Historias De Las Naciones

Author: Rasmussen, Knud, 1879-1933.
Subject: Eskimos. GODTHAAB, WEST GREENLAND.
Publisher: London ; Copenhagen ; Christiana : Gyldendal.
Possible copyright status: NOT IN COPYRIGHT.
Language:English.
Call number: 686780.
Digitizing sponsor: MSN.
Book contributor: New York Public Library.
Collection: New York public library; Americana.
Knud Rasmussen
These stories were collected invarious parts of Greenland, taken down from the lips of the Eskimo story-tellers themselves, by "Kunúnguaq"—that is his native name—is known throughout the country and possesses the confidence of thenatives to a superlative degree, forming himself, as it were, a link between them and the rest of the world.

Born in Greenland of Inuit and Danish descent, Knud Rasmussen, the Danish explorerbecame fascinated with native languages and ways of living, including the use of kayaks and dogsleds. He devoted much of his life to cultural studies throughout Arctic.
No man is betterqualified to tell the story of Greenland, or the stories of its people. Knud ("Kunoot") Johan Victor Rasmussen is himself partly of Eskimo origin; his childhood was spent in Greenland, and to Greenland hereturned again and again, during his travels he made detailed notes and sketches, and collected artifacts, legends and songs of a way of life that he admired.
His words of the Inuit: "Their cultureis a witness in itself to the strength and endurance and wild beauty of human life." 

THE MAN WHO BECAME A STAR
THERE was once an old man who stood out on the ice waiting for the seal to come upto their breathing holes to breathe. But on the shore, just opposite where he was, a crowd of children were playing in a ravine, and time after time they frightened away a seal just as he was about toharpoon it.
 At last the old man grew angry with them for thus spoiling his catch, and cried out:
 "Close up, Ravine, over those who are spoiling my hunting."
 And at once the hillside closed...