Page:The Netsilik Eskimos (1931).djvu/293

nearer. Ile gazed at it steadily, and lo! the full moon was really coming nearer and nearer. At last it was as if it were right over the snow on the ice and he saw the phantom of a team of dogs, a sledge and a man. There were four dogs spanned to the sledge, while a fifth came along loose. As the dogs approached Kükiaq the moon had difficulty in making them obey, so eager were they to come right up to him. At last he stopped them and made signs with his arms (nuluArtorLune), indicating that Kûkiaq was to go to him. Kûkiaq ran over to him. The moon, a big, angry man, stood with his back to him by the side of his sledge, which was made of four whale jawbones tied together.^[1]

"Close your eyes and sit up on my sledge," said the man, and Kukiaq did so. At once the sledge began to move; Kükiaq could feel the swish and the wind of its speed round him: it was sweeping along. Kûkiaq wanted to see where they were driving to, and would only peep through his eyelids without actually opening his eyes. Then he looked into a tremendous abyss and almost fell off the sledge. The man became thoroughly scared, and Kûkiaq made haste to close his eyes tightly again. They drove on, and it could be heard from the resounding noise of the sledge that they were on new ice that was bare of snow. Shortly afterwards the sledge stopped and Kûkiaq could. open his eyes. He saw before him a large village, many houses and numbers of people playing about (ulupqifut); two of his friends who had just died came running over to him and struck him on the shoulders with their fists so that it really hurt. He was in the Land of the Dead up in the sky.

The moon wanted to take him into his house, which had bright, beaming windows, and they walked to the entrance together. In the passage lay a big dog barring the way, so they had to step on it in order to get through. It growled, but otherwise did nothing. The inside of the house was moving out and in, almost like tent walls flapping in the wind; the walls of the passage expanded and contracted like a mouth chewing, but Kükiaq got through safely. The house had two rooms, and in one half sat a young, pretty woman with a child in her amaut; her lamp was burning with such a big flame that Kukiaq's neck-band became scorched simply because he glanced at her. It was the sun. She waved at Kûkiaq and made room for him on her platform, but he was afraid he would forget to go home again, and therefore hurried away, letting himself slide down from the house of the moon towards the earth itself. He fell in such a manner that he came