The blind man and the loon

A blind man relies on his wife to hunt. After successfully shooting a caribou, his wife deceives him, claims he missed, and abandons him. Distraught, he encounters a loon who restores his sight through repeated dives. The loon advises him to confront his wife for her betrayal. Upon finding her, he kills her using her own leg.

Source:
Tahltan Tales
by James A. Teit
The American Folklore Society
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.32, No.124, pp.198-250
April-June, 1917
Vol.34, No.133, pp.223-253
July-September, 1921
Vol.34, No.134, pp.335-356
October-December, 1921

► Themes of the story

Love and Betrayal: The man’s wife deceives and abandons him, highlighting themes of betrayal.

Revenge and Justice: After regaining his sight, the man seeks retribution against his wife for her treachery.

Healers and Cures: The loon’s role in miraculously healing the man’s blindness.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Tahltan Lore

Learn more about Tahltan people

Once there was an old blind man who travelled with his wife. When game was in sight, he drew his hand over his arrow, then his wife held up his arms, and he shot, never missing his mark. One day he shot a caribou in this way, but his wife told him he had missed. She said, “You are useless now. I am going to leave you.” She went to where the caribou lay, butchered it, and dried the meat. Meanwhile her husband was weeping bitterly. He crawled about, not knowing where he was going, while his wife had plenty to eat. He heard a loon cry, and crawled towards the sound. At last he felt the water of a lake. Loon came to him and asked him why he was crying. The man said, “Because I have missed a caribou, and my wife has deserted me.” Loon said, “Get on my back, I will take you along with me.” The man was afraid. Loon dived with a rock on his back to the other side of the lake and back again. Again he dived with a heavier rock and returned.

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Now the man climbed on Loon’s back. Loon dived from one end of the lake to the other, and then asked the man if he could see. The man answered, “Yes, a little.” Four times Loon dived with him; and when they came up the last time, the man had recovered his eyesight. [Some Indians believe that the loon is a good guardian spirit for shamans, and that those who possess it can cure eye-diseases.] Loon told the man to kill his wife for lying to him and deserting him. He went to her, and found her eating caribou-meat. When she saw him approaching, she said, “I was just going to look for you.” He cut off her leg and killed her with it. [Stories telling how a person is killed with his own arm, leg, head, etc., occur among the Carrier.]

Another Version. A man with his wife and children were camped near a large lake. Here they had snares set for caribou, and nets for fish. They caught hardly any fish and no caribou, and were starving. To make matters worse, the man became blind. The woman then attended to the snares and nets. One day she found a caribou in one of the snares. Taking the children, she deserted her husband, went to where the caribou was, and camped there. Her husband crawled to the lake to have a drink, and then lay down and fell asleep. Something talked to him. It was Loon, asking him why he lay there. The man said, “I was deserted by my wife, came here to drink, and fell asleep.” Loon said, “Your wife is eating caribou-meat over there. I will take you to where she is.” The man was afraid, but finally was persuaded to take hold of Loon around the neck. Loon then dived with him to the end of the lake and came up. He asked the man if he could see; and he answered, “A little.” Loon dived back to where he had started from, and asked the man again if he could see. He answered, “I can see much better, but my sight is still dim.” Then he dived with him a third time, and went towards the place where the caribou-snares were. Loon asked the man again if he could see; and he said, “Very well. I can see everything.” Now Loon gave him a stone knife with which to kill his wife. When he came near where she was, she saw him coming. She cried, and said to the children, “Let us go to your father! Poor man! he is blind.” The husband paid no attention to her, and forthwith killed her and her children.

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The returned from Spirit Land

A grieving young man, mourning his recently deceased wife, embarks on a mystical journey to the afterlife. There, he reunites with her and resists the temptations of the spirit realm. Together, they return to the living world, but she exists only as a shadow. Their happiness ends when a jealous relative disrupts their bond, causing their spirits to reunite permanently in Ghost Land.

Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Underworld Journey: The protagonist ventures into the afterlife to reunite with his deceased wife, embodying a journey into a realm beyond the living.

Love and Betrayal: The deep bond between the young man and his wife is central to the narrative, and their reunion is ultimately disrupted by a jealous relative’s actions.

Resurrection: The wife’s return to the living world, albeit as a shadow, symbolizes a form of resurrection, highlighting themes of life, death, and the possibility of return.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Tlingit Lore

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904

The wife of a young man, who had recently married, died, and he was very sad. His father was a chief, and both he and the parents of the girl were still living. The young couple had been married for so short a time that they had no children.

The night that his wife died the young man remained awake all night unable to sleep, and the second night it was the same. Next morning he thought that he would walk out, but finally concluded to wait until after his wife’s body had been buried. The body was taken away late that afternoon, and early next morning he put on his leggings and his other fine clothes and started off. He walked all day and all night. Daylight dawned upon him still walking. After going through the woods for a long distance he came to a very large valley.

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There had been a creek there which was now dried up. Then he heard voices, which sounded as though they were a long way off. Where he was traveling the trees were very thick.

Finally the youth saw light through the trees and presently came out on a wide, flat stone lying on the edge of a lake. All this time he had been walking in the death road. On the other side of this lake there were houses and people were moving around there. So he shouted out to them, “Come over and get me,” but they did not seem to hear him. Upon the lake a little canoe was going about with one man in it, and all about it was grassy. It looked very nice.

After the man had shouted for a long time without receiving any response and had become tired, he finally whispered to himself, “Why is it that they do not hear me?” Immediately a person on the opposite side of the lake said, “Somebody is shouting.” When he whispered, they heard him. “A person has come up (daq a’wagut) from dreamland,” the voice continued. “Let some one go out and bring him over.” They carried him across, and, as soon as he got there, he saw his wife. He saw that she had been crying, and he raised his hands and looked at her. He was very happy to see her once again. Finally the people asked him to sit down in the house, and, when he did so, they began to give him something to eat. He felt hungry, but his wife said, “Don’t eat that. If you eat that you will never get back.” So he did not eat it.

