The deserted woman

Only her sister-in-law had pity on her, and told her she had left a little fire for her in one place.

As soon as the people were out of sight, the woman blew on the embers left by her sister-in-law, and made a small fire. Numbers of rabbits began to come to the deserted camp. She found some scraps of sinew at a place where the men had been making arrows. She made a snare with these, and caught a rabbit. She took the sinews of its legs and made another snare. Thus she continued catching and living on rabbits. She made needles and awls of their bones, thread of their sinews, and clothing and blankets of their skins. She took great care not to let the lire go out, as she had no axe or any tools for making fire. She collected whatever fire-wood she could find. She had no snowshoes, and could not go very far, for the snow was deep in that place.

At last March came, and spring was near. There was a hard, thick crust on the snow. One day she tapped on her knee, and said, “I wish some of you people would come this way!” She said this almost without thinking, as if in fun. Soon afterwards a moose ran past the camp, and a man on snowshoes in pursuit on the crust. Seeing the moose had passed near the camp, the man asked the woman how long since it has passed or how far ahead it was. She pointed out to him the branches of a tree still moving which it had touched in passing, and made a sign that it had just gone out of sight. The man went on, after telling her that his brother was following and would camp there that night. The brother came along, following the tracks, and, seeing the camp, left his blankets there with the woman. The first brother killed the moose, and that night both brothers returned to the woman’s camp heavily laden with moose-meat. They cooked meat and gave some of it to the woman. During the course of the evening they asked the woman why she was alone, and why she wore only rabbitskin clothing, and she told them all. They said, “When we return to our camp, we shall tell our mother.” They told their mother, who said, “I am almost blind now, and I am very glad you have found this woman. She will be a wife for you, and will sew your clothes.” They took the woman to wife, and she made for them fancy clothes of moose and caribou skin, embroidered richly with quill-work, and feather head-dresses. (This is why men are now jealous of a good wife, who looks after them well and makes fancy clothes for them.) She also made good clothes for herself. (This is why men now like a woman who dresses neatly and well.)

The woman staid with her husbands and mother-in-law in one place. After a time her former husband arrived, and, finding tracks, he followed them to the camp. He was surprised to find his former wife there, finely dressed, well provided with meat, and having two husbands. He offered to buy her back with a stone axe and arrows. The woman took the axe and threw it into deep water, and threw the arrows into the fire. She said to him, “Don’t you remember how you left me to starve? I shall never go with you now!” He departed crying. (This is why, when a good woman separates from a bad man, she becomes better off, and never returns to him.)

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