Part 5 (1/2)

Then she dreamt a dream, which said: ”I, being a G.o.d, have given you a child, because I love you. When you die, you shall truly become my wife.

Your and my son, when he gets a wife, shall have plenty of children.”

The woman dreamt thus, and wors.h.i.+pped. Then that son of hers, when pursued by the bears, could not be caught. He was a great hunter, a very rich man.

Then the woman died, without having had a human husband. Afterwards her son, getting a wife, had children, and became rich. His descendants are living to this day.--(Translated literally. Told by Penri, 21st July, 1886.)

x.x.xviii.--_Buying a Dream._

A certain thickly populated village was governed by six chiefs, the oldest of whom lorded it over the other five. One day he made a feast, brewed some rice-beer, and invited the other five chiefs, and feasted them. When they were departing, he said: ”To-morrow each of you must tell me the dream which he shall have dreamt over-night; and if it is a good dream I will buy it.”

So next day four of the chiefs came and told their dreams. But they were all bad dreams, not worth buying. The fifth, however, did not come, though he was waited for at first, and then sent for several times. At last, when brought by force, he would not open his lips. So the senior chief flew into a rage, and caused a hole to be dug in front of the door of his own house, and had the man buried in it up to his chin, and left there all that day and night.

Now the truth was that the senior chief was a bad man, that the junior chief was a good man, and that this junior chief had forgotten his dream, but did not dare to say so. After dark, a kind G.o.d,--the G.o.d of the Privy,--came and said: ”You are a good man. I am sorry for you, and will take you out of the hole.” This he did; and, at that very moment, the chief remembered how he had dreamt of having been led up the bank of a stream through the woods to the house of a G.o.ddess who smiled beautifully, and whose room was carpeted with skins; how she had comforted him, fed him plenteously, and sent him home in gorgeous array, and with instructions for deceiving and killing his enemy, the senior chief. ”I suppose you remember it all now,” said the G.o.d of the Privy; ”it was I who caused you to forget it, and thus saved you from having it bought by the wicked senior chief, because I am pleased with the way in which you keep the privy clean, not even letting gra.s.s grow near it. And now I will show you the reality of that of which before you saw only the dream-image.”

So the man was led up the bank of a stream through the woods to the house of the G.o.ddess, who smiled beautifully, and whose room was carpeted with skins. She was the badger-G.o.ddess. She comforted him, fed him plenteously, and said: ”You must deceive the senior chief, saying that the G.o.d of door-posts, pleased at your being buried near him, took you out, and gave you these beautiful clothes. He will then wish to have the same thing happen to him.” So the man went back to the village, and appeared in all his splendid raiment before the senior chief, who had fancied him to be still in the hole,--a punishment which would be successful if it made him confess his dream, and also if it killed him.

Then the good junior chief told him the lies in which the badger-G.o.ddess had instructed him. Thereupon the senior chief caused himself to be buried in like fas.h.i.+on up to the neck, but soon died of the effects.

Afterwards the badger-G.o.ddess came down to the village, and married the good man, who became the senior of all the chiefs.--(Written down from memory. Told by Ishanashte, 16th November, 1886.)

x.x.xix.--_The Baby in the Box._

There was once a woman who was tenderly loved by her husband. At last, after some years, she bore him a son. Then the father loved this son even more than he loved his wife. She therefore thought thus: ”How pleasant it used to be formerly, when my husband loved me alone! But now, since I have borne him this nasty child, he loves it more than he does me. It will be well for me to make away with it.”

Thus thinking, she waited till her husband had gone off bear-hunting in the mountains, and then put the baby into a box, which she took to the river and allowed to float away. Then she returned home. Later on, her husband came back; and she, with feigned tears, told him that the baby had disappeared--stolen or strayed,--and that she had vainly searched all round about the house and in the woods. The man lay down, like to die of grief, and refused all food. Only at length, when he saw that his wife, too, went without her food, did he begin to eat a little, fearing, in his affection for her, that she too might die of hunger. However, it was only when he was present that she fasted. She ate her fill behind his back.

At last, one day, not knowing what to do to rouse him, she said to him: ”Look here! I will divert you with a story.” Then she told him the whole story exactly as it had happened, being herself, all the while, under the delusion that she was telling him an ancient fairy-tale. Then he flew into a rage, took his bludgeon, beat her to death, and then threw her corpse out-of-doors. This was the way in which the G.o.ds chose to punish her.

Then the husband, knowing now that his search must be made down the stream, started off. At last, after seeking for a long time, he came to a lonely house, where he found a very venerable-looking old man, an old woman, and their middle-aged daughter, and also a boy. He said to the old man: ”I come to ask whether you know anything of my little boy, who was placed in a box and set to float down the stream.” The old man replied: ”One day, when my daughter here went to draw water from the river, she found a box with a little boy in it. We knew not whether the child was a human creature, a G.o.d, or a devil. So doubtless he is yours.

We have kept the box too. Here it is. You can judge by looking at it.”

It turned out to be the same box, and the same boy. So the father rejoiced. Then the old man said: ”Remain here. I will give to you for wife this daughter of mine, my only child. Live with us as long as my old wife and I remain alive. Feed us, and then you shall inherit from me.” The man did so. When the old people died, he inherited all their possessions; and then, with his new wife and his beloved son, returned to his own village. So you see that, even among us Ainos, there are wicked women.--(Written down from memory. Told by Ishanashte, 17th November, 1886.)

xl.--_The Bride Bewitched._

There was once a very beautiful girl who had many suitors. But, as soon as she was married to one, and he lay down beside her and then stretched out his hand towards her v.a.g.i.n.a, a voice came from it, warning him to desist. This so much alarmed the bridegroom that he fled. This happened nine or ten times, till at last the girl was in despair; for none would now wed her, and her old father was put to shame. They plunged her into the water of the river, but it had no effect. So at last, in her grief, she ran to the mountains, and threw herself down at the foot of a magnolia-tree.

When, after some difficulty, she fell asleep, she dreamt that the tree was a house, outside of which she was lying, and from the window of which a lovely G.o.ddess popped out her head and said: ”What has happened is in no way your fault. Your beauty has caused a wicked fox to fall in love with you. It is he who has got into your v.a.g.i.n.a, and who speaks out of it, in order to prevent the approach of any ordinary mortal husband.

He, too, it is who has lured you out here, to carry you away altogether.

But do not allow yourself to become subject to his influence. I will give you some beautiful clothes, and cause you to reach your house in safety. You must tell your father all about me.” Then the girl awoke and went home. Her father exorcised the fox at last by carving an exact likeness of his daughter, and offering it to the fox with respectful wors.h.i.+p. Then she married, and gave birth to children, and was happy all her life.--(Written down from memory. Told by Ishanashte, 17th November, 1886.)

xli.--_The Wicked Stepmother._

In ancient days, when men were allowed to have several wives, a certain man had two--one about his own age, the other quite young,--and he loved them both with equal tenderness. But when the younger of the two bore him a daughter, his love for his daughter made him also perhaps a little fonder of the mother of the child than of his other wife, to the latter's great rage. She revolved in her mind what to do, and at last feigned a grave illness, pretending not to be able even to eat, though she did eat when everybody's back was turned. At last, being to all appearance on the point of death, she declared that one thing alone could cure her. She must have the heart of her little step-child to eat.

On hearing this, the man felt very sad, and knew not what to do; for he loved this wicked wife of his and his little daughter equally dearly.