After that his wife said to him, “You better not stay here long. Let us go right away.” So they were taken back in the same canoe. It is called Ghost’s-canoe (Si’gi-qa’wu-ya’gu), and is the only one on that lake. And they landed on the flat rock where he had first stood calling. It is called Ghost’s-rock (Si’gi-qa’wu-te’yi), and is at the very end of the trail. Then they started down the road in which he had gone up. It took them the same length of time to descend it, and the second night they reached the youth’s house.

Then the young man made his wife stay outside and he went in and said to his father, “I have brought my wife back.” “Well,” said his father, “why don’t you bring her in?” they laid down a nice mat with fur robes on top of it at the place where they were to sit. Then the young man went out to get his wife. When the door opened to let them in, however, the people in the house saw him only. But finally, when he came close, they saw a deep shadow following him. He told his wife to sit down, and, when she did so, they put a marten-skin robe upon her, which hung about the shadow just as though it were a person sitting there. When she ate they saw only her arms and the spoon moving up and down but not the shadow of her hands. It looked strange to the people.

After that the young couple always went about together. Wherever the young man went the shadow could be seen following him. He would not go into the bedroom at the rear of the house, but ordered them to prepare a bed just where they were sitting. Then they did so, for they were very glad to have him back.

During the day the woman was very quiet, but all night long the two could be heard playing. At that time the people could hear her voice very plainly. The young man’s father at first felt strange in his son’s presence, but after a while he would joke with his daughter-in-law, saying, “You better get up now after having kept people awake all night playing.” Then they could hear the shadow laugh, and recognized that it was the dead woman’s voice. To what the chief said the woman’s brothers-in-law would add, “Yes, get her out, for she has kept us awake.”

The nephew of the father of this girl had been in love with her before she died, although she did not care for him, and he was jealous when he found that her husband had brought her back. One night she was telling her husband that she was going to show herself as she used to be and not like a shadow and that she was going to remain so permanently. Her father’s nephew had covered himself up at the head of the bed and heard everything. Her husband was very glad to hear this, but, while they were playing together afterward, the man who was listening to them thought that he would lift the curtain they had around them. The moment that he did so, however, the people in the house heard a rattling of bones. That instant the woman’s husband died, and the ghosts of both of them went back to Ghost Land.

The faithless wife

A man from the Anqa’kitan at Killisnoo loses his wife, who requests not to be buried. Secretly alive, she is taken by the chief’s son, her lover. When her young daughter discovers the affair, the husband uncovers the deception. Seeking vengeance, he transforms into a wizard, murders his wife and her lover, and conceals his actions while taunting the village during a gambling game.

Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Love and Betrayal: The wife’s deceit and affair with the chief’s son exemplify themes of infidelity and treachery.

Revenge and Justice: The husband’s transformation into a wizard to exact vengeance on his unfaithful wife and her lover highlights retribution and the pursuit of justice.

Transformation: The husband’s metamorphosis into a wizard signifies a profound change driven by emotional turmoil and the desire for revenge.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Tlingit Lore

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904

A man of the Anqa’kitan at Killisnoo lost his wife. When she was dying she said to her husband, “When I die, don’t bury me. Keep me out of the ground.” Bodies of common people used to be put into the ground for a little while before they were burned, those of high-caste persons being put into a house. So, when she died, instead of burying her, he placed her body up on a high place.

This woman knew, however, that she was not going to die. She spoke as she did because she was in love with the son of the chief. The chief’s son was also in love with her, and, when he knew that she was put away, he went there at midnight when her husband was asleep, took her out, and carried her to his own house where he kept her in the bedroom at the rear. The chief was so fond of his son that he did everything the latter asked of him.

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This was the only house in that town that had a fire in it at midnight, and the people wondered what was the matter. The chief had his slaves get breakfast for the young couple before others were up.

The man whose wife had left him had a little girl whom he would humor very much, and she was in the habit of roaming from house to house throughout the village. One morning very early he said to the little girl, “Run out and get some fire.” As the chief’s house was the only one in which she could see smoke, she ran there after some, and, as soon as she entered, saw her mother sitting with the chief’s son. As soon as her mother saw her she hid her face, but the girl watched her closely. She walked directly out with the fire, however, without speaking.

When the little girl reached home with it she said, “Father, my mother is at that chief’s house.” “Which chief’s house?” said her father. “The chief that lives up on the hill.” Then her father said, “What makes you say that, child? Your mother has been dead for sometime.” Then he took her hand and said pityingly, “Poor child, your mother is dead.” He began to cry as he held the child’s hand and then said, “I will go and see the place where I put her.” So he got another to accompany him, and they brought the box down. It felt very light. When he opened it, it was empty. Then he thought to himself, “I am going to make certain of this.” About midnight he saw a fire at the chief’s house. Then he climbed up on top of it, looked down through the smoke hole, and saw his wife sitting there playing with the chief’s son. She looked very happy.

When the man got home he said to himself, “What can I do?” He thought, “How can I become a wizard?” So he did everything to turn himself into a wizard. He went among the graves, and played with the bodies and bones, but could not become a wizard. Then he went out to an island in front of the village and played with the bones of the dead people that were there. Finally he got hold of two shoulder blades with which he fanned and rubbed himself and all at once he fainted. Then he thought he would try working them like wings, and sure, enough he began flying along very rapidly. Now he determined to go to the place where his wife was living.

First the man went up into the woods, procured very hard limbs and began to split them. He made the points very sharp. Then he stuck them into grease and burned it off in order to harden them. He took these along with him and crawled up on top of the house. Then he flew down through the smoke hole. He bewitched everyone in the house so that all slept soundly, passed into the rear bedroom, and stuck the sticks into the hearts of his wife and her lover so that they died.

