Lying Wife
This story is one about a wife who lied. Navaranapaluk came
from a tribe that ate men. She later married a man from another tribe. One day
she decided to go to her own people with mittens on her feet instead of boots.
She did this so they would feel pity on her and hate her husband’s people. Her
people felt exactly the way she thought they would. The decided to attack her husband’s
tribe. When they got to her husband’s village they found no men there, only the
wives. They still attacked killing all the women they could find. They ended up
killing all but three. One women hid against meat, the other hid in skin, the
last hid in the store shed. Once they had killed all they saw they put all of their
bodies on pikes and stuck them upright into the ground for all to see. When the
men came home they were outraged and set to making war on the enemy. The three
women who were left alive helped them vigorously until they had nothing but
bone showing in their fingers. When the men came to the next village they hid
amoungst the rocks. One of the old women from the village had a dream that told
her the avengers must be near. After she dreamed this the dog on the roof
barked alarming those in the village. They rushed out of the house but the
enemies moved in and killed them shooting every man down with arrows. They men
then chose for themselves wives out of those that were before them.
Navaranapaluk was then grabbed by two men who took her out onto the ice. She
asked the whole way who it would be out of the two men to be her husband. The
men laughed and then cut both her arms off leaving her to blead to death for
her lie.
Bibliography: Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen
Illustration from Eskimo Folk-Tales by Eskimo Artists
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