A Wolverine provides beavers to his Wolf wife but secretly visits a Wildcat, arousing her suspicions. The Wolf trails him to a riverside tipi, discovers the affair, and cleverly lures the Wildcat into a boiling pot, killing her as revenge. The Wolverine mourns his loss, finds new hunting grounds, and returns home, where he and his wife live in renewed harmony and abundance.
Source:
Athabascan Myths
by Frank Russell
The American Folklore Society
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.13, No.48, pp. 11-18
January-March, 1900
► Themes of the story
Revenge and Justice: The Wolf enacts retribution by tricking and killing the Wildcat to restore marital honor.
Cunning and Deception: The Wolf uses deceit to lure the Wildcat into the boiling kettle.
Forbidden Love: The illicit relationship between the Wolverine and the Wildcat defies marital bonds.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Gwichʼin (Loucheux) people
There was once a Wolverine who married a Wolf, and for some time he was very faithful in providing beaver for food. In the course of time he stayed longer upon his hunting trips, and brought home fewer beaver for his wife to cook. She reproached him for this and he said that he had to go farther for beaver now, that was why he was detained so long. His wife thought there was surely something wrong and decided to watch him. One day, as he set out on his hunting trip in his canoe, she followed along the river bank under cover of the forest. At length she saw her husband go ashore with a beaver which he had killed, and with which he entered a tipi that stood by the riverside. When he went away again, the wife went into the camp and saw a Wildcat sitting before the kettle in which the beaver was cooking.
► Continue reading…
She saw that her husband had been unfaithful, and determined to kill the Wildcat. She told the Cat to look into the kettle and she would see herself there; when the Wildcat looked into the kettle the Wolf pushed her in, so that her face was burned so severely that death resulted. The Wolf then dragged the Wildcat to the top of the bank overlooking the landing-place, and hid herself in the adjoining bushes. Her husband came back with more beavers, and as he came up the bank he said to the Wildcat which he saw above him, “Are you waiting for me? What are you laughing at me for?” for the shrivelled and grinning head appeared to be laughing. But when he saw that the Cat was dead, he exclaimed, “Ah, that is what the trouble is,” and he began to weep. He stayed a long time at the camp, and finally carried the Wildcat away into the forest. At last he started for home, and his wife ran back in time to be at work carrying wood when he arrived. The Wolverine asked, “Why is there no fire?” “I have been out all day gathering wood,” replied his wife; “why are you back so soon today?” “Because I have found a new place where there are plenty of beaver,” said the Wolverine. But he was very sad and unhappy for some time afterward. “Why are you so different lately?” asked the Wolf. But he would not tell her, and hunted very faithfully and brought home many beavers, so that they lived very contentedly together ever afterward.
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