Wood Engraving
Dale DeArmond
Artist's Edition: 10
Edition of Artist Proofs: 2
Paper type: Archival quality
Print size: 7 ½" x 8 ½"
Image size: 5" x 6"
AKA: A Mouse Tells on Two Little Boys
Hand pulled by the artist from the original endgrain maple blocks on an Ettan etching press at Sitka, Alaska, February, 1993.
The origin of mink and ptarmigan, an Athabascan folk tale.
Two little boys playing on the tundra came upon an empty house. They went in and found some Eskimo ice cream (seal oil whipped with soap berries) and ate it all. Then they heard someone coming and hid. The old man who lived in the house came in and when he found his ice cream was gone he asked his pet mouse who had eaten it and the mouse told him and pointed out the boys hiding place. The old man was so enraged that he swallowed them alive but one of the boys had a bone knife and they cut the old man open and escaped.
When they were free one boy said to the other, "You have red eyelids. You must be ptarmigan." The other boy said, "You have a red nose. You must be mink." The ptarmigan flew away and the mink ran into the brush.
Original price: $60.00