by Minnie Carter, translated by Annie Carter
Once upon a time there was a white man who traveled from Quinhagak to Bethel
They came to the abandoned fish camp at Enhiak. They brought their food and stuff into a house and found out that they had no kettle.
The white man couldn’t have tea in this cold weather. They were camped near a grave yard. The white man said that he had seen kettles and pots by the graves.
The Eskimo just wanted to make a campfire and have something to eat. The white man really couldn’t wait to have tea, but the Eskimo told him not to get a kettle from the graves.
But the white man went up to the graves and picked up a kettle to make tea. The kettles and pots had small bird eggs in them.
He dumped the junk out of the kettle and as he was coming back to the camp he bent down and put snow in the kettle and went into the house and put it on the fire. The kettle started to boil.
The white man made tea.
After tea, they got warm. They put wood on the camp fire.
They got sleepy.
When they were getting ready for bed they heard something which seemed to crack.
It cracked harder at the door. They wondered what it was.
The door was shaking and it seemed as though fog was coming around the door. The white man asked, “What is it?”
And the Eskimo said the ghost was coming in. The fog went whirling up toward the ceiling. The white man didn’t believe there could be a ghost coming.
On the floor, the grasses (grass mats used as floor coverings) stood up, even though the white man and the Eskimo stood on them, pinning them to the ground.
The grasses stood straight up on the floor. The door had not opened when the ghost came in; it came in at the bottom of the door.
The ghost came in all white, his face was covered with something like leather, like muskrat on an old parka.
The ghost came in all the way. The white man got scared and started running in the house.
He was crying in the house, running around trying to get out, but the door could not be opened.
The white man went over beside the Eskimo, and the Eskimo tried to think of what to do. The ghost was coming and the Eskimo stood up very fast.
While this was going on they were afraid that the ghost might kill them by whirling them.
Then the Eskimo went right over to the ghost as he used to hear was the right thing to do with ghosts and he put his hand on the ghost’s head.
Then the ghost started going down under the ground, disappearing.
When the Eskimo thought he’d try to push it harder, the ghost came back up a little.
The ghost disappeared into the ground and the ground where the ghost disappeared was whirling.
The Eskimo remembered that he used to hear stories about what to do about ghosts so he used his mukluks to step on the whirling ground and it stopped whirling.
The grass mats on the ground that had stood up fell to the ground and the white man took the grasses and threw them outside very fast.
They started getting ready to go. They packed their bags. They packed their sleds and didn’t put out the campfire.
They left the dogs ready to go when they went in the house. They didn’t want to waste time getting the dogsled ready.
They traveled not too far from where the graves were. Then the white man patted the Eskimo on the back and told him to look behind.
It looked like a sun, a really red ball was following them. The Eskimo took out his knife and put marks on the snow crossways.
They continued traveling. The red fire ball got to those marks and started sinking into the ground.
They started to get sick before they got to the
They rolled for a while. Then they got really sick. They went to the preacher’s house and left the dogs by the trash.
In the house the preacher realized why they came and made some tea for them. They got really sick and started vomiting.
They were well the next day. They left and got to Napakiak safely. They were still scared and were really looking out for ghosts.
Even though it was in the day time, they were scared.
The moral of the story is to listen to what other's have to say. AND to not take a kettle from a graveyard........
