Here are some notes on Eskimo Folk Tales.
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| (Image Information: An Eskimo Web Source: Encyclopedia Britannica) |
This story begins with Papik killing his wife’s brother, Aliaq. Aliaq was the far superior hunter, and after many nights of returning empty-handed, Papik grew jealous and killed him. Aliaq’s mother knew of this and promised to make Papik pay. So the women killed herself, and came back as a monstrous beast who tore Papik to pieces. This is a propaganda story about what will happen if a man kills another man.
Again, another story with the message “punishment falls upon the man who kills.” The man, P, kills his uncle because he loves the uncle’s beautiful wife. Eventually, the uncle returns as a fox and tears P limb from limb.
Much like men killing men, it has already been shown that one must not lie. In this story, a woman pits two tribes against one another because of her lie. She pays for her transgression by bleeding to death after two men cut her arms off.
Unlike many of the other stories in this unit, this last story was one of honor and friendship. When times were tough, and food was scarce, Kánagssuaq helped his people by being the only one willing to go retrieve seal. Kilitêraq, another heroic man, also went out for his village. One time, Kánagssuaq saved Kilitêraq from the harsh conditions (and because he saved Kilitêraq, he saved Kilitêraq’s people too). One day, after the storm passed, Kilitêraq came and gave thanks to Kánagssuaq for helping him when he could not help himself.
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