Fox wanted to cross the strait. How could he cross the deep water? He sang his shaman's song to summon the seals and walruses and whales.
"What are you singing about?" they asked.
"I am singing about this: are there more animals on the land or in the sea?"
"In the sea!" they shouted.
"I don't believe you," replied Fox. "Line up from here across the strait so I can count you."
The sea creatures came to the surface and Fox walked across their backs, counting, but when he had crossed over, he just ran off into the woods, laughing.
Inspired by: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).
Notes: You can read about the Koryak people of the Russian Far East at Wikipedia. In the original story Fox was not trying to get to an island; he was trying to get off an island where Eagle had abandoned him.
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