An old witch living with her grandson plotted to harm a visiting hunter, envious of his success. She cooked a deadly soup of wolf and human brains, sending her grandson to invite the hunter while warning him to conceal its contents. However, the hunter, a powerful angakoq, saw through her plan. Using his magic, he tricked her into eating the poisoned soup herself, causing her swift demise.
Source:
The Central Eskimo
by Franz Boas
[Bureau of American Ethnology]
Sixth Annual Report
Washington, 1888
► Themes of the story
Trickster: The hunter employs cunning and magical prowess to outsmart the witch, turning her own malevolent scheme against her.
Good vs. Evil: The narrative depicts the struggle between the virtuous hunter and the malevolent witch, highlighting the triumph of good over evil.
Divine Intervention: The hunter’s shamanic abilities, possibly granted by spiritual forces, enable him to perceive and thwart the witch’s evil plan.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
An old hag lived in a house with her grandson. She was a very bad woman who thought of nothing but playing mischief. She was a witch and tried to harm everybody by witchcraft. Once upon a time a stranger came to visit some friends who lived in a hut near that of the old woman. As the visitor was a good hunter and procured plenty of food for his hosts, she envied them and resolved to kill the new comer. She made a soup of wolf’s and man’s brains, the most poisonous meal she could prepare, and sent her grandson to invite the stranger. She cautioned him not to say what she had cooked, as she knew that the visitor was a great angakoq, who was by far her superior in wisdom.
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The boy went to the neighboring hut and said: “Stranger, my grandmother invites you to come to her hut and to have there a good feast on a supper she has cooked. She told me not to say that it is a man’s and a wolf’s brains and I do not say it.” Though the angakoq understood the schemes of the old hag he followed the boy and sat down with her. She feigned to be very glad to see him and gave him a dish full of soup, which he began to eat. But by help of his tornaq the food fell right through him into a vessel which he had put between his feet on the floor of the hut. This he gave to the old witch and compelled her to eat it. She died as soon as she had brought the first spoonful to her mouth.
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