Week 10 Reading Diary A

This week I chose to read the Eskimo Folk-Tales reading unit from the un-textbook. Here are my two favorite stories from the first half of the unit.

Nukúnguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak

• I'm going to refer to the main character, "Nukunguasik" as Nuk from now on.
• Okay, so Nuk goes to an island he hasn't explored before and happens upon one of his brothers. He goes to see what's going on and hears the brother telling something to bite Nuk to death! Nuk now knows his brother is creating a demon-type creature called a Tupilak to kill him and slaps him, asking, "Yeah, but where's Nuk?" This scares the bejeezus out of his brother and he falls over dead. After this, Nuk sees the Tupilak sniffing his brother's dead body, but instead of taking care of it, he runs off scared. He returns home to his other brothers and as time goes on the brothers wonder where their other bro is. They search for days, and finally find him being nibbled on by the Tupilak. They bury their brother and go home. Nuk lives on as the oldest brother for many years and that is where the story ends. 

The Insects that Wooed a Wifeless Man

Insect Army

by John Scalzi, found on Planet Books

• There once was a scrub who didn't have a wife, harassed the local women, and overslept during hunting season. One day he was kayaking and came upon one of the noseless ones.. people who lived beneath the earth. The great man offered him much, but he felt inapt to accept it. They told him how to quit being a scrub and turn his life around. The next day he got up early and went hunting. This became a daily habit and soon the women of the town began talking to him. 
• One day, a blowfly romantically said, "Take me!" and the wifeless man said he would not because the blowfly gets food from the muck heaps. The fly left and more whispering was heard before another fly came out. The fly offered itself to him, but he said no because it had big weird eyes and laid eggs all willy-nilly. Next, a cranefly offered to be his wife, but he denied her because her legs were too long. Next came a centipede and she too was denied by the man, this time because she has too many legs, her body clings to the ground, and her eyes are ugly. A gnat came next and was met with, "no thanks, you bite." 
• He then sees his wife and she brushes his hair until he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he realizes he's been in a cave the whole time and is now rotten with age.