Alaskan Sampler - The Giant Cannibal

Alaska has 40 varieties of mosquitos.  They torment man and beast and have been called the great pestilence of the North.  "No part of an Alaskan traveler's outfit is more important than his mosquito-proof headdress and gloves. . . . While every other hardship of Alaskan travel is often grossly exaggerated, it is hardly possible to do this one justice."  Alfred H. Brooks, 1903. The Legend of the Giant Cannibal Long, long ago a giant cannibal came into the village and began eating the villagers.  The villagers went to the shaman and said, "Help us.  We are being eaten by a giant cannibal. What shall we do?" The shaman told them to cut out the heart of the cannibal. The villagers went and cut into the chest of the giant cannibal, but they found no heart.  They went again to the shaman and they said, "Help us.  We have cut into the giant cannibal, but he has no heart.  What shall we do?" The shaman said, "The cannibal's heart is in his left heal." So the villagers went home.  And the next time the giant cannibal came into the village a brave warrior hit the cannibal in his right heal with a club.  And the giant cannibal fell to the ground, and they cut his heart from his right heal and he died. The villagers built a great fire and began to burn the body of the giant cannibal.  And as the smoke from the cannibal rose from the fire it turned into a swarm of angry mosquitos who continue to eat the villagers to this day.

Close this window to return to Alaskan Sampler