Early next morning, when the slaves got up as usual to wait upon the young people, they were kept waiting so long that they were surprised. They thought that they were sleeping very late. Finally they went to see what was the matter and saw them lying in each others’ arms with the blood flowing from their mouths. The news was soon all over the village.

Early that same morning the woman’s former husband took his gambling sticks and came out to gamble. He pretended that he knew nothing about what had happened. When persons came to gamble with him he shouted out as people do when they are gambling, “These are the sharp sticks. These are the sharp sticks.” People wondered why he said it, and much whispering went on while they gambled. The man looked very happy.

The rejected lover

A young man, in love with his cousin, faces rejection as she resists their union due to familial tensions and her secret affections. Humiliated and despondent, he encounters a magical loon that transforms his fate, guiding him to a distant village where he marries a chief’s daughter. Despite initial happiness, jealousy and betrayal lead to the couple’s separation, ending tragically in mystical retribution.

Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Forbidden Love: The young man’s love for his cousin is met with familial opposition and societal disapproval, highlighting the challenges of pursuing a relationship that defies accepted norms.

Transformation: The protagonist undergoes significant changes, both emotionally and through the influence of the magical loon, which alters his destiny and leads him to a new life.

Love and Betrayal: After achieving initial happiness, the young man’s life is disrupted by jealousy and betrayal, culminating in a tragic separation and mystical retribution.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Tlingit Lore

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904

Somewhere to the north lived a chief who had a daughter and a nephew who was in love with this daughter. In olden times when a man married a woman with a marriageable daughter he married the daughter as well, so the youth wanted to marry this chief’s wife in order to get her daughter. The boy’s father was chief of a certain clan. When he found that he could not get this woman by himself the young man told his mother, and his mother worked hard for him. They carried in slaves and goods of all kinds to the chief. Still the chief would not consent, for he wanted his daughter to marry some great chief from outside. He would not let anyone in the village have her. It was really the girl, however, that had induced her father not to give his consent. She must have been in love with somebody else or her father would not have spoken in that way.

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The boy’s father had him ornamented with abalone shell, in his ears and all over his shirt, but, just as soon as he came in decorated in this way, along with his mother, the girl would jump up, raise her marten robe in front of her face, run to meet them before, they sat down and say to him, “You may be decorated with all kinds of valuable shells, but I will not have you.” The boy and her mother were hurt at this. At first the girl liked her cousin well enough, but, when she found that he had made hard feelings between her parents, she began to feel unkindly toward him. Probably her father hated the boy because his wife was willing to marry him.

One day the girl felt lonely and asked her cousin to go up with her to get spruce bark to eat. The girl took along her little servant girl and the boy his little servant boy. So they went up back of the town until they came to a place where there were only spruces with open grassy spots between. The girl sat down on one of these latter and her cousin took the bark off for her. He was very good to her, and tried to humor her in every way, but by and by she said to him, “Pull off your marten robe and put it into that pond close by.” The boy did so, saying, “Did you think I could not do that? I have plenty of marten robes.” Then the girl spoke again saying, “Pull off all of your hair.” He began to do so, and, when it was all pulled out, she said, “All right.” Then she said, “Take all those shells from your ears and face and throw them away.” The boy began to feel disturbed (lit. strange) about what she was saying to him, but he did so. As soon as he had finished, however, the girl and her servant ran home.

Now the boy did not dare to return, because he had nothing to wear, his marten robe being wet and his shells lost in the grass. So he took some moss wide enough to cover his shoulders and body and lay down upon a point at the edge of the woods. He felt very badly and cried hard as he lay there. When he looked up he saw a loon swimming about in the sea. By and by he looked up again and he again saw the loon in the same place. Every now and then it uttered a cry. Finally, as he was lying with his head down, he heard some one say to him, “I have come after you.” He looked up again but saw nothing except that loon. The fourth time this happened he kept watch, for he thought that it was the loon, and he saw a man coming to him. Before this person, who was in fact the loon, could say anything the boy exclaimed, “I have seen you.” Then the loon said, “Come along with me. Get on my back and shut your eyes tight.”

Then the man did as this loon directed, and the latter dived down into the sea with him and came up quite a distance out. “Look up,” it said. The youth did so and found himself some distance out on the water. The hair was growing again upon his head. Then the loon told him to close his eyes a second time, went out still farther, and told him to reopen them. He was out a very long distance. Then the boy thought, “What is he taking me out here for?” When he opened his eyes for the third time he could see a village, and the loon said to him, “You see that village. The chief there has a lovely daughter whom you, are to marry.” After he had come up to the shore with him he, showed him this chief’s house and said, “You are to marry the daughter of the chief who owns that house.” Then the loon handed him the shells for his ears and his marten robe, which looked as nice as ever.

At night the youth went to the chief’s house, passed in to where his daughter was, and said, “Chief’s daughter, I have been told that I am not good enough to marry you.” But the girl liked him very much and married him at once.

When news came to this girl’s father, who was the Calm, that his child was married, he did not say anything, for she had been brought up very well, and she was to marry whomsoever she pleased.

So the man stayed there very many years, but at last he wanted to return to his father’s people. The chief took down his own canoe for his daughter and son-in-law, and they put all kinds of food into it. The people disliked to see them go, and the chief told his daughter to be good to her husband. The canoe that they had was a bear canoe, and everywhere they camped they had to take very good care of it. Before they set out the chief said to his daughter, “Don’t let anybody whatever give you water. Let your husband always bring it and give it to you. He gave her a quill to drink water out of and a very small basket for her cup. Then the girl said to her husband, “You must let alone those girls you used to go with and those you were in love with. You are not to speak to them.”

