Two sisters, scolded by their mother for consuming scarce food, flee to the mountains and encounter Fog-Man. He replaces his malevolent wives, Porcupine and Beaver, with the sisters, turning the former into animals. Fog-Man’s hunting skills provide abundance, but after a dispute, he conceals his meat cache under a mountain. Later, he reveals it, teaching the people to store food, though his mother-in-law’s gluttony leads to her demise.
Source:
Kaska Tales
by James A. Teit
The American Folklore Society
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.30, No.118, pp. 427-473
October-December, 1917
► Themes of the story
Divine Punishment: Fog-Man transforms his two malicious wives, Porcupine and Beaver, into their respective animal forms as punishment for their malevolent behavior.
Conflict with Nature: The human characters face challenges in securing food, highlighting their struggle against natural scarcity.
Cunning and Deception: Fog-Man conceals his meat cache beneath a mountain to prevent access by those who quarreled with him, demonstrating strategic cunning.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Kaska people
A man and his wife were out hunting. They had two daughters who staid in camp. There was little to eat; and the girls, being hungry, ate about half of the back-fat that remained in the camp. Their mother was angry when she returned and found that they had eaten so much fat.
She said to them, “Go up in the mountains and marry Fog-Man. He is a good hunter, and always has plenty of fat.” The girls ran away from home, and, going up in the mountains, came to the place where the Fog people draw water. They met a woman there who was the mother of Fog-Man. The girls told her their story, and she said she would tell her son.
► Continue reading…
Fog-Man had two wives, Porcupine and Beaver. They were bad women. They ate people, and they were always angry and cross. As soon as Fog-Man learned of the girls from his mother, without saying anything, he arose and hit Porcupine with his axe, and drove her from the house. He said, “Go up to the timber-line among the balsam and become a porcupine. People will eat you.” Then he hit Beaver with a stick, and drove her, too, from the house. He said, “Go down to the river and become a beaver. People will eat you also.” He brought the girls in, and now had two good wives. He hunted and put up a great quantity of meat of caribou, sheep, etc., and fat groundhog. He made a very big cache of meat in the mountains. Then he went to visit his parents-in-law, taking his wives with him, and plenty of meat. He staid a long time with his wives’ people; and while he remained there, the people always had plenty to eat, for Fog-Man was a good hunter. His chief food was sheep’s horns, which he called fat, and cut just like back-fat.
Each of his wives bore him a son. One day some of the people quarrelled with him, and he left them. On his way home he put a mountain on the top of his meat-cache, so that the people could not get at it. They could find no game, and were starving. They went to the cache to get meat, but were unable to remove the mountain which covered it. The woman (viz., mother-in-law) sent Fog-Man’s sons to look for their father. She said to them, “When you see your father’s tracks and follow them, paint the soles of your feet with red paint, and never look back.” They did as directed, and found their father. Many Fog people were living there. When they went in, they gave the lads sheep’s horns to eat.
When Fog-Man heard that the people were starving, he was sorry. He went to the cache and took the mountain off the top. The people now had plenty to eat. Fog-Man’s mother-in-law ate so much fat, that she became too full, and, when reaching over to take some more, she broke in two. After this, people used caches and put up meat in caches. Fog-Man taught them. This is why the Indians now cache their meat and make caches.
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