A giant hunts beavers along Lake Athabaska, keeping only one Indian boy alive as his ‘grandchild.’ After discovering the edibility of beaver tails through the boy’s initiative, they encounter another giant, Djeneta. A battle ensues, with the boy aiding his ‘grandfather’ by cutting Djeneta’s ankle, leading to Djeneta’s defeat. Djeneta’s massive body forms a land bridge, introducing deer to new territories.
Source:
Chipewyan Tales
by Robert Harry Lowie
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 3
New York, 1912
► Themes of the story
Origin of Things: The story explains natural phenomena, like the reddish appearance of rocks and the migration of deer between lands.
Mythical Creatures: The narrative features giants as central characters.
Ancestral Spirits: The giant raises the Indian boy, indicating a connection between mythical beings and humans.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Chipewyan people
A giant used to hunt beaver along Lake Athabaska, going about half way to Fond du Lac. He was bringing up a little Indian boy, whom he called his grandchild, and whom he kept alive after killing all the other Indians. In hunting beavers he broke the beavers’ lodge, and they all escaped. He broke another lodge. One beaver went across the lake, another up the river.
The giant looked around for the former, found a little hole and saw the beaver’s head popping out. He struck it with a stick, so hard that blood was sprinkled all over, hence the reddish appearance of the rocks there. The beaver that went up the river escaped, that is why there are many beavers there.
► Continue reading…
The giant cut off the beaver’s tail. Seeing the scales he said, “This is not good to eat,” and threw the beaver’s tail away. The Indian boy picked it up and put it in the fire. The scales fell off, and the inside was found good to eat. This was the first time the giant ever ate a beaver tail. When through eating, he put his grandson in his mitten, and walked off. He found moose tracks, but said, “These are rabbit tracks.” His grandson said to him, “These are not rabbit tracks but moose tracks.” They got to a moose, and Hotcowe, the giant, put it in his belt as one would a rabbit. Then he went to the Barren Grounds, and thence to the sea, where he met another giant, named Djeneta. Djeneta was fishing in the ocean with a hook.
Before reaching Djeneta, Hotcowe took his grandson out of his mitten, and bade him approach the fisherman half way and deliver him a challenge to fight. The boy did as he was bidden, and when near enough shouted, “Grandfather!” Djeneta asked, “What do you want?” The boy delivered his message, and ran back, but by that time the giants had already each made a step forward and were already fighting above him. The fisherman was getting the best of the contest, when Hotcowe called to his grandchild, who always carried a beaver tooth, to cut the giant’s ankle. The boy obeyed, causing the giant to fall down so that Hotcowe could easily dispatch him.
The fisherman’s head fell on this island [my interpreter suggested “North America”] while his feet reached another land. Mud gathered on his corpse, connecting the island and the other country, and then deer for the first time ran from the new land into this country.
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Dreamtime Whispers 