The Witch and her Husband

THE WITCH AND HER HUSBAND ⁷

Them was a town there in the north above, and there lived one youth and a Yellow Woman. This youth killed many deer, but his wife, this Yellow Woman, was tired of making mush. The witches talked about it that they would kill him, (but) the game animals did not want to give him up. The game animals also assembled. They went to tell this youth. The antelope went to get him. "Let us go, I came after you," said the antelope to him. Then the youth spoke thus, "How shall we two cross the river? It is big. It is always high water." "Do not say so," said the antelope. "Indeed, we two can. go across." Then the two went. "Come here," said the antelope to him. Then he carried him on his back. "Shut your eyes!" Then they went. They reached the river. "Sit down! "said the antelope to him. Then again he said thus to him, "Sit down on top! We two shall cross the river. Hold tight!" The antelope swam across and somewhere they came out (of the water). Then the antelope said thus to him, "Sit down. Let me dry myself." Then he rolled on the ground. Then he became dry again and they went on from there. "Shut your eyes," said the antelope to him. They went just like a cyclone, like a storm wind. Then they arrived where the game animals were inside. The antelope entered alone. He went to tell them. "He is here," said he. "Have you come?" they said. "Yes," said the antelope. "Then let him come in!" they said. Then he took him in. "How are things?" said the youth. "It is well," they said. "Sit down," they said. [paragraph continues]

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"We told you to come here. The witches are working against you. They want to kill you. It does not seem good to us. Your own wife has given you up to them. She wants you to be killed tomorrow morning. It will be your last day; but it will not be so. This antelope will take you there where the witches are." Then he took him along and they came to some place where it was light above. Then the antelope said thus to him, "Up above there is a light. There is a door leading down. Go there. I am going to eat here," said the antelope. "I shall wait for you. I shall not go away." Then the youth went. He arrived there and above was a door (leading) downward. He listened to what they were talking about inside. He heard his wife. She agreed to give up her husband. They were going to kill him. He heard everything and went away. He went back to where the antelope was. "Let us go!" said he to him. "I heard everything." "That is good," said the antelope. "Let us go! Let us leave!" Then they arrived at the place where the game animals were. "There below!" said the antelope. Then they two entered. They questioned him, "Did you hear?" "Yes," said he, "I heard everything. To-morrow they want to kill me." "Now you will go there. When you arrive where you always lie down, at that place is a perfect ear of corn which your wife put down. Take the perfect ear of corn and throw it against the wall. Then go back into the room. On the south wall above is a hole. In it are your wife's eyes. Take them and drop them into urine and then put them back." Then he put them back. He lay down. It became morning. He was lying down. He did not sleep. Then he heard an owl arriving above. It entered the room again and at once went in. Then she took her eyes, but she was there forever motionless. It became morning and her husband arose. He entered the room and there was the owl. Its head was bent down. Then her husband called her relatives to see her. They killed her. The youth was saved. His own wife did not kill him. He forestalled her.

VARIANT ²²

A hunter and his wife lived together. Every day he went out and killed a deer. His wife was angry because he killed so many deer. It made a great deal of work and she was late to her meetings. So she gave her husband up to the witches to be killed. He was to be carried off by the Whirlwind (dust sworls). They said, "The Whirlwind will meet him on his way to the mountains and carry him away." Next day he went hunting; he took sacred meal and asked the six directions for good hunting. He started to the mountain. Just

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that moment the Whirlwind came. He took tight hold of an oak tree, but Whirlwind lifted him off the ground. He held tight, and the wind stopped. He came home.

It was night. His wife was not there. His dream had told him that when his wife was away she left a red (i. e., witch) Mother Corn 22a in her place (in a human shape). The Mother Corn spoke to him, "Did you come back?" His wife had told Mother Corn to give him supper. After supper Mother Corn said, "Now we will go to bed." Because of his dream the husband knew that it was not his real wife. Late at night when she thought that he was sound asleep, she got up. He was listening. When he heard her moving he got up and took hold of her, and she became the red Mother Corn. He threw her against the door as hard as he could. Some kernels fell out. He went into the inner room. There was a little shelf in the wall, and on it were his wife's eyes. He took them and urinated, and dropped the eyes into the urine, as his dream had told him to do. He replaced the eyes in the niche and went back to bed.

Later he heard his wife coming on the top of the roof. He heard an owl fly down. It was in this form that his wife traveled. She came in. She went straight into the inner room (to get her eyes). She saw the kernels of corn scattered over the floor. She went to the shelf in the wall to get her eyes. They were changed since she left them; she could not make them as they had been. She could not leave that room.

In the morning her husband said, "I wonder why she has not come out from the inner room." So he called, "Come out!" She did not move. He said, "Why can't you come out?" He went in and there he found her dead. He took her out of that room and laid her on the floor of the outer room. Everybody came to see her but they could not take the manta off her face because she had owl eyes in her head. So her husband was saved. Instead of killing him she had died first.

Footnotes

90:7 Recorded in text by Franz Boas. Informant 8. Notes, p. 232.

91:22 Informant 1.