In a sub-arctic tale, a young man, lacking proper fire-starting tools, carries embers throughout winter. After discarding partridge feet post-meal, he later, starving, consumes them. A partridge appears in his dream, chastising his pride and predicting future abundance. The next evening, he discovers a fatally frozen moose beneath the snow, providing ample sustenance and teaching him humility.
Source:
The Beaver Indians
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 4
New York, 1912
► Themes of the story
Conflict with Nature: The young man struggles against the harsh winter conditions, facing challenges such as scarcity of food and the necessity to carry fire for survival.
Dreams and Visions: A partridge visits the young man in his sleep, delivering a message that foretells an improvement in his circumstances, which subsequently comes true.
Loss and Renewal: The young man experiences a period of deprivation and near-death, followed by a renewal of fortune when he discovers the moose, providing him with ample sustenance.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Dane-zaa people
Obtained in English from Ike through John Bourassa
There was a young man who went around alone one winter. He had neglected to provide himself with the proper stones for making fire before the snow came and covered them up. He was therefore obliged to carry fire with him wherever he went. He was without food and starving one night when he killed a partridge. He scraped away the snow, built a fire, and cooked the partridge. He ate the bird and when he had finished dropped the feet in the snow behind him.
The next day he went on and wandered about for many days without being able to kill anything. Finally, he came back to the same place and cleared away the snow for a fire. As the fire melted the snow away he saw the discarded partridge feet. He then recognized his former camping place.
► Continue reading…
He picked up the feet and ate them. That night a partridge came to him in his sleep and said, “You were proud. You were too proud to eat my feet as other people do, but now you want to have them. You are miserable and about to die, but from now on you will be all right. By tomorrow night you will have plenty to eat. The next day he went about thinking all day long he would find some game as had been promised. Night came without his having had a chance to kill anything. He moved the snow away and built his fire against a drift that the heat might be reflected toward him. He sat there wondering that an animal should deceive him by making a promise that had not been fulfilled. As the fire grew hot he heard a sound like the frying of grease. He kept pushing the fire together and as he did so the sound was heard again. He finally noticed the drift of snow covered a moose which had been killed in the fall when it was fat. The fire had been built near the hips of the moose and the choicest parts were ready cooked. He had the whole moose to himself and was all right after that.
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Dreamtime Whispers 