In these legends, cosmic phenomena are vividly explained through myth. The sun and moon originated from siblings involved in a tragic pursuit, with the stars born from flying sparks. Auroras are spirits guiding souls to a bountiful afterlife, while the sky is a frosty dome controlling weather through divine figures. Winds are personified spirits, each influencing the world with their breath and power.
Source:
Ethnology of the Ungava District,
Hudson Bay Territory
by Lucien M. Turner
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eleventh Annual Report, 1889-1890
Washington, 1894
► Themes of the story
Creation: The tale explains the emergence of celestial bodies—the sun, moon, and stars—detailing their origins and the dynamics between them.
Transformation: Central to the story is the metamorphosis of human figures into cosmic entities, illustrating a shift from mortal to celestial forms.
Forbidden Knowledge: The narrative begins with the revelation of a concealed truth, leading to significant consequences and the eventual transformation of the siblings.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
At a time when darkness covered the earth a girl was nightly visited by some one whose identity she could not discover. She determined to find out who it could be. She mixed some soot with oil and painted her breast with it.
The next time she discovered, to her horror, that her brother had a black circle of soot around his mouth. She upbraided him and he denied it. The father and mother were very angry and scolded the pair so severely that the son fled from their presence.
The daughter seized a brand from the fire and pursued him. He ran to the sky to avoid her, but she flew after him. The man changed into the moon and the girl who bore the torch became the sun.
► Continue reading…
The sparks that flew from the brand became the stars. The sun is constantly pursuing the moon, which keeps in the darkness to avoid being discovered. When an eclipse occurs they are supposed to meet.
Auroras
Auroras are believed to be the torches held in the hands of spirits seeking the souls of those who have just died, to lead them over the abyss terminating the edge of the world. A narrow pathway leads across it to the land of brightness and plenty, where disease and pain are no more, and where food of all kinds is always ready in abundance. To this place none but the dead and the raven can go. When the spirits wish to communicate with the people of the earth they make a whistling noise and the earth people answer only in a whispering tone. The Eskimo say that they are able to call the aurora and converse with it. They send messages to the dead through these spirits.
The sky
The sky is supposed to be an immense dome, of hard material, reared over the earth, long from east to west and shorter from north to south. The edges of the land and sea are bounded by high, precipitous sides, shelving outward or sloping inward to prevent anything living on the earth from going to the region beyond. There is the source of light and heat. The dome of the sky is very cold, and at times covered with crystals of frost which fall in the form of snow or frost films to the earth, and then the sky becomes clear. The clouds are supposed to be large bags of water, controlled by two old women who run with them across the sky, and as the water escapes from the seams it falls in the form of rain to the earth. The thunder is their voice and the lightning is their torch. If a spark falls from this on anyone he dies and goes to the region above.
The winds
At each of the corners of the earth there dwells an immense but invincible spirit, whose head is many times larger than all the remainder of his body. When he breathes the wind blows and his breath is felt. Some breathe violent storms and others gentle zephyrs. The male spirits dwell at the north, northeast, northwest, and west. The females dwell at the remaining points, and each principal spirit has innumerable intermediate and less powerful attendants.
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Dreamtime Whispers 