Post by Okwes on Jul 24, 2007 11:54:55 GMT -5
Eme'mqut and Fox-Woman - Koryak
Eme'mqut married Fox-Woman. He said, "I will go and get some blubber from
our summer place." He arrived there. One of the flippers of his blubber-bag
was gnawed at by a mouse. The mouse was dead. He found it and said, "What is
it, a wolverine?"
He loaded it on his sledge and hauled it home. He came home. Then only he
looked back and saw that the mouse had turned into a wolverine. He looked
into the house and said, "Mi'ti, I have killed a wolverine. Let some of you
come out."
They took in the wolverine and began to beat the drum. Fox-Woman, the untidy
one, was sitting with her boot-strings loose. She was looking for lice. "Oh,
you Fox-Woman! it is your turn to beat the drum." The untidy woman was
making leather thimbles. She began to beat the drum, "I am an unskillful
one, I am an untidy one! I am eating hard excrement, left outside! I am
eating strings of snowshoes in the brightness of the full moon."
Indeed, they eat them. Whenever we come to look for our snowshoes, the
strings are eaten.1 She felt ashamed and went away, even with untied
boot-strings. She went away, and did not come back. After some time Eme'mqut
went outside and found her. A number of children were there. He said to
Fox-Woman, "Whose children are these?"--"I said to myself, 'Perhaps they
will keep me back somehow. I wanted to go away into the open country for my
delivery. And I was delivered outside.'"--"Now, at least, stop your clamor!
Let us go home!"
They went home. The thimbles which she had made before, and hung tip
outside, now turned somehow to clothes for her numerous children. The people
were asking Eme'mqut, "From where have you brought the woman?"-- "I brought
her from the open country. Long ago she went away to give birth to her
children secretly outside. All those together are her children." In truth,
she was a skilful seamstress, and had no reason for going away and living in
secrecy.
After that they lived in joy. Eme'mqut married Kĭlu, 1 Ila' married
Yini'a-ña'wġut. When so disposed, they would ascend the river and catch
plenty of winter fish. Then they would return to their house-mates. They
killed plenty of game. In this manner they led a happy life. What has become
of them I do not know. That is all.
Footnotes
The narrator seems to have forgotten the marriage of Eme'mqut with
Fox-Woman, and their subsequent reconciliation.
Koryak Texts, by Waldemar Bogoras; Publications of the American Ethnological
Society vol. V; Leyden [1917].
Eme'mqut married Fox-Woman. He said, "I will go and get some blubber from
our summer place." He arrived there. One of the flippers of his blubber-bag
was gnawed at by a mouse. The mouse was dead. He found it and said, "What is
it, a wolverine?"
He loaded it on his sledge and hauled it home. He came home. Then only he
looked back and saw that the mouse had turned into a wolverine. He looked
into the house and said, "Mi'ti, I have killed a wolverine. Let some of you
come out."
They took in the wolverine and began to beat the drum. Fox-Woman, the untidy
one, was sitting with her boot-strings loose. She was looking for lice. "Oh,
you Fox-Woman! it is your turn to beat the drum." The untidy woman was
making leather thimbles. She began to beat the drum, "I am an unskillful
one, I am an untidy one! I am eating hard excrement, left outside! I am
eating strings of snowshoes in the brightness of the full moon."
Indeed, they eat them. Whenever we come to look for our snowshoes, the
strings are eaten.1 She felt ashamed and went away, even with untied
boot-strings. She went away, and did not come back. After some time Eme'mqut
went outside and found her. A number of children were there. He said to
Fox-Woman, "Whose children are these?"--"I said to myself, 'Perhaps they
will keep me back somehow. I wanted to go away into the open country for my
delivery. And I was delivered outside.'"--"Now, at least, stop your clamor!
Let us go home!"
They went home. The thimbles which she had made before, and hung tip
outside, now turned somehow to clothes for her numerous children. The people
were asking Eme'mqut, "From where have you brought the woman?"-- "I brought
her from the open country. Long ago she went away to give birth to her
children secretly outside. All those together are her children." In truth,
she was a skilful seamstress, and had no reason for going away and living in
secrecy.
After that they lived in joy. Eme'mqut married Kĭlu, 1 Ila' married
Yini'a-ña'wġut. When so disposed, they would ascend the river and catch
plenty of winter fish. Then they would return to their house-mates. They
killed plenty of game. In this manner they led a happy life. What has become
of them I do not know. That is all.
Footnotes
The narrator seems to have forgotten the marriage of Eme'mqut with
Fox-Woman, and their subsequent reconciliation.
Koryak Texts, by Waldemar Bogoras; Publications of the American Ethnological
Society vol. V; Leyden [1917].