Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part B


Story information is taken from the Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen.

The next readings were about justice from the dead. The first story was about a man who killed his brother in law out of jealousy. The brother in law always brought home something when they went out to hunt, but the man returned empty-handed. One day the man killed the brother in law and came back home alone and quiet. The mother in law knew what he had done and told him she would avenge her son and eat the man as his punishment. The mother decided she would avenge him better if she was a ghost, so she went out and killed herself with her bearskin. The man did not go out hunting for a long time because he was frightened of the mother's threat. After some time, he decided to go out to hunt again. When he was out a great monster came and terrified the other hunters near the guilty man. The townspeople all fled into a house and were terrified of the monster coming near the village. Then some dogs began barking at the monster and the people recognized the skin the bear had, and the bones were human bones. Realizing the situation, they ran back to the ice where the guilty man was at the beginning of the event. He had been sliced to pieces and scalped by the ghost.

The next story is very similar to the previous one. There once was a man who envied his uncle's bride. The uncle decided to move away and when the man found out about this, he killed the uncle. The uncle's wife ran away to her home village. The man went back home and intended to kill his current wife. There was a boy in his home, and he demanded to know where his wife had gone. The wife had fled when she heard what had happened, and the boy lied and said he didn't know. The man took the wife he coveted as his own, but only had a short time with her before she died. Then later in the story while the man is out hunting, he feels something bite his coat. When he turns around, he sees its a fox and he was not able to hit it. The fox was the amulet of the uncle he had killed. The uncle had come to get his revenge and played with the guilty man for a bit before cutting him to pieces.

(Caption: white fox by Pixabay)

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