In a village shrouded in darkness, a woman refuses all suitors. One night, she discovers her secret visitor is her own brother. Overcome with anger and shame, she cuts off her breasts, places them in a bowl of ice cream, and presents it to him, declaring that sickness will now afflict mankind. She then transforms into the sun, and her brother, in remorse, becomes the moon
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
Creation: The tale explains the origins of the sun and the moon.
Forbidden Knowledge: The sister’s discovery of her brother’s actions reveals hidden truths with significant consequences.
Divine Punishment: The sister’s declaration that “with mankind shall there be sickness” introduces a form of retribution linked to their actions.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Koyukon people
There was once a large village where there lived a family of children, — four boys and their younger sister, making five. Now, the girl did not want to get married. Many strangers wanted her, and came to visit her, as well as the people of her own village; but she was unwilling to marry. At length the women and men of the village took partners. At that time darkness was over all the earth; there was no sun or moon there.
And there that woman lived, and strangers (came) no (more), and the people of the village took no notice of her. She walks outside, but they never look at her, since others are their wives. So then, one night, some one scratched her head while she slept.
► Continue reading…
“There are no strangers, who is it that is doing this?” she thought: yet she spoke with him. Daily that man who had come in to her began to do the same thing. He became as a husband to her. “Who is it that is doing this?” she thought. “All the village people have their wives, except my brother; he has none, and when there are no strangers, I will tie a feather to his hair; and when they leave the kashime, I will look for whoever has his hair tied,” she thought. “Come,” said she, “go into the kashime and get some sleep! I am sleepy too,” said she, his hair having been tied (to the feather). So the man went to the kashime; and she lay awake, thinking. Soon it became light, and she went out and stood in the door of their house.
So it came the time when we come out; and then she watched the men as they came out, but there was nothing in their hair. Then her brother leaped out. She looked, and there was the feather. It became dark with her, and her face was suffused with blood; then she became hot with anger.
And when it was day, she brought in her fine parka, the clean one, the best she had. Deer-fat too, and berries, she brought in. Neither did she say anything, though her mother spoke to her; and at the time that she made the fire she bathed herself.
Then, dressed in her fine parka and moccasins, she puts ice-cream into this bowl of her brother’s, and takes a dressing-knife, and, (reaching down) within (her parka), cuts off her breasts. Then next she puts them upon the ice-cream; and in (each) she sticks an awl, and takes them into the kashime. When there, she straightens herself up. There sits her brother at the back of the room, opposite the door. She placed (the bowl) by him.
“It was you, then, that did it,” she said. “I supposed that it was some one else that did this thing. Now, with mankind shall there be sickness,” said she. Then she went out; and there yonder she went, and the sun rose; and her brother too put on his parka and his moccasins also, but only one of them, in his hurry, thinking, “It may be that my sister has escaped from me.” Then he too went away, and became the moon.
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Dreamtime Whispers 