Saturday, September 1, 2012

A Danish Tale

     There once was an old medicine man who, guided by a dream, led his tribe from Greenland across Baffin's Bay to North America.  The tribe was increasing rapidly and there was great scarcity of food, and he dreamt about a further country with an abundance of seals, whales, walruses and other food--a land of plenty.  The whole tribe believed him and they started over the ice.  Halfway over, certain old men began to doubt, as is always the case:  is the vision right or wrong?  So half the tribe turned back, only to perish, while he went on with the other half and reached the North American shore.











From:  Knud Rasmussen, Across Arctic America (New York, 1927, Ch. III: "A Wizard and His Household." Quoted from Jung, C.G.: Dream Analysis:  Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930 (Princeton University Press, 1938).


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