outwitted the Indians by decoying them into ambush, and killing great numbers of them. Within the present century they have been more peaceably disposed toward each other. Since the arrival of the white men at various points along the coast these troubles have ceased, and the Indians and Eskimo are now on intimate terms; not that either party have any special regard for the new comers, but they have a mutual fear of each other, and the white man now engages their entire attention.

In the early struggles the Indian found the Eskimo to be a sturdy opponent, possessed of greater endurance and perseverance than himself. After the conclusion of the troubles they withdrew to their present haunts, and now wander indiscriminately over the land, although the Eskimo seldom ventures far into the interior unless it be along the valley of some large stream. They even camp alongside of each other, and aged Indian men and women, who have been left behind the parties of young people who are in quest of fur-bearing animals during the winter months, are only too glad to have a camp of jolly Eskimo near at hand. With them they can live as parasites until their hosts are exhausted of supplies, or until they move to another locality to relieve themselves of the importunities of their unbidden guests.

The Indian is not the physical superior of the Eskimo. It is true they are more expert on snowshoes, because the snowshoes belong to their mode of life. They are used by the Eskimo only when they can be purchased by barter from the Indian. The Eskimo snowshoe is merely a rude imitation of the form used by the neighboring Indians. In the canoe the Indian is at home; so also is the Eskimo in the kaiak, which braves the severest weather and the roughest water, on which the Indian would only gaze in dread and never venture.

Ability to endure fatigue is less in the Indian than the Eskimo, who accomplishes by patient persistence what the Indian desires to do in a hurry. I have not observed Indians carry such heavy loads as those borne on the shoulders of Eskimo, who, with ease, ascended a hill of such abrupt steepness that an unencumbered person climbed it with difficulty. Several Eskimo men ascended this hill, each with a barrel of flour on his shoulders.

The Indian is able to withstand the effect of cold as well as the Eskimo. The clothing of the latter is certainly better adapted to protect against cold. In times of scarcity of food the Eskimo is able to go without food for a number of days and yet perform a considerable amount of physical labor, while the Indian would require food on the second or third day, and refuse to move until it had been furnished.

In comparison with a white man under the same conditions the natives of either class would soon show signs of inferiority, and under prolonged exertion but few, even of the Eskimo, would endure the strain. The principal strength of these people is shown in their success in the chase.

The children are obedient to their parents, who seldom ever chastise them. Disrespect to parents is unknown, and in their intercourse with each other there are no clashings during youth. Not until the jealousies awakened under the stimulus of their sexual instincts arouse their passions do they begin to show enmity and hatred toward each other.

The males evidently exhibit jealousy to a less degree than the opposite sex. The men, after a protracted absence from each other, often embrace and shed tears of joy at meeting. The women are less demonstrative.

The number of children born exceeds the number of deaths. Mortality appeared to be low for the two years I was near these people. The prevailing diseases are of the lungs and bowels. The lung diseases are induced by constant exposure to extremes of wet and cold and the inhalation of foul air laden with terebinthine odors, arising from the resinous woods used for fuel. Changes of the wind blowing in at the door cause the interior to become filled with smoke, which is endured rather than admit the cold air from without.

Abstinence from fresh food for a long time, with dry meat only to subsist upon, is often broken by the sudden capture of deer. This affords an opportunity for gorging until the digestive organs are weakened and serious complications arise. It is quite probable that gluttony directly produces half of the illnesses that occur among these people. The insufficiency of clothing does not apparently influence health, as they seem utterly regardless of exposure, and long continued dwelling in the tents probably induces nearly, if not quite, all the other ills afflicting them. Indolent ulcers and scrofulous complications are frequent, but only in few instances are of such character as to prevent their following their usual occupations. During illness they are stolid, and appear to suffer intense pain without the twitching of a muscle. When death approaches it has but little terror, and is awaited with indifference.

The remedies employed are only those afforded by the beating of the drum and the mumblings of the shaman, who claims to have control of the spirit which causes all disease and death. They are, however, firm believers in the efficacy of potions compounded by the white trader, who is fully as ignorant of the disease as the subject himself is. Often a harmless mixture of red ink, red pepper, ginger, or other pungent substance is given, with a multiplicity of confusing directions, bewildering the messenger dispatched for relief, who, in repeating them, often makes mistakes and advises that the whole quantity be swallowed. The effect is sometimes magical, and the patient recovers. Powders are rubbed over the seat of pain and liniments swallowed with avidity. Strange as it may seem, they often report good effects, and rarely fail to ask for more of the same kind. Both sexes attain a great age--in some instances certainly living over seventy years. Some assert that they were well advanced in years before the white men came in 1827.