Marriage Tales Part B
Deer running through the forest. (Source: Pixabay)
The Dog-Husband
-tamanous-" spirit power"
-Quinault tale
-young girl who had a dog
-dog slept at foot of her bed
-every night dog would turn into a man and lie with the girl and then turn back to a dog in the morning
-girl becomes pregnant
-parents were ashamed, all the people moved, and left the girl to die
-Crow had pity on her
-Coals between two clamshells, hear crackling, and see fire
-had 5 dog pups, 4 males 1 female
-heard singing from the house
-caught pups in human form
-taught boys how to hunt
-made them bathe every day to get tamanous for whale hunting
-got so many whales beach stank with them
-Crow visited and then told the people who ran away about children and girl
-people went back to village and the boys were chiefs
The Youth Who Joined The Deer
-Nlakapamuk tale
-great deer-hunter
-constantly thought of deer
-2 wives, one son
-see child and woman at the end of deer tracks
-"You need not trouble yourself about the tracks. For a long time, I have loved you and longed for you. Now you shall go with me to my house."
-hunter could not resist attraction or following her
-"You must not worry or think that you are doing wrong. You shall be my husband, and you will never regret it."
-went underground
-found other people who were dressed in deerskin clothing
-"You are my husband, and will sleep with me. You may embrace me, but you must not try to have intercourse with me. You must not do so before the rutting season. Then you may also go with my sisters. Our season comes but once a year, and lasts about a month. During the rest of the year we have no sexual connections."
-deer people lived by hunting and killing each other for food, but came back to life when thrown into the water
The Youth Who Joined The Deer (Cont.)
-turned into a deer for rutting season, others beat him
-people gave him large antlers to win in fighting
-went back to hunters people
-"For eight days you must prepare yourself by washing in decoctions of herbs."
-deer son teaches other son how to hunt and to throw deer bones in the water
-son from the deer became human and the hunter became a deer
The Girl and The Turkeys
-Zuni tale
-Salt City
-Wealthy people owned large flocks of turkeys
-a little tumbledown, single-room house, wherein there lived alone a very poor girl
-the only thing she owned was turkeys
-turkeys loved her
-Dance of the Sacred Bird
-never allowed to participate
-turkeys can understand the girl
- "Now, listen well, for I speak the speech of all the elders of my people: If you will drive us in early this afternoon when the dance is most gay and the people are most happy, we will help you to make yourself so handsome and so prettily dressed that never a man, woman, or child amongst all those who are assembled at the dance will know you, but rather, especially the young men, will wonder whence you came, and long to lay hold of your hand in the circle that forms around the altar to dance."
The Girl and the Turkeys (Cont. and end)
-"No one knows how much happiness and good fortune may come to you"
-"took turkeys home and gave them her clothes to restore
-made all her clothing looked white and neat and pressed
-turkeys cleaned her too
-"O maiden mother, leave open the wicket, for who knows whether you will remember your Turkeys or not when your fortunes are changed, and if you will not grow ashamed that you have been the maiden mother of Turkeys? But we love you and would bring you good fortune. Therefore, remember our words of advice, and do not tarry too long."
-"Whence comes this beautiful maiden?"
-forgot turkeys
-"It is as we might have expected. She has forgotten us; therefore is she not worthy of better things than those she has been accustomed to. Let us go forth to the mountains and endure no more of this irksome captivity, inasmuch as we may no longer think our maiden mother as good and true as once we thought her."
-turkeys ran away high into the mountains
-"After all, the gods dispose of men according to as men are fitted, and if the poor be poor in heart and spirit as well as in appearance, how will they be aught but poor to the end of their days?"
The True Bride
-Nlakapamuk tale
-white man who had a wife and daughter
-first wife died, man remarried and had another daughter
-stepmother was always mean to the first daughter
-stepmother sent out the girl to get berries in winter
-girl left with food in her basket and was going to wander until she died
-found a lodge with four young men
-young men were relatives but she didn't know it
-told them about stepmother sending her out for berries
-they gave her a shovel and scraper and told her to remove snow from the house
-found that the roof was covered with fresh strawberries
-asked what they could do for her
-she said she was poor and had no clothes, they told her to spit and spittle turned into a gold nugget
-made shoes and dress
-stepmother was angry when she saw all the things that the girl had
-stepmother told her daughter to follow elders footsteps in the snow
-came to the lodge and the brothers gave her food and asked why she was traveling
-told her to do the same for berries
-asked her to spit but she was too vain and haughty
-when younger spat it turned into smelly toenails
-brothers refused to help her
-stepmother not giving up messing with Girl-who-spat-gold
-"animal-birth slander"
-chief's son passed by and saw the elder girl
-chief and his son saw she spat gold and the chief told his son to marry her because she was valuable
-at wedding, the girl spat gold for guests
-She-who-spat-gold became pregnant
-husband said that stepmother and half-sister should help her have the baby
-stepmother made the baby fall into a hole and gave the girl a cat and said that was her child
-"Odd people have odd children."
-stepmother tricked her again the same way and gave her a snake for her baby
-stepmother convinced husband to kill the girl and they threw her overboard in the lake
-four brothers rescued her and turned her into a swan
-She-who-spat-gold's dog took care of children
-stepmother poisoned them
-dog took them to the Sun for help
-children came back to life with the Sun's spittle
-stepmother and half-sister hanged
Bibliography-
Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).
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