Two boys lose an arrow and discover a house containing a bowl of ice cream. After eating the treat, they hide inside the house but are found and swallowed by a woman who returns. Inside her stomach, they use a small knife and whetstone to cut their way out, successfully escaping.
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
Trickster: The boys exhibit cunning behavior by hiding and later devising a plan to escape from the woman’s stomach.
Conflict with Nature: The boys face a life-threatening situation within a natural setting and must use their wits to survive.
Trials and Tribulations: The boys undergo a series of challenges, from losing their arrow to being swallowed and finding a way to escape.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Koyukon people
Two boys were shooting with arrows, and the arrow of one of them was lost; and they searched for it, and found a house, and went up on the roof. Down there on the floor, in a big bowl, was some ice-cream; and they went into the house and ate it. Then one of them got under a stone, and the other got under a pillow, and there they staid. Soon some one came stamping in. And she kicked the bowl, and said, “Who ate what was in you?” “There’s one of them under that stone, and the other is under the pillow,” said she, and she swallowed them. And they were in her belly. Then one of them took out a little knife, and the other took out a little whetstone, and they cut open her stomach and jumped out.
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