When they came to his father’s town all were glad to see the youth, for they had been looking for him everywhere. While they were there he always brought the water for his wife to drink as he had been told. One day, however, as he was going for water, his former sweetheart, who was angry with him because he would follow his wife around and pay no attention to her, ran through the woods to him, seized him and spoke to him. He, however, pulled himself away and would not answer her. When the girl put her quill into the water this time, however, the water was slimy. Before it had been pure and would drip like raindrops. At once she said, “I must leave you,” and, although he begged her hard to stay, she got up and walked out. He tried to stop her but in vain. Every time he seized her his hands passed right through her. Then she began walking right out on the surface of the sea and he followed her. She said “Go back,” but he kept on until they were a long distance out. Then she said, “Go back or I will look at you.” So she turned around and looked at him, and he went straight down into the ocean.

The runaway wife

A Haida youth, eager to marry his cousin to inherit his uncle’s position, faced repeated rejection when she continually fled. Seeking help, he consulted a mystical, oversized woman who provided him with a ritual involving land otters and an eagle’s tail. Though the ritual worked and his wife returned, he spurned her for another, leaving her heartbroken despite compensating her with property and slaves.

Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Forbidden Knowledge: The young man seeks out a mystical woman who provides him with a ritual to win back his wife, involving esoteric practices and supernatural elements.

Cunning and Deception: The youth employs the ritual, a form of cunning, to manipulate his wife’s actions and compel her return, despite her repeated attempts to leave.

Love and Betrayal: The narrative centers on the young man’s desire to marry his cousin, her continual fleeing, and his ultimate rejection of her after using the ritual to bring her back, highlighting themes of unrequited love and betrayal.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Tlingit Lore

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904

A high-caste youth among the Haida was determined to marry his uncle’s daughter, because his uncle was a very old man and he wanted to take his place. But, after he had given a great deal of property for the girl and taken her, she ran away. He followed her and induced her to come back, but before long she ran away again, and she kept on acting this way for a long time. Finally the young man heard of a very large woman who knew of medicines to get anybody with whom one was in love. When he came to her village her people treated him very kindly, asking him to come up and eat with them. After they had fed him and his companions they made a large fire on top of the retaining timbers for the woman to take her purifying bath. She had a little girl to wait upon her when she bathed, and she was so large that this girl could bathe only one leg at a time.

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After she had finished bathing, the large woman came out and gave the youth an eagle’s tail across which ran a single streak of red paint. Then she said, “Right around the point from your father’s village you will see land otters running up from the water. As soon as the white one among them steps up on the beach, raise your eagle’s tail and see whether she will stand still. If she stands still and does not run away go right past without touching her. Then you may know that you will get your wife and that she will never leave you again; otherwise she will never come back. When you get to the village, that woman you are having a hard time with will come directly to you.”

The young man did as this woman had told him, and, sure enough, when he reached the village his wife was very anxious to see him. She tried to fight against the inclination, but finally she had to go. When she entered, however, her husband refused to take her back. Instead he went to another village along with his father and married somebody else. His first wife took all this hardly, and, when they returned, came to him to demand property. Then the young man gave heir some of his own and some of his father’s property and some slaves so that she would not bother his new wife. At the same time the girl felt very badly. Not a day passed but she cried to think that the husband who had formerly thought so much of her now had another wife.

The woman who married a tree

In a village, a virtuous girl mysteriously gives birth after dreaming of a handsome man. Her fast-growing child begins crying incessantly for its father. When the villagers summon both humans and mystical tree-dwellers to identify him, the child chooses an old, humble man named Kasa’l over high-caste figures. Acknowledged as the father, Kasa’l marries the girl, resolving the mystery and blending human and supernatural worlds.

Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Supernatural Beings: This theme is central as the story involves mysterious and otherworldly events, such as a girl dreaming of a handsome man and inexplicably giving birth. The supernatural is personified through the enigmatic figure Kasa’l, whose connection to both the human and spirit world makes him a pivotal character.

Transformation: The story explores transformation on multiple levels: the emotional growth of the girl as she navigates her unique experience, the profound change in her life when she becomes a mother, and the societal shift when Kasa’l is revealed as the father. It delves into the transformative power of dreams and the symbolic merging of human and mystical realms.

Love and Betrayal: This theme manifests in the emotional bond formed under unusual circumstances. The girl’s love for her child compels her to uncover the truth about its father. There’s an underlying sense of betrayal when reality doesn’t align with expectations, as Kasa’l’s true nature and the mysterious origins of the child come to light.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Tlingit Lore

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904

An old spruce tree stood at the end of a certain village. In this same village a high-caste girl dreamed for several nights in succession that she was married to a fine-looking man, and by and by she gave birth to a boy baby. As she was a very virtuous girl, people wondered how she had come by it.

The child grew very fast, and soon began to talk. One day it began calling for its father. It would not stop, although they tried to humor it in every way.

Then people wondered whom it was calling, so the boy’s grandfather invited all the men of that village and of the surrounding villages to come to his house to see if the child would be able to recognize its father.

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When this proved fruitless he invited the people who inhabit trees to come in, and as soon as they entered and sat down, the child stopped crying and began crawling around the circle, looking at each person. Then the people said, “We will see where that fatherless child is going.”

At the very end of the line toward the door sat an old man, and the child crawled right past the high-caste tree people toward him. As it did so, the others nudged one another, saying, “Look at Kasa’l.” They said this because the girl had had nothing to do with the high-caste tree people, but with this poor old man. The child, however, crawled right up to him, climbed into his lap and said, “Papa.” At once the old man married the girl.

The strange boy

A unique boy, distant and contemplative, embarks on a journey to the mysterious north despite his mother’s warnings. Along the way, he encounters supernatural challenges and receives mystical gifts from wise elders. Conquering deadly foes, including a shaman and a giant eagle, he marries a woman of his dreams but uncovers betrayal. After punishing her, he returns home, ultimately finding lasting happiness with a new wife.

