A cunning man feigned death to expose a Mountain Spirit that stole corpses. Using a hidden stone for protection, he endured a treacherous journey to the Spirit’s lair. After killing the Spirit and its children, he fled, raising hills and flooding a stream to escape the pursuing wife. Tricked into bursting her belly, she transformed into the mist that lingers in the hills today.
Source:
Eskimo Folk-Tales
collected by Knud Rasmussen
[Copenhagen, Christiania], 1921
► Themes of the story
Trickster: The protagonist employs cunning and deception to outsmart the Mountain Spirit, feigning death and using clever tactics to survive and ultimately defeat the Spirit.
Transformation: The narrative culminates in the transformation of the Mountain Spirit’s wife into fog, explaining the natural phenomenon of mist in the hills.
Origin of Things: This tale provides an explanation for the presence of fog in the hills, attributing it to the events involving the Mountain Spirit and his wife.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
There was a Mountain Spirit, which stole corpses from their graves and ate them when it came home. And a man, wishing to see who did this thing, let himself be buried alive. The Spirit came, and saw the new grave, and dug up the body, and carried it off. The man had stuck a flat stone in under his coat, in case the Spirit should try to stab him.
On the way, he caught hold of all the willow twigs whenever they passed any bushes, and made himself as heavy as he could, so that the Spirit was forced to put forth all its strength.
► Continue reading…
At last the Spirit reached its house, and flung down the body on the floor. And then, being weary, it lay down to sleep, while its wife went out to gather wood for the cooking.
“Father, father, he is opening his eyes,” cried the children, when the dead man suddenly looked up.
“Nonsense, children, it is a dead body, which I have dropped many times among the twigs on the way,” said the father.
But the man rose up, and killed the Mountain Spirit and its children, and fled away as fast as he could. The Mountain Spirit’s wife saw him, and mistook him for her husband.
“Where are you going?” she cried.
The man did not answer, but fled on. And the woman, thinking something must be wrong, ran after him.
And as he was running over level ground, he cried: “Rise up, hills!”
And at once many hills rose up.
Then the Mountain Spirit’s wife lagged behind, having to climb up so many hills.
The man saw a little stream, and sprang across.
“Flow over your banks!” he cried to the stream. And now it was impossible for her to get across.
“How did you get across?” cried the woman.
“I drank up the water. Do you likewise.”
And the woman began gulping it down.
Then the man turned round towards her, and said: “Look at the tail of your tunic; it is hanging down between your legs.”
And when she bent down to look, her belly burst.
And as she burst, a steam rose up out of her, and turned to fog, which still floats about to this day among the hills.
Running and expanding this site requires resources: from maintaining our digital platform to sourcing and curating new content. With your help, we can grow our collection, improve accessibility, and bring these incredible narratives to an even wider audience. Your sponsorship enables us to keep the world’s stories alive and thriving. ♦ Visit our Support page
Dreamtime Whispers 