Two brothers, carried away by a storm, are captured on an island where they face sacrificial death. The younger brother ingeniously disguises himself as an old woman, infiltrates the sacrifice ceremony, and frees his siblings. They subsequently massacre the entire village, with the elder brothers settling in a new community while the youngest returns home to find his son has aged dramatically, while he remains young.
Source
The Jessup North Pacific Expedition
edited by Franz Boas
Memoir of the American Museum
of Natural History – New York
Volume VIII
3. The Eskimo of Siberia
by Waldemar Bogoras
Leiden & New York, 1913
► Themes of the story
Sacrifice: The brothers are intended to be sacrificed to the Sea-God by the islanders.
Revenge and Justice: After freeing themselves, the brothers exact revenge by killing all the villagers who intended to sacrifice them.
Eternal Life and Mortality: Upon returning home, the youngest brother finds that while he remains young, his son has aged into an old man, highlighting themes of aging and the passage of time.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Yupik peoples
The narrator indicated that the island in question was the larger one of the Diomede Islands in Bering Strait.
Told by Tal’i’mak, an Asiatic Eskimo man, in the village of Uni’sak, at Indian Point, May, 1901.
Two brothers were carried away by a gale, and came to an island in the ocean. The islanders captured them. The younger brother set off in search of the lost ones. He came to the island, and happened to overhear two old women who were talking about the event to take place the next morning. The two prisoners were to be sacrificed to the Sea-God. He killed one of the old women, skinned her, and put on her skin and her clothes. He also hid three long knives in one of the legs of her breeches.
The Strong-Man of the village sent two men to bring the old woman to the place of sacrifice. They took her under their arms and brought her there. “Oh,” said the Strong-Man, “how is it that your shoulders have come to be so broad?” — “Through my great desire to see the sacrifice.” They placed the old woman between the two prisoners. Then they killed a slave as a peace-offering to the intended victims. But the old woman cut the thongs of the prisoners, and gave each a knife. Then the three killed all the people of the village.
► Continue reading…
The three brothers went to another village, and the elder two married there. The youngest brother returned home, and found there his own son, who was now an old man, quite bent down, and walking with a staff. His father, however, was still quite young.
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Dreamtime Whispers 