Traditional Stories
Two Brothers
This was long ago, as it always is in a story. In one yaranga there lived two families. On one side the younger brother lived with his family, and on the other side the elder brother, also with his family.
There were very successful hunters, and once in summer they went out hunting on a big baidara. I think it must have been August, because the evenings were getting dark and there might be rain. In the daytime it was sunny and warm.
They took off their parkas and rowed without them. They went a long distance. People used to be able to go hunting for tow or three days at a time while the weather was good.
They came up to an island, and there on the island was a small hill. The younger brother jumped out and ran around the shore gathering driftwood to cook meat. He got everything ready and then looked around at his brother. The brother was sitting in the boat eating something.
"Come here and eat," called the younger brother. "I'm cooking fresh food."
"First I'll eat this dried meat and the I'll come to you."
"Why?"
He saw that his brother was thinking, and then the older bother moved the boat farther from shore and left his younger brother there!
In the evening it began to rain, and it got cold. And he had no parka.
Remember? He'd left it in the boat. He thinks, "What to do? There's nothing here on this island, nothing to eat. I may freeze and I may starve. And even if I don't starve, the wild animals will kill me. I don't want to suffer," he decided. I must say here that hunter's knives were very long. He pulled out that big knife, waved it around, and got ready to kill himself.
Just as he was ready to plunge the knife in, he heard a voice saying, "Hey, what are you doing?"
"I must have imagined it," he thought. HE raised the knife again.
Again came the voice, "Can a hunter really behave like that? A hunter never gives up. What kind of man are you?"
"I won't hurry to kill myself," he decided. He put the knife away, turned his back against the rain, and went to sleep, hungry but somewhat warmer.
He slept, and the sun started to shine brightly. And again he heard that voice. "Can a man really sleep that long?" it said. "You should get up and take a look on the shore."
So he went down, and there was a little seal warming itself in the sun. The man crept up, killed the seal, and ate his fill! He took the skin off, and in the course of the day it dried. Where the holes were for the paws, he was able to put his arms though. And when he had eaten, he didn't throw the bones away. He gathered all the bones together and laid them on the shore.
He stayed there and lived on the island.
From time to time that voice still scolded him - "You should be looking for tools," it said. As he walked around the edge of the island (after all, the island was small), he found a strong branch that he could use to make a bow. Then another time he found a pole and made a spear.
He went up the hill and found a hole. He made it deeper and then made a type of tent with some sticks. Then he started to shoot ducks - he didn't throw the skins away but kept them and dried them out. He laid them over the top of the tent and it became warm inside. He made some holes so he could look out and not scare the animals.
In the winter he looked out and saw that snow had fallen, and he saw a polar fox. He came out and shot the fox. And so he was able to make warmer clothes and have a supply of food.
He spent the whole winter in this way. Then summer came again, the same time as before, exactly one year later. The man was getting ready to make a fire near his hut that day when he saw a point on the horizon.
He cut up some meat and looked again - it seemed to be closer. He looked again. "It must be a hunter," he thought.
He hid behind his hut and watched. Sure enough, it was a hunter coming closer - in fact it was his older brother! No parka - the weather was warm.
The older brother was thinking, "The winter was long and cold. He had no way to feed himself. He can't still be alive."
He came to the short, got out of the boat, and then thought, "But what if he is alive? No! he winter was long, he had no clothes. Even if he didn't starve, the animals would have got him. Aha, there are his bones!"
Do you remember that seal? The bones had turned white. The older bother went up close and only then saw that they weren't human bones but seal. He turned around - and there saw his brother on the boat, eating!
"There you are!" says the older one. "I just couldn't live without my brother. I had to come back, at least to bury you. Come here, we'll eat together."
The younger answered the way his older bother had the year before. "First I'll eat a bit here, and then I'll come to you."
"Come here!" called the older brother again.
He had behaved so badly, leaving his younger brother to die!
The younger brother sailed away.
Evening came on the island, like the year before. Rain fell. The older bother was thinking, "How did he survive here? I can't do it."
And like his brother the year before, he took out his knife.
"Hey, what are you doing? Can a man really behave like that?" It was a good spirit talking. But no one appeared. Again the man picked up the knife, and again the voice came...but he went ahead and stabbed himself!
So we say, don't give in when bad things happen. All he would have had to do was go up the hill. Everything was there! He could easily have lived.
The younger brother went home. People were happy to see him. He recognized his older bother's wife and saw that her children were clean.
Beside her was another woman. She was in terrible shape, thin, cut, and bruised. Her children were all ragged. This woman recognized her husband, the younger brother. She sat down and wept for joy.
This showed what a bad person that older bother was. He didn't help his bother's family and even cut her with a knife when preparing meat.
So in this story, evil was defeated! Fai! That's all.
