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The Adlet (or Erqigdlet) are a race of creatures in the Inuit mythology of Greenland, as well as the Labrador and Hudson Bay coasts. While the word refers to inland native American tribes, it also denotes a tribe with dogs' legs and human bodies.〔Boas, "The Central Eskimo" 640.〕 The lower part of the body of the canine Adlet is like that of a dog and their upper part is like a man's. All Adlet run quickly, and usually encounters between men end up in battle, with man as the victor.〔Boas, "The Folklore of the Eskimo" 512.〕 In Inuit lore, they are often portrayed as in conflict with humans, and are supposed to be taller than Inuit and white people.〔Boas, "The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay" 524.〕 In some stories they are cannibals.〔Green 72.〕 Inuit from Labrador use the term Adlet, tribes west of the Hudson Bay use the word Erqigdlit.〔 The monstrous race begotten by the Adlet was identified with inland native Americans by the Labrador and Hudson Bay tribes; Inuit from Greenland and Baffin Land, which had no native American neighbors, use the term to refer to the half human, half canine creatures.〔Hodge 14.〕 An etymology of the word is proposed by H. Newell Wardle: ''adlet'' might come from ''ad'', "below," and thus denote "those below." Alternatively, he argues, it might come from the stem ''agdlak'', "striped, streaked," thus "the striped ones," in reference to American Indians who lived to the west and painted their faces. "Erqigdlet" might be a derogatory term denoting the same people.〔Newell Wardle 577-78.〕 ''Atlat'' means "others," denoting American Indians from the Inuit perspective,〔Rink, "The Girl and the Dogs" 181.〕 though Newell Wardle considers this possibility secondary and deriving from phonetic similarity.〔Newell Wardle 578 note 1.〕 ==Origin== Franz Boas, an ethnologist who recorded many Inuit stories, gives an account of the origin of the Adlet; he had heard the story in Baffin Land, specifically in Cumberland Sound from an Inuit named Pakaq. His transcription, a translation by H. Rink, and an explanation (by Boas) were published in ''The Journal of American Folklore'' in 1889.〔Boas and Rink, "Eskimo Tales and Songs."〕 The Inuit of Greenland, according to Rink, tell the same story as those in Baffin Land.〔Rink, "Tales and traditions of the Eskimo" 471; Boas and Rink, "Eskimo Tales and Songs" 123.〕 The story is often referred to as "The Girl and the Dogs" on the west coast of Greenland; on the east coast of Greenland it is known as "The Origin of the Qavdlunait and Irqigdlit" (that is, Europeans and Indians).〔 A woman, Niviarsiang ("the girl"), lives with her father, Savirqong, but will not marry, and hence is also called Uinigumissuitung ("she who wouldn't take a husband"). After rejecting all her suitors, she marries a dog, Ijirqang, with white and red spots. Of their ten children, five are dogs and the others are Adlet, with dog's bodies for their lower half and man's bodies for their upper half. Since Ijirqang does not go hunting and the children are very hungry, it falls to Savirqong to provide for the noisy household. At last he puts them into a boat and carries them off to a small island, telling Ijirqang to come and get meat daily. Niviarsiang hangs a pair of boots around his neck and he swims ashore, but Savirqong, instead of giving him meat, puts stones in the boots and Ijirqang drowns. In revenge, Niviarsiang sends the young dogs over to gnaw off her father's feet and hands. He, in return kicks her overboard when she happens to be in his boat, and when she hangs on the gunwale he cuts off her fingers, which, when they fall in the ocean, turn into whales and seals.〔Boas, "The Central Eskimo" 637. This aspect of the Adlet myth is similar to an element in the mythology of Sedna, the Inuit goddess of marine animals. See Newell Wardle, "The Sedna Cycle: A Study in Myth Evolution."〕 Since Niviarsiang is scared her father might kill the Adlet, she sends them inland, and from them a numerous people springs. The young dogs she sends across the ocean in a makeshift boat, and arriving beyond the sea they became the Europeans' ancestors.〔Boas, "The Central Eskimo" 637.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Adlet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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