Source:
The Eskimo about Bering Strait
by Edward William Nelson
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eighteenth Annual Report
Washington, 1900

► Themes of the story

Quest: The protagonist embarks on a journey to the mysterious north, facing various challenges and adversaries along the way.

Supernatural Beings: Throughout his journey, he encounters mystical gifts from wise elders and confronts supernatural challenges, including a shaman and a giant eagle.

Love and Betrayal: He marries the woman of his dreams but later uncovers her betrayal, leading to her punishment and his eventual return home.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Arctic Region
  - Inuit/Eskimo Lore

Learn more about Inuit peoples

from Andreivsky, on the Lower Yukon

At a village far away in the north once lived a man with his wife and one child, a son. This boy was very different from others, and while the village children ran about and shouted and took part in sports with one another, he would sit silent and thoughtful on the roof of the kashim. He would never eat any food or take any drink but that given him by his mother.

The years passed by until he grew to manhood, but his manner was always the same. Then his mother began to make him a pair of skin boots with soles of many thicknesses; also, a waterproof coat of double thickness and a fine coat of yearling reindeer skins. Every day he sat on the roof of the kashim, going home at twilight for food and to sleep until early the next morning; then he would go back to his place on the roof and wait for daybreak.

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One morning he went home just after sunrise and found his new clothing ready. He took some food and put on the clothing, after which he told his mother that he was going on a journey to the north, His mother cried bitterly and begged him not to go, for no one ever went to the far northland and returned again. He did not mind this, but taking his bear spear and saying farewell, he started out, leaving his parents weeping and without hope of ever seeing him again, for they loved him very much, and his mother had told him truly that no one ever came back who had gone away from their village to the north.

The young man traveled far away, and as evening came on he reached a hut with the smoke rolling up through the hole in the roof. Taking off his waterproof coat, he laid it down near the door and crept carefully upon the roof and looked through the smoke hole. In the middle of the room burned a fire, and an old woman was sitting on the farther side, while just under him was sitting an old man making arrows. As the young man lay on the roof, the man on the inside cried out, without even raising his head, “Why do you lie there on the outside? Come in.” Surprised at being noticed by the old man with out the latter even looking up, he arose and went in. When he entered the house the man greeted him and asked why he was going to the north in search of a wife. Continued the old man, “There are many dangers there and you had better turn back. I am your father’s brother and mean well by you. Beyond here people are very bad, and if you go on you may never return.”

The young man was very much surprised to be told the object of his journey, when he had not revealed it even to his parents. After taking some food he slept until morning, then he prepared to go on his way. The old man gave him a small black object, filled with a yellow sub stance like the yolk of an egg, saying, as he did so, “Perhaps you will have little to eat on your way, and this will give you strength.” The traveler swallowed it at once and found it very strong to the taste, so that it made him draw a deep breath, saying, as he did so, “Ah, I feel strong.” Then he took up his spear and went on. Just before night he came to another solitary hut, and, as before, looked in, seeing a fire burning and an old woman sitting on one side and an old man making arrows just below him. Again the old man called out without raising his head, and asked him why he did not come in and not stay outside. He again was surprised by being told the object of his journey, and was warned against going farther. The young man gave no attention to this, but ate and slept as before. When he was ready to set out in the morning the old man saw he could not stay him, so gave him a small, clear, white object, telling the traveler that he would not get much to eat on the road, and it would help him. The young man at once swallowed this, but did not find it as strong as the object he had swallowed the day before. He was then told by the old man that if he heard anything on the way that frightened, him he must do the first thing that came into his mind.

“I will have no one to weep for me if anything should happen,” said the traveler, and he journeyed on, spear in hand. Toward the middle of the day he came to a large pond lying near the seashore, so he turned off to go around it on the inland side. When he had passed part of the way around the lake he heard a frightful roar like a clap of thunder, but so loud that it made him dizzy, and for a moment he lost all sense of his surroundings. He hurried forward, but every few moments the terrible noise was repeated, each time making him reel and feel giddy and even on the point of fainting, but he kept on. The noise increased in loudness and seemed to come nearer at every roar, until it sounded on one side close to him. Looking in the direction whence it came, he saw a large basket made of woven willow roots floating toward him in the air, and from it came the fearful noise.

Seeing a hole in the ground close by, the traveler sprang into it just as a terrible crash shook the earth and rendered him unconscious. He lay as if dead for some time, while the basket kept moving about as if searching for him and continuously giving out the fearful sounds. When the young man’s senses returned, he listened for a short time, and, everything having become quiet, went outside of his shelter and looked about. Close by was the basket resting on the ground with a man’s head and shoulders sticking out of its top. The moment he saw it the young man cried out, “Why are you waiting? Go on; don’t stop and give me a good loud noise, you.” Then he sprang back into the hole again and was instantly struck senseless by the fearful noise made by the basket. When he had recovered sufficiently he went out again, but could not see the basket. Then he raised both of his hands and called upon the thunder and lightning to come to his aid. Just then the basket came near again, with only the man’s head projecting from the top. He at once told the thunder and lightning to roar and flash about the basket, and they obeyed and crashed with such force that the basket shaman began to tremble with fear and fell to the ground.

As soon as the thunder stopped the basket began to retreat, the shaman being almost dead from fear. Then the young man cried out, “Thunder, pursue him; go before and behind him and terrify him.” The thunder did so, and the basket floated away slowly, falling to the ground now and then. Then the traveler went on, arriving at a village just at twilight. As he drew near a boy came out from the village to meet him, saying, “How do you come here from that direction? No one ever came here from that side before, for the basket shaman allows no living thing to pass the lake; no, not even a mouse. He always knows when anything comes that way and goes out to meet and destroy it.”

