on and detailed embroidery on the one hand and his
hearers' power of endurance on the other. Nevertheless, the stories
are not as interminable as might be expected; we find also long and
short variants of the same theme. In the present selection, versions
of reasonable length have been preferred. The themes themselves are,
of course, capable of almost infinite expansion.

In the technique of an ordinary novel there is a certain balance, or
just proportion, between the amount of space devoted to the various
items, scenes and episodes. The ordinary reader does not notice it as a
rule, for the simple reason that it is always there. The Eskimo stories
are magnificently heedless of such proportion. Any detail, whether
of fact or fancy, can be expanded at will; a journey of many hundred
miles may be summarized in a dozen words: "Then he went away to the
Northward, and came to a place." Thus with the little story of the Man
who went out to search for his Son; the version here employed covers no
more than a few pages, yet it is a record of six distinct adventures,
threaded on to the main theme of the search. It is thus a parallel in
brief to the "Wandering" stories popular in Europe in the Middle Ages,
when any kind of journey served as the string on which to gather all
sorts of anecdote and adventure. The story of Atungait, who goes on a
journey and meets with lame people, left-handed people, and the like,
is an example of another well-known classical and mediaeval type.

The mythical stories present some interesting features when compared
with the beliefs and folk-lore of other peoples. The legend of the Men
who travelled round the World is based on a conception of the world
as round. There is the tradition of a deluge, but here supported by
geological evidence which is appreciated by the natives themselves:
i.e. the finding of mussel shells on the hills far inland. The
principle of the tides is recognized in what is otherwise a fairy
tale; "There will be no more ebb-tide or flood if you strangle me,"
says the Moon Man to the Obstinate One.

The constellation of the Great Bear is explained in one story,
the origin of Venus in another. The spirits of the departed are
"stellified" as seen in "The Coming of Men." There seems to be a
considerable intermingling of Christian culture and modern science
in the general attitude towards life, but these foreign elements
are coated over, as it were, like the speck of grit in an oyster,