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YASHPEH
International Folktales Collection

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Story No. 1783


The Bird's Cliff

Book Name:

Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo

Tradition: Inuit, Eskimo

A father and his son, while kayaking far off the land, fell in with a kayariak, who at once gave chase to them. They fortunately escaped by jumping out on a flake of ice, from which they struck their persecutor dead; but before sinking into the sea he spat repeatedly, turning round to all parts of the horizon, on which a dense fog arose, causing them to wander, and preventing their gaining their home. At last they reached land, and the father, being angakok, soon perceived a house and entered it. They found one side of it inhabited by black people, and the other by white ones. After staying a while and having some talk with the inmates on both sides, they left the house; but on looking behind them, they saw that the house was a cave in the rock, the inhabitants gulls and ravens, and a drollish visitor staying with them, a falcon.

Comments:

Of this tale only the principal parts have been selected, and are given here in a very fragmentary form.

Abstract:

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