ABORIGINAL HISTORY

DOCUMENTS - Mythological Stories - The Man Who Married a Fox (Inuit) 


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The Man Who Married a Fox

East Greenland Eskimo

 

This is the old story of a wifeless man. His fellow villagers had often told him to take a wife, but this he would not do.

                One day he set a trap for foxes. When he went to look at it, there was a fox in it, and this he killed.

                The next time he went to look, there was again a fox, this time a vixen.

                This he took home with him, and kept as a dog under the window of his house. Whenever he had a meal himself, he gave the bones to the fox, and there it lay, gnawing at them.

                Thus he treated that fox. Then one morning he went out hunting in his kayak. It was not long before the skins of the seals he caught lay ready and finished when he came home; at last he even found them hung up to dry on the frame outside.

                Soon after, he noticed that his lamp was kept in order while he was away, so that it never went out. And when he came home, he would find the pot boiling over the lamp, although there was not a single person in the house.

                Now, he could not make out how all these things came about, and therefore one day he hid behind a rock to see what was going on. And lo! There was a beautiful woman with broad hips and a great knot of hair. it was the vixen, who was able to change into human form.

                When she went in, the wifeless man hurried in after her. As he entered the house, all that he saw was something dark, which vanished beneath the window. The pot had been turned around, but there was not a single human being in the place.

                Next day he hit again, and again there came a beautiful woman with the fine knot of hair. She came out of the house, and when she went in again, he ran after her an caught hold of her before she could reach the window. And now he took her to wife.

                She was so beautiful that she might have been one of the white men's women!

                Now while he was living there with her as his wife a stranger came to visit them.

                “Shall we change wives? “Said the stranger one day when they were out in their kayaks.

                “It cannot be done for she is so jealous, “said the other.

                And the stranger went his way, without having got his will.

                But the truth was that the wifeless man was unwilling to lend his wife to anyone, because of the strange smell of Fox that hung around her body as soon as she began to sweat. But one day the stranger came again on a visit, and again he offered to change wives, and as the lifeless man saw no way of refusing, he agreed.

                Now the stranger laid down on her bed, and it was not long before she began to sweat, and she, who is more beautiful than other women, lo, she smelled of fox!

                For a long time the man refrained from saying anything about it, but the smell grew stronger and stronger, and at last he burst out:

                “Where ever can that foxy smell be coming from? “

                Then he heard the barking of a Fox: “Ká-ká-ká-ká!”

                the woman had sprung up from the couch and dashed out. The man ran after her, but all he saw was a Fox running swiftly up the hillside.

                Then he went home and told the other what had happened.

                “Did I not tell you she was easily angered, and that you were not to say anything if she happened to smell?” said the wifeless man, with words of abuse.

                And now he went out to seek the fox-woman, and called to her to come back, but this she never did. Men say that he still wonders about among the Hills calling for her.

 


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