In a family of twelve brothers and one sister, the sister discovers her secret nightly visitor is her eldest brother. Marking him with red paint and wounding him, she exposes his transgression. The siblings, shamed, leave their family and throw themselves from a bluff. Transformed by their act, they reappear in the sea as hair-seals, their story echoing in nature.
Source
Aleutian Stories
collected by F.A. Golder
The Journal of American Folklore
Vol. 18, No. 70, Jul. – Sep., 1905
► Themes of the story
Transformation: The siblings undergo a physical change, turning into hair-seals after their leap from the bluff.
Forbidden Knowledge: The sister’s pursuit of the truth about her nocturnal visitor leads to the revelation of a hidden and taboo reality.
Divine Punishment: The siblings’ transformation into hair-seals can be interpreted as a form of retribution for their transgressions.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Aleu people
This story was told me by the chief of Unga Island.
In a certain family there were twelve brothers and one sister. She lived in a hut away from the rest of the family. There were no other men living in the neighborhood, and so she was somewhat surprised when some man came to see her at night. She did not know who it was, but suspected that it was one of her brothers, and in order to find out which one of them it was, she prepared some red paint, and when the man was about to leave she dipped her hands into the paint and put them on his shoulders. The next day, as all her brothers were outside playing, she went among them and detected marks of paint on the shoulders of the oldest. Going back to her barrabara, she sharpened her knife and placed it alongside of her.
► Continue reading…
That night, as usual, the man came and slept with her, but as he started to leave she threw her knife at him and cut the sinews of one of his legs. The following morning she went about her work as customary, when some one came to announce that her oldest brother was sick, the sinews of one of his legs being cut.
She went to him, got him out of bed, and set off with him. Their mother, learning the state of affairs, said, “We reared them that they might be a help to us and work for us; but now they have gone and ruined themselves.” The two went a long distance until they arrived at the bluff, over which they threw themselves, and a short time after they appeared as hair-seals.
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Dreamtime Whispers 