Sacred-Texts Asia
Index Previous Next
One time a man was hunting whales. And he killed a great number of whales. They departed in skin boats. Two children were playing on the seashore, — one a girl, the other a boy. The father was hunting whales.
From the open there came a man in a canoe. He was quite big. He said to them, "Father said, 'Go and fetch them!'" His paddle was very large. So he moved, (working) with the paddle, right ahead of the children, who were walking along the shore. Then he said to them, "Sit down here upon my paddle!" They sat down. But he deceived them.
He carried them away to the middle of the sea, putting them inside of his canoe. At last they saw a jaw-bone house, which for a long time had remained uninhabited. He put them in there. He also stopped up the vent-hole, and so left them quite in the dark.
The young brother began to cry. The little sister was lulling him to sleep. They were thirsty. There was also no food. Then the little sister, groping around, found some old boot-soles. These she took, and put some of the stuff into the mouth of her young brother. Then the jaw-bone house became hoary with frost. It grew quite cold. She continued to rock her brother. At last he fell asleep.
The little sister was singing. And while she was singing, a small bright hole appeared on high. Then it approached. Then it grew larger. She wakened her young brother. Then she put him outside (of the house) first. After that both escaped. The exit suddenly vanished. They looked around. They were outside. Open land was all around them.
Then they saw some gull travellers. "Oh, do carry us away!" — "Let those who are behind carry you!" And really two gulls were moving in the rear. They called again, "Oh, do carry us away!" They carried them. They said, "We will take you away," and they took them.
The father was all the time going around their former playground. So they took them to that playground.
The father came to the playground and saw the children "Oh, where have you appeared from? What became of you?" — "Oh, a canoe-paddler took us away. He said, 'Your father bade you come.'" Oh, he is kissing them all the time! Then they said, "Gulls brought us."
They went to the store-room and took out plenty of blubber, and with that they rewarded the gulls. The father simply ripped open a large blubber bag on the seashore. Then the gulls ate their fill of blubber. In the end they anointed both children, — one with ochre, the other with graphite. The one anointed with ochre lived. The one anointed with graphite died. Oh, the end!
Told by Qo´tirġịn, a Maritime Chukchee man, in the village of Mị´s·qạn, November, 1900.