Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18, Vol. 13

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Excerpt from Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18, Vol. 13: Eskimo Folk-Lore, Part A: Myths and Traditions From Northern Alaska, the Mackenzie Delta and Coronation Gulf The myths and traditions that are contained in the present volume were collected along the Arctic coast between December, 1913, and June, 1916. They are divided into two parts, the first comprises the Alaskan stories, with which are included one story from the Siberian coast and four others from the Mackenzie river delta, the second comprises the tales collected among the Copper Eskimos, from the regions of Dolphin and Union strait and Coronation gulf. Even a surface examination will show that there is a great difference in the tales from the two regions. The Alaskan stories are more sophisticated, as a rule, they are longer and more detailed, and have a definite beginning and ending. The various incidents, too, are placed in their proper setting with just the descriptive touches required to give them an air of reality. The Copper Eskimo tales, on the other hand, have the appearance of disjointed fragments without any setting, and lacking both beginning and ending. They were never told straightforwardly, 'as in Alaska, but had to be drawn out of the natives piecemeal, word by word and sentence by sentence, with many repetitions and digressions by way of explanation. The English translations tend to gloss over their crude and disjointed character, which is far more noticeable in the original Eskimo. This difference in the tales from the two regions seems to have its origin in a difference of mentality. In Alaska story-telling is one of the most favourite pastimes wherever three or four natives are gathered together, especially in the long evenings of winter. The old tales and traditions are repeated again and again in semi-stereotyped forms to never-wearying audiences, until they become almost as familiar to the young men of twenty as they are to the old men of fifty and sixty years. There are special raconteurs, men who are famous for their knowledge of the old tales and traditions, and these men are welcomed in every household. Many of the stories are so long that two or three evenings are re quired for their narration. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.