Two young hunters encounter a powerful Tsufa’ spirit: one is trapped to die, the other befriended and carried away. The giant effortlessly slaughters beavers and elks, then kills his own wife in a gruesome episode, before crafting a magical cedar staff to guide the young man home. After arduous wanderings, the hunter returns, marries, and only two years later does the staff’s breaking reveal the Tsufa’s death.
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
Supernatural Beings: The Tsufa’ is a giant spirit whose otherworldly powers and interactions with mortals drive the narrative.
Sacred Objects: The yellow-cedar staff serves as a mystical guide, pointing the way and symbolizing the bond between the young man and the Tsufa’.
Prophecy and Fate: The staff’s eventual breaking foretells the death of the Tsufa’, underscoring the inescapable workings of destiny.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tsetsaut people
Once upon a time two young men went hunting porcupines. They found a den under a rock, and one of them crawled in. While they were there a Tsufa’ came, and when the young man saw him he called his companion, shouting: “A Tsufa’ is coming.” But the Tsufa’ did not kill the young man. He pitied him and made friends with him. In vain he tried to induce the young man who had crawled into the cave to come out, promising to adopt him and help him in all his undertakings. He would not come. Finally the Tsufa’ grew angry, and defecated in front of the entrance to the den, thus imprisoning the young man. He left him to perish in the cave. He placed the other one on his head and carried him to his home. When the two young men were missed by their friends and parents, the people set out to find them, but a fresh snow had covered their tracks as well as those of the Tsufa’.
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The giant reached a frozen lake in which there were a great many beaver dams. There he stopped. With his hands he scooped up the beaver dams and shook them, so that all the beavers dropped out. Then he killed them by filliping them. He singed them over a fire, and ate them when they were done. A beaver was just a mouthful for him. The young man ate part of one beaver only. After he had eaten, the Tsufa’ lay down. He had discovered a number of elks browsing beyond a small hill. He stretched his hand over the hill, and in it caught three elks, which he squeezed to death. Then he broke off dry limbs of trees, and made a large fire, at which he roasted the elks. When they were done he began to eat. For him an elk was just two mouthfuls. On the following day he travelled on. He came to another lake, where he found cariboos. These the Tsufa’ killed.
Deinde progressi, ad magnum domicilium pervenerunt, ubi habitabat Tsufae occisi uxor. Dux, cum in possessionem siccatae carnis omnis invasisset, quae ibi condita esset, adulescenti “Cuba quaeso,” inquit, “cum hac muliere.” Is primum timuit; mox autem ill! cohortanti paruit abiitque ex oculis in mulieris vaginam. Quae cum a Tsufa magna voce obsecraretur ne filium ipsius necaret, e strato ex-siluit atque se excussit donee adulescens ad humum delapsus est. Turn vero Tsufa ipse cum ea cubuit. Mentulam autem suam propter incredibilem longitudinem ita ferebat ut corpus ejus bis amplexa per adversum tergum atque etiam super humerum porrecta esset. Itaque mulierem, cum hac transfigeret ut extrema pars ex ore ejus exstaret, interfecit. [Then they advanced and came to a large house where the wife of the murderer Tsufa lived. The chief, taking possession of all the dried flesh that was stored there, said to the young man, “Lay, I beg you,” “with this woman.” At first he was afraid; but soon he obeyed her urging and penetrated the woman. When Tsufa begged her with a loud voice not to kill her son, she jumped out of bed and shook herself until the young man fell to the ground. Then Tsufa himself lay down with her. But because of its incredible length, he carried his cock in such a way that it hugged his body twice, stretched across his back and even over his shoulder. So he killed the woman by piercing it with it so that the tip protruded from her mouth.]
Finally the young man longed to return to his own country. The Tsufa’ made a staff of yellow cedar, which was to show him the way. Whenever he put it into the ground it would turn the way the young man had to go. He also told him that the staff would break in twain as soon as he died. Then they parted. The young man followed the direction the staff was pointing, and after long wanderings reached his home. There he married. He placed this staff under a tree. After two years the staff broke, and he knew that his friend was dead.
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