The Jealous Wife

THE JEALOUS WIFE ¹⁷

Near Uwashka there was a little village on top of the hill. A Cochiti girl used to go up there. She stole a man who lived at Uwashka. They were always together. When the man went to the fields the woman would follow a little apart. They were not ashamed. The man was married. He treated his wife badly. One day the wife said, "I think my husband is not doing right. I think he is going with another woman. He says I am going with other men, but I think it is he who is doing this thing." She said to her mother, "I am going over there to his fields." "For what, my daughter? What do you wish to see?" In the morning she saw her husband hiding under his dress moccasins sewed with sinew. He went out. She followed to see what he was doing. "I'm going, even if I get a whipping. I will find out what is happening." She went along the hill. She came in this direction. She met an old man. 'The man said, "Are you coming?" "Yes." "Where are you going, poor thing?" "I'm going over there where my husband is." "Poor thing, don't go over there." He begged her. "Something might happen to you if you go about all alone." She cried. He said, "If you want to follow him, come at sunset to Ha’ana (northeast of Cochiti). When it's a little dark lie under the trees by the road. You will catch them yourself. They always come along this road late."

She waited until dark and lay down under the trees. She heard their voices. She trembled all over. They were coming along just as if they were married. When they were near, she sprang up and ran to the woman. "It is because of you that my husband treats me badly. You are stealing my husband. You will see what you'll get for this. I will fight you." The man left them there, and the women fought. The wife saw the other girl had on the moccasins her husband had made. She seized one of her legs and ripped off the moccasin and tore it in pieces. They came along the whole way fighting like roosters. The wife lived by the church in Hĕna, the girl lived at Putiua. People at Cochiti heard the fight and they all came out to see what was happening. The wife's mother saw her daughter coming fighting. "Poor thing, poor thing, do not act in this way." "Mother, don't stop me. I caught them together. She'll see what she gets." "I didn't know you went out, my daughter." "I am just paying this girl back for all I've suffered from my husband because of her." They fought. "Now you can go. [paragraph continues]

p. 115

I have paid you what my husband gave me." She picked up stones and threw them after her. Her mother was sad. "My daughter, I didn't know you went out there. If your husband and this girl caught you as you caught them perhaps I'd never see you any more." She went home. Her husband never went back to her again.

Footnotes

114:17 Informant 1. Notes, p. 222.