“I did not see anything,” said the traveler. “Well, you have not escaped yet,” said the boy, “for there is the basket man now, and he will kill you unless you go back.” When the young man looked he saw a great eagle rise and fly toward him, and the boy ran away. As the eagle came nearer it rose a short distance and then darted down to seize him in its claws. As it came down the young man struck himself on the breast with one hand and a gerfalcon darted forth from his mouth straight toward the eagle, flying directly into its abdomen and passing out of its mouth and away.

This gerfalcon was from the strong substance the young man had been given by the first old man on the road. When the gerfalcon darted from him the eagle closed his eyes, gasping for breath, which gave the young man a chance to spring to one side so that the eagle’s claws caught into the ground where he had stood. Again the eagle arose and darted down, and again the young man struck his breast with his hand, and an ermine sprang from his mouth and darted like a flash of light at the eagle and lodged under its wings, and in a moment had eaten its way twice back and forth through the bird’s side, and it fell dead, whereupon the ermine vanished. This ermine came from the gift of the second man with whom the traveler had stopped.

When the eagle fell the young man started toward the shaman’s house, and the boy cried to him, “Don’t go there, for you will be killed.” To this the traveler replied, “I don’t care, I wish to see the women there. I will go now, for I am angry, and if I wait till morning my anger will be gone and I will not be so strong as I am at present.” “You had better wait till morning,” said the boy, “for there are two bears guarding the door and they will surely kill you. But if you will go, go then, and be destroyed. I have tried to save you and will have nothing more to do with you.” And the boy went angrily back to the kashim. The young man then went on to the house, and looking into the entrance passage, saw a very large white bear lying there asleep. He called out, “Ah, White-bear,” at which the bear sprang up and ran at him. The young man leaped upon the top of the passageway and, as the bear ran out at him, drove the point of his spear into its brain, so that it fell dead. Then he drew the body to one side, looked in again, and saw a red bear lying there. Again he called out, “Ah, Redbear.” The red bear ran out at him and he sprang up to his former place. The red bear struck at him with one of its forepaws as it passed, and the young man caught the paw in his hand and, swinging the bear about his head, beat it upon the ground until there was nothing but the paw left, and this he threw away and went into the house with out further trouble. Sitting at the side of the room were an old man and woman, and on the other side was a beautiful young woman whose image he had seen in his dreams, which had caused him to make his long journey. She was crying when he went in, and he went and sat beside her, saying, “What are you crying for; what do you love enough to cry for?” To which she replied, “You have killed my husband, but I am not sorry for that, for he was a bad man; but you killed the two bears. They were my brothers, and I feel badly and cry for them.” “Do not cry,” said he, “for I will be your husband.” Here he remained for a time, taking this woman for his wife and living in the house with her parents. He slept in the kashim every fourth night and at home the rest of the time.

After he had lived there for a while, he saw that his wife and her parents became more and more gloomy, and they cried very often. Then he saw things done that made him think they intended to do him evil. Becoming sure of this, he went home one day and, putting his hand on his wife’s forehead, turned her face to him, and said: “You are planning to kill me, you unfaithful woman, and as a punishment you shall die.” Then taking his knife, he cut his wife’s throat, and went gloomily back to his village, where he lived with his parents as before. When the memory of his unfaithful wife had become faint, he took a wife from among the maidens of the village and lived happily with her the rest of his days.

The Red Bear (Ta-ku’-ka)

Pi-tikh’-cho-lik, a skilled hunter, predicts his death and instructs his wife, Ta-ku’-ka, on burial rites. After his death, she discovers him alive with other women, consumed by betrayal and rage. Seeking revenge, she kills his companions and confronts him disguised as a red bear, eventually slaying him. Overcome by bloodlust, Ta-ku’-ka becomes a vengeful, destructive spirit, influencing red bears’ savagery.

Source:
The Eskimo about Bering Strait
by Edward William Nelson
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eighteenth Annual Report
Washington, 1900

► Themes of the story

Love and Betrayal: Ta-ku’-ka’s discovery of her husband’s infidelity leads to feelings of betrayal and a desire for revenge.

Transformation: Ta-ku’-ka’s metamorphosis into a red bear symbolizes her shift from a devoted wife to a vengeful spirit.

Revenge and Justice: Ta-ku’-ka’s actions against her unfaithful husband and his companions reflect themes of retribution and the pursuit of justice for personal wrongs.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Arctic Region
  - Inuit/Eskimo Lore

Learn more about Inuit peoples

from St. Michael and Norton Sound

On the seashore, near where the village of Pikmiktalik now stands, there once lived the Eskimo hunter Pi-tikh’-cho-lik and his wife Ta-ku’-ka.

The mountains were filled with great herds of reindeer and the sea was full of seals and fish, so that Pi-tikh’-cho-lik brought home an abundance of food and skins.

One fine summer evening Ta-ku’-ka stood on the seashore waiting for her husband’s return. She was uneasy and anxious, as he had remained away much longer than usual on his recent hunting excursions, although he had explained to her that the deer were getting farther back into the mountains and the seals were to be found only farther at sea.

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After a time Ta-ku’-ka went into the house to attend to her children and when she came out again her husband was putting his kaiak on the framework standing by the house.

She asked him many questions about his long stay, but he replied peevishly that he had gone far out to sea and had remained because he did not wish to come home without game. When they went into the house Ta-ku’-ka placed before him different kinds of food, prepared as he liked it best, but he ate very little, and seemed gloomy and sad. His wife urged him to tell her the cause of his sadness, and at last he said, “If you must know the cause of my sadness, hear it. I feel that I am going to die, and the third day from now will be the time of my death.”

