In the beginning, the earth was covered by icy waters, devoid of life. A man arrived, married a she-wolf, and their children, born in boy-girl pairs, spoke unique languages. Each pair dispersed across the land, populating the earth and creating its diverse languages. As the ice melted, rivers and valleys formed, shaping the world we know today.
Source:
The Eskimo about Bering Strait
by Edward William Nelson
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eighteenth Annual Report
Washington, 1900
► Themes of the story
Creation: The narrative explains how the earth transformed from being covered in icy waters to a habitable land with rivers, valleys, and diverse peoples.
Origin of Things: It provides an explanation for the existence of different languages and the distribution of people across the earth.
Transformation: The story depicts the physical changes of the earth’s landscape as the ice melted, leading to the formation of rivers and valleys, and the emergence of human societies.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
from the Lower Yukon
In the beginning there was water over all the earth, and it was very cold; the water was covered with ice, and there were no people. Then the ice ground together, making long ridges and hummocks.
At this time came a man from the far side of the great water and stopped on the ice hills near where Pikmiktalik now is, taking for his wife a she-wolf.
By and by he had many children, which were always born in pairs a boy and a girl. Each pair spoke a tongue of their own, differing from that of their parents and different from any spoken by their brothers and sisters.
► Continue reading…
As soon as they were large enough each pair was sent out in a different direction from the others, and thus the family spread far and near from the ice hills, which now became snow-covered mountains. As the snow melted it ran down the hillsides, scooping out ravines and river beds, and so making the earth with its streams.
The twins peopled the earth with their children, and as each pair with their children spoke a language different from the others, the various tongues found on the earth were established and continue until this day.
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Dreamtime Whispers 