Three separate episodes depict cunning hunters outwit the cannibalistic Xudele tribe. In winter, a lone Ts’ets’a’ut lures pursuers into a snowfield abyss; in summer, he poisons invaders with stone-laden dog soup; finally, he escapes a bear trap, kills his captor, and discovers the origins of martens and minks from the slain cannibals’ children. His clever ruses, bravery, and justice preserve his people and explain local fauna.
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
Origin of Things: The tale explains the origin of martens and minks as the transformed children of the slain Xudele.
Revenge and Justice: Each episode culminates in the hunter’s retributive killing of the Xudele for their murderous ways.
Cunning and Deception: Deception is the hunter’s primary weapon, tricking the Xudele into sliding off cliffs, eating lethal soup, and underestimating him.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tsetsaut people
I do not know of any Athapaskan legend resembling the present in detail, but in the collection of traditions published by Petitot beings half dog and half man play a very important part. They are described as having the faculty of taking the scent of man in the same manner as the Xudele. Similar tales may be found among all the Eskimo tribes, who call the fabulous inlanders, who are half dog, half men, Adla or Eqigdlit.
The Xudele are cannibals. They are very lean. Their noses are turned up and their eyebrows run upward. Their faces look almost like those of dogs. They wear small axes in their belts, with which they kill men. They take the scent of men like dogs.
One day the Xudele had gone hunting man. They found the tracks of a hunter who was on the mountains. He saw them coming, and tried to escape. When he came near a snow-field that terminated abruptly at a precipice, he cut steps into it and climbed down. Half way down he found a small rock shelter, where he stayed. He re solved to make an attempt to kill his pursuers by a ruse. He built a fire and roasted a porcupine that he had caught. The Xudele saw the smoke and smelled the roasting meat. When they came to the snow-field it had grown dark. They shouted down: “Where are you? Let us have some of your meat!” The Ts’ets’a’ut shouted back: “You must slide down this snow-field, then you will find me. I invite you to take part in my meal!” Then the Xudele began to slide down the snow-field one after the other, and were precipitated into the abyss. Finally only one of their number was left. He did not dare to slide down, and shouted: “Where are all my friends?” The man replied: “They are all here.” But the Xudele could not be induced to slide down. He cut steps into the snow, and climbed down as the man had done.
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Finally he reached the man. When he did not see his friends, he asked what had become of them, and the man told him that they had all perished because they had slid past his shelter. Now the Xudele, who did not dare to attack the man single-handed, offered to gamble with him, and said they would stake their lives. The Ts’ets’a’ut refused. He had employed the time while the Xudele were sliding down the snow-field to make a heavy club, which he had placed near his fire. While he was talking with the Xudele he watched his opportunity, and slew him with his club. Then he returned to his village and told what had happened. The people were afraid that the friends of the Xudele might come to look for them, and moved to another place.
At another time a man had gone out hunting. It was in summer. He discovered a vast number of Xudele coming right up to him, so that he could not escape. There happened to be a swamp close to the trail which he was following. He jumped into the mud and lay down, keeping motionless. He looked just like a log. He extended his arms, so that they looked like limbs of a tree. The Xudele came, and one after the other passed him without noticing him. Finally, one of their number noticed the resemblance of the supposed log to a human figure. He raised his axe, and was about to strike him. But since the man did not wince, he concluded that it was nothing but a log and passed on. When all had passed, the man jumped up and ran on the nearest way to his village. There he told the chief that the Xudele were coming. He called a council, and they resolved what to do. They killed a number of dogs and cut them up, skin and bone and intestines. Then they pounded flint to dust, mixed it with the meat, and made a soup of it. When the Xudele came, they invited them to the chiefs house and set the soup before them. Before they began eating, a little boy happened to walk past a Xudele, who seized him, tore out his arms and legs, and ate him. The Ts’ets’a’ut did not dare to remonstrate. Now the Xudele began to eat. Soon the effects of the poison — the pounded stone — began to be felt. They acted as though they were drunk, and some of them fell dead. Then the Ts’ets’a’ut took up their clubs and killed them one and all.
The Xudele put up traps for catching men on the trails which they travel on their snowshoes. They cover a stick with moss and snow, which is so arranged that it catches in the snowshoe of the traveller. A few feet in front of this stick is another, sharp-pointed stick, put into the ground point upward. When the snowshoes catch in the first stick, the traveller falls forward on to the pointed stick, which pierces him. One day a hunter was passing over a trail: He saw a small irregularity of the snow, and discovered that it was the trap of a Xudele. He intended to go on, when he saw the Xudele to whom the trap belonged. As he was unable to make his escape, he tried a stratagem. He struck his nose so that it bled and smeared his chest with blood. Then he lay down on the pointed stick of the trap. The Xudele approached, and when he saw the man, he smiled and said: “Again my trap has caught something for me.” He took the man off the stick, put him into his bag, and, after having reset his trap, turned to go home. The man was very heavy, and he had to put down his load from time to time. Then the man blew the air out of his compressed lips, thus imitating the noise of escaping gases. The Xudele said: “He must have been in my trap for a long time, for the body is decomposing already; the gases are escaping.” When he arrived at home he threw the body down near the fireplace. The man glanced around furtively, and, saw stores of dried human flesh in the house. There was a black woman in the house, and three children were playing near the fire. The Xudele went to fetch his knife in order to skin and carve the man, and he sent his wife for water. The man saw an axe lying near the fire, and when the Xudele turned his back he jumped up, seized it, and split the head of his captor. The Xudele cried: “Sxinadle, asidle,” and died. (It is said that the Xudele always utter this cry, which is unintelligible to the Ts’ets’a’ut, at the time of their death.) When the children saw their father dying they ran out of the house, assumed the shape of martens, and ran up a tree. The man threw the body of the Xudele into the fire. Then he went out of the hut to kill the woman, whom he met carrying a basket of water. He split her stomach with his axe. Then two minks jumped out of her and ran into the water. She died and he burnt her body. When he returned to his country he told what he had seen. Therefore we know that the martens and minks descend from the Xudele.
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