marrying bears
THE BEAR WHO MARRIED A WOMAN
Tsimshian
Once upon a time there lived a widow of the tribe of the Gispaxlâ'ts. Many men tried to marry her daughter, but she declined them all.
The mother said, "When a man comes to marry you, feel of the palms of his hands. If they are soft, decline him. If they are rough, accept him." She meant that she wanted to have for a son-in-law a man skillful in building canoes.
Her daughter obeyed her commands and refused the wooings of all young men. One night a youth came to her bed. The palms of his hands were very rough, and therefore she accepted his suit. Early in the morning, however, he had suddenly disappeared, even before she had seen him.
When her mother arose early in the morning and went out, she found a halibut on the beach in front of the house, although it was midwinter. The following evening the young man came back, but disappeared again before the dawn of the day. In the morning the widow found a seal in front of the house. Thus they lived for some time. The young woman never saw the face of her husband; but every morning she found an animal on the beach, every day a larger one. Thus the widow came to be very rich.
She was anxious to see her son-in-law, and one day she waited until he arrived. Suddenly she saw a red bear emerge from the water. He carried a whale on each side, and put them down on the beach. As soon as he noticed that he was observed, he was transformed into a rock, which may be seen up to this day. He was a supernatural being of the sea. 1
• Source: Franz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1916), p. 19.
• The Tsmimshian Indians are native to the coastal regions of British Columbia and southern Alaska.
Labels: andre helle, c l bull, maginel wright enright, otto josef olbertz, rachel elmer
14 Comments:
Hello, L. Mothers-in-law have always been a problem every where. D
i want to know about their off-spring.
In France, it's Jean de l'Ours. d
gr-r-r-r-r-r
ωχ! η πεθερά μου!
ναι! Είμαι ρώσικα!
, а не греческий!
Ia dumala tii ect BELOruccii... clavianckii zagovor... genchtii...d
Так! Бабуля была з Мінска і дзядуля быў з Пінска
Krassivo! I od kuda biiy medved? Potomu tchto ti gavarish medvedskii iazik.
אַזאַ אַ טריקי יינגל - זיי גערעדט בלויז ייִדיש סייַ ווי סייַ!
It's all hebrew to me. Geb mir a bisel tsayt. Biz den her nor of youtube Mein Stetl belz 1928.d
Bear arsed cheek...but Gary Snyder had
a version in his wee book Practise of the Wild
which is worth hibernating on..
Iorla de Flickr
thanks izzie -- i'll check it out!
mr d-- it's funny. i don't know yiddish, but i find i can almost read that. i tried translating the yiddish as hebrew and it's not at all an equivilent. shoulda also tried the spelled oiut version with german.
anyway, with your last one, google told me it doesn't translate bosnian, and a bosnian translator couldn't read it, so i never figured that one out, other than the word bear!
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hi, and thanks so much for stopping by. i spend all too much time thinking my own thoughts about this stuff, so please tell me yours. i thrive on the exchange!
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