Week 10 Extra Credit Reading: The Jealous Father

• Aioswé had two wives
• Polygamy was accepted by the Cree?
• Had one son by one of the wives
• Aioswé was jealous of his son
• Jealous of...? Wife's attention, something else?
• Aioswé found marks on one of his wives (not the son's mother) which made him believe son had been intimate with her
• Aioswé went to an island with his son to hunt eggs, and kept sending the son further and further inland for eggs until the son went far enough that Aioswé could paddle away in the canoe and leave the son behind
• Son cried for hours until Walrus appeared
• Walrus offered help, but asked son to warn Walrus if he heard thunder because he had to go underwater if lightning came
• Son lied about sky (was cloudy, said it was clear) and then about a peal of thunder
• Walrus heard thunder again and got angry at Aioswé's son and dropped him
• Water was already shallow and boy lived, but Walrus was killed by lightning
• Aioswé's father had sent storm, Aioswé's mother had sent Walrus
• Father was on Aioswé's side, Mother was on the son's side
• Old woman sent by Mother gave the son instructions on how to act if he wanted to reach home
• Gave him a stuffed ermine skin as a 'weapon to protect himself'
• Son came across a wigwam with two blind old hags who used to kill everybody they met(sent by his father)
• Aioswé or Aioswé's father? Latter sent the thunder storm, but "his father" implies Aioswé, the son's father
• Son is suspicious of hags when they invite him in
• Because of their elbows - hags are mentioned to have "sharp bones like daggers protruding from the lower arm at the elbow"
• Son tricked hags into killing each other by putting a piece of parchment on a pole and poking it between them
• The two hags slashed at the parchment with their elbows and ended up stabbing each other to death
• Hags can sense son's approach with magic but can't sense that he didn't actually sit between them?
• Son proceeds and comes across bones on the path (trap by people nearby, who would kill whoever disturbed the bones)
• Son's advice from the old woman had been to dig a tunnel underneath the bones
• Son was careless, accidentally rattled the bones while digging
• People gave up searching when they could not find the son underground, but dogs kept searching until they found the hole
• Aioswé's son used the stuffed ermine skin to trick the people into thinking the dogs had lied about it being the son, and the people killed the dogs
• Apparently the people and dogs were specifically after the son as well? Does not mention that they were sent by anyone, though
• The son returned home
• Son sang a song about the burning of the world, Aioswé sang against him but was not strong enough
• Son shot an arrow into the woods and set them on fire
• When Aioswé argues that son did not set the water on fire (like he had said he would - "make all the lakes and rivers boil"), the son shot an arrow into the water and made it boil
• Son told his father that he would be safe from the fire in the fat basket (basket with bear's grease in it)
• Son put his mother in a circle and she was safe, while Aioswé burned to death in the basket
• Son and his mother transformed into birds, mother into a robin and son into a whisky jack
• Escaping the world? Fed up with humans? No motivation given besides "Let us become birds"
• Other wife is ignored besides a mention in beginning and a mention when the son returns

Bibliography: The Jealous Father from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson.

Week 10 Reading A: The Jealous Uncle

• Unnatural Uncle who would kill nephews when they become a few years old, two already dead
• No explanation for why he does so? Later on seems to see his nephew as a threat to his life, but no reason given for this idea
• Aunt went to mother and told her to hide the gender of another boy if he's born
• Worked for a time, but Uncle discovered that the son was a boy
• Boy takes old playthings of his brothers
• Piece of a knife, eagle-down, and a sour cranberry
• Uncle takes the boy to go fetch wood, and traps him in a log
• Boy rubs sour cranberry on inside of log and the log 'opened its mouth', freeing him
• Uncle is surprised and annoyed at the boy continuing to live (and coming back with wood), and swears to his wife that he will kill the boy
• Uncle takes boy out to get ducks and eggs, leads him to a steep bluff and pushes him down
• Boy uses eagle-down to drift down, retrieves ducks and eggs, and goes up by blowing at eagle-down
• Uncle is furious at boy's return again
• Uncle takes boy to go get clams, pushes boy into large clam
• Boy uses piece of knife to cut clam's ligament until it lets him out and comes back with clams
• Uncle makes a box for the boy and makes him go inside; Uncle closes the box, ties it shut, and throws him into the ocean
• After a long time, boy is rescued by two girls of the Eagle people who can put on and take off eagle skins to transform from human to eagle and back
• While discussing the box (before they know he is inside), younger daughter claims the box but the elder daughter claims the contents 

• Elder daughter of the village chief claims the boy and they marry happily
• Boy returns to his village after he misses his parents, using the chief's eagle-skin to fly home
• He hunts a whale and puts it on the beach
• Uncle took control, not allowing any whale meat to be given to the boy's parents
• The boy, in eagle form, swoops at the Uncle multiple times, getting closer each time until he grabs the Uncle the fourth time and brings him to a cliff
• Transforming back, the boy tells the uncle that he will be punished for treating his parents cruelly
• Uncle will be dropped in ocean and only has chance to live by swimming back to shore
• Uncle cannot swim, begs to be taken back
• Boy returns to his parents and brings them back to Eagle land with him

Bibliography: The Jealous Uncle from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson. Web Source

Image: Wild Bald Eagle Ocean by KetaDesign on Wikimedia Commons . Web Source