A wealthy young man named No’unne’gu seeks to marry Ka’muxa’isyuk’s daughter. Ka’muxa’isyuk, a powerful shaman, has previously killed No’unne’gu’s brothers using two brown bears. No’unne’gu overcomes deadly challenges, including retrieving lava stones from Siberia and confronting the bears. After marrying the daughter, he kills her in revenge for his brothers and leaves her body in her father’s fish-net.
Source:
Ten’a Texts and Tales
(from Anvik, Alaska)
by John W. Chapman
The American Ethnological Society
Publications, Volume 6 (ed. Franz Boas)
E.J. Brill, Leyden, 1914
► Themes of the story
Quest: No’unne’gu embarks on a perilous journey to Siberia to retrieve lava stones, a task assigned by Ka’muxa’isyuk.
Cunning and Deception: Ka’muxa’isyuk employs deceitful tactics, such as creating a storm and setting traps, in attempts to thwart No’unne’gu’s mission.
Revenge and Justice: After successfully completing the tasks and marrying Ka’muxa’isyuk’s daughter, No’unne’gu exacts revenge for his brothers’ deaths by killing her and leaving her body for her father to find.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Koyukon people
A story told in connection with the feast of animals’ souls.
No’unne’gu is a rich man, who has a parka of marten skins. He lives with several of his brothers at a place on the Yukon some distance above Anvik. He is the youngest of the family. Below Anvik lives a rich man, who has a wife and a daughter. His name is Ka’muxa’isyuk. He has two sons. They live in one of the Ingalik villages. Every year one of the young men of No’unne’gu’s family goes down to court Ka’muxa’isyuk’s daughter, but her father kills them, with the help of two brown bears that he keeps. Finally it comes No’unne’gu’s turn to go down. He is a strong man. Ka’muxa’isyuk sends him to Siberia to get tcachl (lava-stones) to put into the fire when the kashime is heated, so as to preserve the heat. He takes his baidara and sets out. He gets the stones; but when he starts to return, Ka’muxa’isyuk, who is a powerful shaman, creates a great storm.
► Continue reading…
But No’unne’gu has a charm bound up in his hair at the back of his neck. It is a small, black stone. He takes this out, and throws it toward the shore from which he has come, and a path of smooth water appears, while the waves rage on each side. The shaman thinks that he has finished him; but he gets back, with the stones. Then the shaman sends him into the woods for a load of fuel. There is a path under the spruces; but the two brown bears have been set to watch for him, one on each side of the path. He is not afraid of them, but takes one with each hand, by the back of the neck, and gives them a shaking and goes on. He brings back the wood and splits it in front of the door of the kashime, and makes a fire, and heats up the stones that he has brought. The shaman thinks that by sending him into the kashime while the fire is hot, he will cause his death; but he survives, and the shaman gives in, and lets him have his daughter. He takes her in his canoe and goes off; but on the way he takes off her parka, and ties a string around her neck, and throws her, screaming, into the water, and drags her until she is dead, in revenge for the death of his brothers. When he reaches her father’s fish-net, he fastens her body in it and goes home. The next day her father finds the body in the net, with the rope around the neck, and he understands.
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