At this Ta-ku’-ka began to cry very bitterly, but he stopped her, saying, “Do not cry and make me unhappy while I am with you, but hear my last wishes. When I am dead you must put my kaiak into the water and fasten it to the shore; lay my paddle, spears, and lines upon it in their proper places; dress my body in the waterproof shirt and put me into the kaiak, fastening the shirt to the manhole as you have seen me do when going to sea. Every evening for three days place fish, deer fat, and berries before my body that my inna may be satisfied. Do you promise me this?” Ta-ku’-ka promised and wept silently. Pi-tikh’-cho-lik did not leave the house again, and he died on the third day. Then Ta-ku’-ka cried very much, but did as she had been told. Every morning she saw that the shade had eaten, for all the food before the body was gone. On the fourth morning, when she went to the shore to lament for her dead as usual, she saw that the kaiak with all its contents had disappeared. Then she threw herself upon the ground and lay there for a long time in her sorrow; finally she remembered her children and went back to the house to care for them. For a long time Ta-ku’-ka worked very hard, gathering berries or catching and drying fish to prepare her store of winter food. One day while gathering berries she wandered far from home and went to the top of a mountain; there she looked out over the land and far away saw puffs of smoke drifting upward from the ground. This was the first sign she had ever seen of other people, and she decided to go to see what they were like. After some time she drew near the place and crept softly to the edge of the hill, that fell away sharply on one side to the sea, but sloped gradually toward a portion of the inland side. Near the water were three houses, from one of which came the smoke she had seen.

Here Ta-ku’-ka waited quietly to see what kind of people were there, and soon a woman came out, shading her eyes with one hand and looking out to sea; then she hurried back to the house, calling to someone within. At this two other women came out, and all went down to the water’s edge, where they began to sing a love song and to dance upon the sand facing the sea. Ta-ku’-ka had been so interested in watching these women and their handsome fur garments that she had not noticed anything else, but now the low, pleasant sound of a man’s voice rising in song struck her ear and made her heart beat faster. She looked beyond the women and saw a man urging his kaiak swiftly toward the shore, singing and playfully throwing his seal spear before him, and picking it up as he passed.

When he came near, Ta-ku’-ka recognized the song as one that Pi-tikh’-cho-lik used to sing to her in the old days; then the kaiak man came on shore and the women met him with exclamations of pleasure. Ta-ku’-ka could scarcely believe her eyes when she saw that the man was indeed her husband, whom she had believed to be dead. He went into the house with the women, and Ta-ku’-ka felt a strange, fierce anger in her heart, such as she had never known before. She stood on the hillside listening to the songs and laughter coming from the house until far into the night.

Morning came and Pi-tikh’-cho-lik came out of the house and arranged his hunting gear upon the kaiak. After saying “good-bye” to the women on the shore he paddled out to sea, singing pleasantly. When he was out of sight Ta-ku’-ka went down from the hillside and followed the women into one of the houses; they seemed surprised to see her, but made her welcome, asking her many questions. They admired her face and its color, which was lighter than theirs, also several tattooed lines on her face, one up and down between her eyes and three that extended down across the chin from her lower lip; they were also pleased with the shape of her garments, which were different from theirs. By and by one of the women said, “You are very handsome with the beautiful lines marked on your face; I would give much if you would teach me how to make my face like yours.” Ta-ku’-ka answered, “I will show you how it is done, if I can please you, but it will hurt you and you may not wish to bear the pain.” “I shall not mind the pain,” said the woman, “for I wish to be handsome, as you are, and am ready to bear it.” “Be it as you wish,” said Ta-ku’-ka. “Go into the house and make a fire, and put by it a large clay pot, filled with oil; when the oil boils call me. I will make your face beautiful like mine.” When the woman had thanked hr and had gone to make ready, the other women asked her many questions. “Will it hurt very much!” and “Will she really be as pretty as you are?” and others. To which Ta-ku’-ka replied, “She will not be hurt very much, and she will be prettier even than I.”

In a short time the woman came back, saying that the oil was ready. Ta-ku’-ka then went into the house and told her to kneel before the pot of boiling oil and to bend her face over it. As soon as this was done, Ta-ku’-ka grasped her by the hair and thrust her face down into the hot oil and held it there until the woman was dead, saying, “There, you will always be beautiful now.” Then she laid the body on the bed platform, and covering the face, went back to the other women. During her absence the other two had been talking together, and when she came back they asked her if she had succeeded in making their companion handsome, and Ta-ku’-ka nodded her head.

Then both women said, “We, too, will make you presents if you will make us beautiful,” and she consented. Then all went to the dead woman’s house, and Ta-ku’-ka said to her companions, “Do not disturb your friend; she sleeps now and her face is covered so that nothing will break the charm; when she awakes she will be very handsome.” After this she killed both the other women as she had the first, saying, as she laid them on the ground, “You, too, will be very pretty.” She then made three crosses of sticks and placed them upright in the sand where the women had danced on the shore the evening before, upon which she placed the clothing of the dead women so that a person at a distance would think they were standing there. Then she took a red bearskin and went back to her hiding place in the rocks. Evening came, and the hunter drew near, singing as on the previous night. No answer reached him, but he thought he saw his wives standing on the shore, and although he raised his song in praise of them, they gave no answer. He became angry and stopped his song; then he began to scold and upbraid them, but still they were silent. Landing, he hurried to the silent figures and then on to the nearest house. There and at the second house he found nothing, but in the last he saw his wives as they lay dead, and Ta-ku’-ka heard his cries of sorrow when he saw them.

Pi-tikh’-cho-lik rushed raging from the house, wailing with sorrow, shouting in wild anger, “If any bad spirits have done this, I fear them not. Let them come and try to work their evil upon me. I hate and scorn them.” All remained quiet. “If any evil shade, man or beast, has done this, let it come out from its hiding place,” he shouted, “and dare to face a man who will tear out its heart and eat its blood; oh, miserable good-for-nothing!”

