A fisherman with two wives feigned death and instructed them to bury him in a barabara with his belongings. As they carried his body, he secretly smiled whenever one wife struggled. Upon reaching the barabara, he escaped at night, loaded his bidarka with his possessions, and departed to live with a one-eyed woman. His wives, discovering his absence, mourned in despair.
Source
Eskimo and Aleut Stories from Alaska
collected by F.A. Golder
The Journal of American Folklore
Vol. 22, No. 83, Jan. – Mar., 1909
► Themes of the story
Cunning and Deception: The fisherman deceives his wives by pretending to be dead to escape from them.
Love and Betrayal: The fisherman betrays his wives by abandoning them to be with another woman.
Moral Lessons: The tale imparts lessons about trust, deception, and the consequences of one’s actions.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Aleut people
Told in English by an Aleut boy of Unga, and here reproduced verbatim
Once upon a time there was a man and he was married to two women. He was a fisherman. He was fishing for a long time and he saw a sand-spit and there was fire burning there and he saw smoke. Then he went ashore. Soon as he came to the house he saw an old woman with one eye. That old woman asked him if he was married and he said, “Yes.” Then he gave the old woman some of his fish and went back to his place. He came to his home and told his women if he dies to put him in a barabara and his bidarka and bow and arrows, spears and knives. His wives said, “Yes, we will do what you say.” Then he died after that; then the two ladies put him inside the bidarka and put his things inside the bidarka and some other things into the barabara. Those two ladies were crying like anything.
► Continue reading…
That other lady — the one carrying the stern of the bidarka — dropped her end of the bidarka, being too heavy for her. That man he laughed a little, he smiled a little. That head-lady said, “This dead fellow laughed a little.” And that lady who dropped her end she was growling, “You think a dead people will laugh.” — “I saw him laughing myself,” that lady said.
Then they walked on again to the barabara. It was a long ways to that barabara. That lady, she was tired all the time and she dropped her end again. When she dropped her end the man laughed again, and he did not want the ladies to know that he is not dead, he was making out that he was dead all the time. They brought him to the barabara. Then these two ladies were crying all the time. They went home to go to sleep. Then at night that man he woke up, he took his bidarka to the beach and he loaded his bidarka with his things that he had in the barabara, then he started off for that woman with the one eye.
When those two ladies woke up in the morning they went to the barabara to see if that man is there. When they came to that barabara they did not find that fellow in there. Then they were crying more again.
Then that man was fishing for the woman with the one eye. (The sequel to this story is very much like that in the story of The Woman with One Eye given above.)
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