During a relentless storm that threatens the village of Uni’sak with starvation, a brave young man repeatedly calls out to the Outer World, beseeching the Sea-God to bring sustenance. His persistent pleas are answered dramatically: a massive herd of walruses, thong-seals, and ringed-seals arrives, landing near the village and providing an abundant feast that saves the community from certain death.
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
Conflict with Nature: The village faces a severe storm that prevents hunting and leads to starvation, highlighting the struggle against natural forces.
Magic and Enchantment: The story involves the use of magical incantations or rituals to communicate with deities and alter the natural course of events.
Community and Isolation: The narrative emphasizes the collective struggle of the village community against the isolating forces of nature and their reliance on one individual’s actions to overcome adversity.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Yupik peoples
Told by Tal’i’mak, an Asiatic Eskimo man, in the village of Uni’sak, at Indian Point, May, 1901.
In the village of Uni’sak lived a man and his brother. A heavy storm arose, and the wind would not cease at all. It was impossible to hunt; and half the inhabitants, those that were less strong and enduring, died of starvation.
Then the elder brother said to the younger one, “Go out and try to restore quiet in the world.” The youth went out, and called into the darkness, “O great Outer World! your neighbor Sea-God is killing us. From mid-ocean bring sea-food for our children!”
He entered, and after a while sent his sister-in-law to look at the weather. She entered, and said, “Oh, it is as before, wind and tempest.” He went out again. “O great Outer World! your neighbor Sea-God is killing us. Bring from mid-ocean sea-food for our children!”
► Continue reading…
He entered, and after a while sent his sister-in-law to look at the weather. She returned, and said, “It is more quiet now.” — “Aha!” He went out again. “O great Outer World! bring from mid-ocean some sea-food for our children!”
At last it grew quiet, and the storm was over. Then far out at sea there appeared a little cloud. A walrus’s voice was heard roaring out of the cloud. Then the snorting of a thong-seal and the cries of a young ringed-seal were heard. Walrus, thong-seals, and ringed-seals came in great numbers. They landed, and came directly to the houses. Some of the houses were nearly crushed under their weight. All night the people were stabbing them, until the morning. Then all the hunters were quite exhausted. The sea-game went away, but all the storehouses were full of meat of the best quality.
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Dreamtime Whispers 