As if in answer, he heard a deep growl coming from the hillside, and there he saw a red bear standing on its hind feet, swaying its body back and forth. This was Ta-ku’-ka, who had placed a flat stone on each side of her body to protect herself from wounds by arrow or spear and had wrapped herself in the bearskin.

Pi-tikh’-cho-lik saw her and thought she was really a bear and began calling every opprobrious name he could think of, while he quickly fitted an arrow to his bow and loosed it. The arrow struck one of the stones and fell harmless, and the bear turned its other side toward him. Again he shot a well aimed arrow, and again it fell harmless. Then the bear rushed down the slope straight at him, and Pi-tikh’-cho-lik’s spear, striking the bear’s side, broke in his hands. In a few moments the bear had thrown him down lifeless and torn out and eaten his heart. Then the fury which had urged Ta-ku’-ka on seemed to leave her and her better feelings began to return. She tried to take off the bearskin, but it closed about her so firmly that she could not.

Suddenly Ta-ku’-ka thought of her children at home, so taking her basket of berries from the hilltop, she started for her dwelling. As she went along she began to be frightened at her strange desire for blood, mingled with the thoughts of her children. Hurrying on she came at last to the house and rushed in. The two children were asleep, and as soon as Ta-ku’-ka saw them a fierce, uncontrollable desire for blood again came over her, so that she at once tore them to pieces. After this she went out and wandered over the earth, filled with a desire to destroy every one she came across.

Up to that time red bears had been harmless, but Ta-ku’-ka filled them with her own rage, so that they have been very savage ever since. Finally she reached Kuskokwim river and was killed by a hunter, whose arrow found its way through a crack that had been made in one of the stones on her side.

Story of the man and his fox wife

A solitary hunter discovered his home tidied and meals prepared during his absences, seemingly by an unseen wife. Curious, he feigned departure and observed a fox entering his home. Confronting the fox, he found it transformed into a beautiful woman who claimed to be his wife. When he questioned her musky scent, she reverted to her fox form and disappeared, never returning to men.

Source:
Ethnology of the Ungava District,
Hudson Bay Territory
by Lucien M. Turner
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eleventh Annual Report, 1889-1890
Washington, 1894

► Themes of the story

Supernatural Beings: The narrative features a fox that transforms into a woman, highlighting interactions between humans and shape-shifting entities.

Transformation: Central to the story is the fox’s ability to change form, symbolizing themes of change and the fluidity of identity.

Love and Betrayal: The relationship between the hunter and the fox-woman reflects themes of love, trust, and the consequences of questioning or doubting one’s partner.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Arctic Region
  - Inuit/Eskimo Lore

Learn more about Inuit peoples

A hunter who lived by himself found when he returned to the place after an absence that it had been visited and everything put in order as a dutiful wife should do. This happened so often with no visible signs of tracks that the man determined to watch and see who would scrape his skin clothing and boots, hang them out to dry, and cook nice hot food ready to be eaten when he returned. One day he went away as though going off on a hunt, but secreted himself so as to observe the entrance of anything into the house. After a while he saw a fox enter. He suspected that the fox was after food. He quietly slipped up to the house and on entering saw a most beautiful woman dressed in skin clothing of wondrous make. Within the house, on a line, hung the skin of a fox. The man inquired if it was she who had done these things.

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She replied that she was his wife and it was her duty to do them, hoping that she had performed her labor in a manner satisfactory to him.

After they had lived together a short time the husband detected a musky odor about the house and inquired of her what it was. She replied that she emitted the odor and if he was going to find fault with her for it she would leave. She dashed off her clothing and, resuming the skin of the fox, slipped quietly away and has never been disposed to visit a man since that time.

Aningan

A young girl lived with her grandmother when Aningana, the moonman, requested to cohabit with her. After her grandmother’s permission, Aningana promised to bring foxes as sustenance but departed after overwhelming the house with them. Separately, Aningana abducted another woman, injuring her to prevent escape. Forbidden from looking into other homes, she disobeyed and suffered burns, later grieving for a lost, ragged boy on Earth.

Source:
Tales of the Smith Sound Eskimo
by Alfred L. Kroeber
[The American Folklore Society]
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.12, No.46, pp.166-182
July-September, 1899

► Themes of the story

Supernatural Beings: Aningan, as the moon man, represents a celestial entity interacting with humans.

Forbidden Knowledge: The woman disobeys Aningan’s prohibition against looking into another house, leading to her punishment.

Love and Betrayal: Aningan’s relationships with the women involve elements of desire, coercion, and betrayal.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Arctic Region
  - Inuit/Eskimo Lore

Learn more about the Inuit peoples

A girl lived with her grandmother. One day, Aningana, the moon man, came down, importuning her to allow him to cohabit with her. She first asked her grandmother for permission, who granted it. Then she went out with Aningana.

When they came in again, they found there was nothing to eat. Aningana, however, did not go out to get food, but said, “For the cohabitation I shall cause to present themselves to you a great number of foxes.”

Having said this, he went away, while the grandmother and grandchild remained in the house.

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Soon a fox entered the house of his own account, and then another, and still another; and a fourth came into the house, and a fifth, and a great many, so many, in fact, that the house was crowded, and the old woman almost smothered. Thereupon the women said, “Sh!” thus driving out part of the foxes. The rest they killed and ate. The foxes thereafter did not come in again.

* * *

Aningan drove down to earth and brought back a woman, whom he put into his house. He cut or stabbed the soles of her feet, so that she could not leave him. Aqong (his wife) desired Aningan, and panted, “ax, ax.” He, however, did not desire her, and threw her away from him toward the window (that is, off the bed). He forbade the woman he had brought to look into another house. She, however, disobeyed him, and in consequence the side of her face was burnt. She looked down from the sky, and saw a poor little boy in ragged clothes wandering about, unable to find his mother, and she wept to see him. [The whole tale seems mangled.]