Reading Part B "Alaskan Legends"

Although the men searched far and wide, they could
 not find the sun.  (Image Source)

One of the interesting stories in this second half of the reading is a legend about how the first women came to live with the Alaskan people.  In the story, there is only one woman that exists in the land, and an enterprising fisherman is able to marry her.  However, another man becomes jealous and attempts to steal the fisherman's wife.  He is only halfway successful, however, because he and the fisherman split the woman in two during a tug-of-war.  She survived, remarkably, and the two men fashion her missing halves out of wood.  This was a very interesting story, and although it seems a bit cruel, it is a funny explanation for the clumsiness of the southern dancers and the awkward hands of the northern women.
Another story tells the origins of the wind, and how a doll crafted by a childless couple goes out to all the cardinal directions and cuts holes in the canvas of the sky.  It is for this reason that the wind comes from all directions and can be either cold or warm.
The next was a slightly confusing but heartwarming story of a group of men who set off to find the sun after it has disappeared from the sky.  They travelled for ages, learning all sorts of languages, facing hardships and hunger and cold, but at last they arrived at a mysterious land where a woman was keeping the sun for herself.  They convinced her to return it and the sun was restored and it is presumed that the men also returned successfully to their village.  I'm not sure why the sun was stolen in the first place, but so it was.


Story source: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).