A solitary huntress shelters in the mountains, visited nightly by a mysterious lover who soon reveals himself as a dog hunting porcupines. When she kills him after discovering his true form, she later gives birth to two male and one female dog-children. Her villagers abandon her, yet her pups, able to shed their skins and become children, thrive—ultimately proving their worth and reconnecting with the tribe.
Source:
Traditions of the Ts’ets’a’ut
by Franz Boas
The American Folklore Society
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.9, No.35, pp. 257-268
October-December, 1896
Vol.10, No.36, pp. 35-48
January-March, 1897
► Themes of the story
Transformation: Central to the story are the shapeshifting elements: the dog transforming into a man, and the children switching between human and dog forms.
Supernatural Beings: The dog-lover and the children who can change their shape clearly indicate interaction with beings beyond the natural world.
Forbidden Love: The mysterious conception and the birth of dog-children prompt rejection from the community, suggesting a transgressive or taboo relationship.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tsetsaut people
Once upon a time there was a woman who went every night hunting porcupines. During the daytime she hunted marmots. While out on the mountains she built a shelter of branches. One night, when she had gone to sleep, a young man entered her hut He looked just like her lover, and she thought he had followed her. In the morning she boiled some of the porcupine meat and both partook of it, and in the evening the young man went out to hunt porcupines. As soon as he had left the hut, he put on his blanket and appeared in his true shape. He was one of the dogs of the village. He crawled into the dens of the porcupines and caught a great number. Then he took off his blanket and reappeared in the shape of a man. For three nights he stayed with the woman. During the daytime he went hunting marmots, and he never went out without bringing back a vast amount of game.
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Then he ate of the food that the woman had cooked and they went to bed. In the third night he arose about midnight. He had assumed his true shape, and ate the meat and gnawed the bones of the marmots and of the porcupines. The woman awoke by the noise and saw a large dog eating their provisions. She turned to the man, intending to awake him, but there was nobody to be seen. Then she took a club and killed the dog. Early in the morning she made a bundle of the remaining dried meat and returned to her village. She did not tell any one of what had happened. But soon she felt that she was with child, and when this came to be known nobody knew who had been her lover. After two months she was about to be confined. The women of the village assembled to assist her, but what was their terror when she gave birth first to two male dogs, then to a female dog! They all fled, even her mother. Only her brother’s sister remained with her. The women told the people what had happened, and all the inhabitants of the village resolved to desert her. They packed their belongings and left the place. Only the young woman and her pups remained.
They grew up rapidly. Every day their mother went gathering food for them. As soon as she left the hut, the pups took off their skins, and played about in the shape of children. They had nice, light skins. When they saw their mother approaching, they put on their skins, resumed the shape of dogs, and lay in the ashes of the fireplace. One day their mother did not go very far. She heard voices of children near her hut. They seemed to be playing and singing. Cautiously she approached the hut, walking noiselessly over the snow; but the children had seen her coming, and put on their blankets before she was able to come near. On the following day she went up the mountains, and there she pushed her staff into the ground and hung her blanket of marmot skins over it Again she approached the hut cautiously. When she came near, she saw two boys and one girl playing around. The latter went to look from time to time, and returned on seeing the staff that was covered with the blanket. She said to her brothers: “Mother is still out gathering wood.” Then the mother jumped into the hut. On one side of the fireplace were two dog-skins; on the other there was one. She took the first two, and threw them into the fire. Before she was able to take the last, the girl had run into the house, put it on, and was transformed into a dog. Then the boys sat down in a corner of the house, crying for their skins. Their mother gave them blankets made of marmot skins. She made garments and snow-shoes, bows and arrows, and the boys began hunting squirrels. When they came to be larger they hunted larger animals, and the bitch accompanied them. She was a very good hunter. They had such a vast supply of game that they did not know what to do with it. Their house was quite filled with supplies.
The people, however, who had left the woman were unsuccessful in hunting, and were almost starving. They returned to their old hunting-ground, and were surprised to find the woman still alive, and to see the two young men.
One day the two hunters went out to hunt mountain goats. Their dog accompanied them. Then a goat attacked the dog, gored it, and threw it down the side of the mountain.
Later on the two young men married women of the tribe. Once upon a time they went hunting, accompanied by seven men. They hunted mountain goats near the sources of Tcunaq River. They killed a whole herd. Only one kid escaped by climbing a high, precipitous rock. There it stood, crying pitifully. The men of the party wanted to return, but the two brothers were so eager to kill the poor kid that they began the dangerous ascent of the steep rock. They had no pity. Then the rock began to grow and carried them up so high that there was no possibility of return. They succeeded in reaching a cleft. There they sat close together warming each other, but after three days one of the brothers died. On the following day the men of the tribe went to the cliff and shouted to the brothers, but there was no reply. The other one had died also. When they turned away to rejoin their tribe, on looking at the rock they saw blood flowing down from the place where the brothers had died, and also from the retreat of the kid. The blood may be seen on the rock up to this day.
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Dreamtime Whispers 