Week 10 Story: The Vengeful Ghosts

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

In the cold of the Alaskan hills, there were whispers of ghosts and spirits. The people who lived there locked their doors and turned out the lights at night because they were worried about displeasing the spirits around them. If you angered a spirit, you should start planning your funeral right then.

There once was a man that the villagers used as an example of the spirits administering justice for wrongdoing. The man was called Aput which meant snow. Aput was a sneaky man and always wanted to get his way. One day he realized he could kill two birds with one stone to solve his problems. Aput wanted to marry his uncle's wife and was angry that he was a better hunter than him. So, one day while Aput and his uncle were out hunting, he staged a hunting accident. When he came home, he made a big show of how he tried to save his uncle, but he had accidentally shot himself. The family mourned the dead uncle, but his mother knew the truth when she had a dream of Aput killing his uncle. Aput soon after married his uncle's wife and was living the dream.

The mother told Aput that she would eat him as punishment for killing an innocent man. Aput was worried about this threat but didn't think she would act on it. Then one day the mother went out and killed herself with a bearskin, and Aput knew that he was in danger. He decided to stay home and to not go out hunting, hoping that the mother's anger would have subsided.

Aput decided that it was time to go back into the hunting routine and set out on his usual path. He passed by other hunters and talked with them before walking along his path. The other hunters heard an enormous roar in the forest and ran back to their homes in fear. Aput then started to run home, but he was overtaken by the biggest bear he had ever seen. Not only the bear but a large white fox also came upon him. The bear had the same eyes as the mother and the fox had the same eyes as his uncle. Aput was terrified because he knew that his demise had come. The hunters who were still running home heard his screams and cries for help.

The hunters came back out to the hunting trails a few days later and found the remains of Aput.

Author's Note: I took the original stories I read and merged them into one. The first story was about a vengeful spirit who was the mother of the innocent son who was killed and killed herself with her bearskin by drowning in the ocean. The second story was about the husband who was killed come back to life in the form of a fox to avenge his death. I also picked this specific topic because Halloween is coming up, and who doesn't love a good ghost story.

(Caption: Ghosts in the Forest by Pixbay)