tween two personages, owing to the inadequate
"he" which is used for both.

The story-teller, while observing the traditional form, does not
always do so uncritically. Occasionally he will throw in a little
interpolation of his own, as if in apology: "There was once a wifeless
man--that is the way a story always begins." Or the entertainer starts
off in a cheerfully familiar style: "Well, it was the usual thing;
there was a Strong Man, and he had a wife. And, of course, he used
to beat her...."

Here and there, too, a touch of explanation may be inserted. "This
happened in the old days," or "So men thought in the olden time." There
is a general recognition of the difference between old times and
new. And the manner in which this difference is viewed reveals two
characteristic attitudes of mind, the blending of which is apparent
throughout the Eskimo culture of to-day. There is the attitude of
condescension, the arrogant tolerance of the proselyte and the parvenu:
"So our forefathers used to do, for they were ignorant folk." At times,
however, it is with precisely opposite view, mourning the present
degeneration from earlier days, "when men were yet skilful rowers in
'kayaks,' or when this or that might still be done 'by magic power.'"

And it is here, perhaps, that the stories reach their highest poetic
level. This regret for the passing of "the former age," whether as
an age of greater strength and virtue, greater courage and skill, or
as the Golden Age of Romance, is a touching and most human trait. It
gives to these poor Eskimo hunters, far removed from the leisure and
security that normally precede the growth of art, a place among the
poets of the world.

W. W. Worster.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction 5
The two Friends who set off to travel round the world 15
The coming of Men, a long, long while ago 16
Nukunguasik, who escaped from the Tupilak 18
Qujavarssuk 20
Kunigseq 38
The woman who had a bear as a foster-son 40
Imarasugssuaq, who ate his wives 44
Qalaganguase, who passed to the land of Ghosts 46
Isigaligarssik