Native American Legends
Eskimo story of The Northern Lights
An Eskimo Legend
Auroras - or Northern Lights - are believed to be the torches held
in the hands of Spirits seeking the souls of those who have just
died, to lead them over the abyss terminating the edge of the world.
A narrow pathway leads across it to the land of brightness and plenty,
where disease and pain are no more, and where food of all kinds
is already in abundance. To this place none but the dead and the
Raven can go. When the Spirits wish to communicate with the people
of the Earth, they make a whistling noise, and the Earth people
answer only in a whispering tone. The Eskimo say that they are able
to call the Aurora and converse with it. They send messages to the
dead through these Spirits.
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