Page:The Netsilik Eskimos (1931).djvu/292

Both brother and sister now became greatly ashamed and sought for a means by which they might be born again in a new life (ArnägfifarsiulErLutik). They wanted to get away from mankind, change into something other than what they were, and the sister cried: "anina, anina suvLunugLo'n'e't: Brother, Brother, whatever shall we make of ourselves? Wolves?"

"No. Their teeth are so sharp."

"Brother, Brother, what shall we be? Bears?"

"No. They have such heavy clumsy paws," answered the brother.

"Brother, Brother, whatever shall we be? Musk oxen?"

"No. They have such sharp horns."

"Brother, Brother, whatever shall we be? Seals?"

"No. They have such sharp claws."

In that way they went through all the animals. At last the sister cried:

"Brother, Brother, whatever shall we be? Sun and moon?"

To that her brother answered nothing, and so she went for fire and lighted a torch of moss. Her brother did the same, and, running out of the passage, they ran round their snow hut, the sister in front and her brother behind, and there they were suddenly lifted up from the ground and raised into the air. But as they were being lifted from the ground the sister put out her brother's torch, and they rose and rose, and kept on rising, till they came right up to the sky and became sun and moon.

Now the sun warms the earth, because the sister's torch was still burning when she reached the sky; but the moon is cold, because the brother's torch was extinguished.

This is what is told of Agtulg-rârnân's children.

Kukiaq was a great shaman who lived not so very long ago, at the time when there really were great shamans. Originally he was an Ilivilermio, but as his family were all dead he spent his later years in the Netsilik land, often round about Kingait.

Once he was standing by a breathing hole waiting to catch a seal. It was a fine day in mid-winter, no wind, and the moon at the full. And while he stood there at night waiting for seal, with his face turned directly towards the moon, the moon suddenly seemed to come