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Gerald's Web Site
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Why How Dog Brought Death into the World:¬Ý A Husky Tale
An excerpts from the book
The Mythology of Dogs
by Gerald and Loretta Hausman
THE ESKIMOS SAY that Dog was created by Raven and his wife.¬Ý Raven was not doing anything one day, and his wife said, ?ÄúRaven, you are always bragging about how you stole the starlight and how you carry the moon on your back, and all such nonsense!¬Ý Well, why don?Äôt you make something useful for a change??Äù
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Raven thought about this.¬Ý Then he said, ?ÄúOnce, as you know, I carved Killer Whale out of a piece of wood.?Äù
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Raven?Äôs wife added, ?ÄúYes, and now he only catches fish for himself.¬Ý He, too, is not useful.¬Ý You should carve something we can use.¬Ý Something as strong as Reindeer and as swift as Otter.¬Ý Something that won?Äôt talk back toe way our children do.?Äù
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?ÄúHmm,?Äù said Raven.¬Ý ?ÄúI think I see what it is you want.?Äù
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All that day, Raven sat and thought about the thing he was going to make.¬Ý He sat for a long time, and while doing so his fingernails grew long and curly and, because he was thinking about making something with four legs, a long snout, and a curly tail, those fingernails of Raven turned into Dog.
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This happened sometime back in the beginning.¬Ý Raven, at that time, knew the Creator-Of-All-Things better than the People did, who knew Him but a little.¬Ý¬Ý Soon Dog became great friends with the Creator, too.
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One day, the Creator-Of-All-Things said, ?ÄúDog, I want you to do something for me.¬Ý I cannot be going down to Earth all the time to show Man and Woman what is and what is not, so you must do that for me.?Äù
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Dog nodded.¬Ý ?ÄúWhat do you want me to do??Äù
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The Creator said, ?ÄúI would like you to go down to Earth and show Man and Woman that there is no such thing as Death.¬Ý Show them, for me, how its is possible to make a dead person become alive again.¬Ý That way, they will know that life is everlasting.?Äù
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Dog said he would do this, and he went down to Earth.¬Ý But the first thing he saw was a woman wailing because her man had died.
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The man was lying on his back with his arms stretched out and his eyes closed, but he was not sleeping; he was dead.¬Ý So Dog went over to the woman and comforted her.¬Ý After that, Dog forgot what he had promised to do for the Creator.¬Ý He tried hard to remember, but the sight of the sorrowing woman made him forget. Besides, his memory was never very good to begin with.¬Ý Dog asked himself, ?ÄúWas I supposed to teach Woman how to bury Man?¬Ý I believe that is what the Creator told me to do.?Äù
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So, he showed Woman hold a dead person was supposed to be buried and covered over with earth.¬Ý But he told her it was the end and not the beginning.¬Ý Woman helped with the burial.¬Ý After which, she went back to the village and showed the People how to bury the dead.¬Ý Everyone was glad of learning this new thing, and Dog went back up to the Creator and said, ?ÄúI have done what you asked me to do.?Äù
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The Creator, however, was angry with him.
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?ÄúDog, you have done a bad thing.¬Ý You have shown men that it is all right to die and you have shown women how to bury them.¬Ý But worst of all, you have Death a big part of the world we made.¬Ý That is bad, very bad.?Äù¬Ý
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?ÄúOh,?Äù said Dog, sighing and making woo-roo noises in his throat, which he always did when he was sad.
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?ÄúI see that I forgot what I was sent to do,¬Ý woo-aroo-woo.?Äù
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?ÄúYou are so forgetful,?Äù said the Creator.
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?ÄúWoo-aroo,?Äù cried Dog.
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And, today, the husky still goes woo-aroo when he is feeling forgetful, which is most of the time.¬Ý But he especially woo-aroos when it snows, and on nights when the moon is round with the memory of how things got to be the way they are.
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AFTERWORD
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The name husky comes from a corruption of the word ?ÄúEskimo,?Äù for these North American Indians created the husky by breeding a rugged dog with a timber wolf.¬Ý This explains the husky?Äôs extraordinary temperament, both courageous and cautious.¬Ý No dog has more stamina.¬Ý The animated epic Balto (Universal Pictures, 1995) was based on the true story - and, perhaps, an actual husky ?Äì of the 1925 Serum Run, in which husky sled dogs hauled medicine from Nemaha to None, Alaska, during an outbreak of diphtheria.¬Ý They went through minus fifty degrees blizzards, traveling over 650 miles in 127 ¬? hours, to deliver the goods and save the lives of many children.¬Ý The yearly Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska is a re-creation of the famous Serum Run.
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The Siberian Eskimos believe that Dog was created by Raven and his wife.¬Ý Dog?Äôs indestructible physique came from Raven?Äôs unbreakable toenails, the myth says.¬Ý Another similar tale tells that Dog was first carved out of wood by the Creator.¬Ý The Siberian Eskimos of Unisak, in the Bering Strait, say that this fine dog carries in him the spirit-heart of a tree; that is, the inexhaustible grain of wood rather than flesh.¬Ý And this, they explain, is why the dog can outlast pain, cold, and other privations.
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