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How Big the World Is
Origin: The Inuits

Two couples lived together. One day, the two men fell to talking, "The world is big," said the first.
"How big ?" said the second.
"Let's find out ," answered the first.

So they took their sleds and set off in opposite directions.  Their wives cried at parting from each other, but each accompanied her husband, running beside his sled.

Year after year they travelled. The wives had babies, and the babies grew up.  Then they had children, and so on, until there were two whole tribes travelling across the ice.

The original couples grew old and frail. The men could no longer drive their sleds; the women could no longer keep up the pace beside them. But still they traveled.

At last, each of them saw movement in the far distance.  They kept on going, and, finally, they met, back where they had started.

"The world is big," said the first man.
"Even bigger than we thought," answered the second
And then they died.

North American Indian Tales Index How the Fly Saved the River First Creator and the Lone Man