Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part B

Today’s story is interesting, and is called The Dog-Husband, and is from the Tales of the North American Indians, by Stith Thompson.

Reading Notes

• In a village, a girl had a dog that she was very fond of, and that often slept at the foot of her bed.
• However, what no one knew was that at night, the dog would change into a man, and would lie with the girl, then change back into a dog before the sun rose.
• The girl eventually became pregnant, and her parents, deeply ashamed that a dog had gotten her pregnant, convinced everyone to put out their fires and tear down their house, and moved away.
• But Crow took pity on the girl, and hid away some coals for her so she would have fire.
• The girl eventually found the fire, and shortly after gave birth to five dogs: four male and one female.
• Since her dad had killed her dog, the father of these pups, she had to care for them by herself; to survive she had to dig up clams and shellfish on the beach.
• Some time passed, and the dogs grew fast and strong.
• Eventually the mother noticed that when she left the house, she often heard singing and dancing while she worked on the beach. 
• The fifth time this happened, she dressed up her clam-digger in her clothes and snuck around to the back of the house.
• She found that the dogs had all changed into human form, and that the boys were dancing and singing while their sister kept watch.
• She scolded her children, and from that point on they kept their human form.
• As the boys grew, their mother made them weapons and taught them to use them to hunt.
• From catching birds the boys quickly graduated to catching whales, and were very successful in this.
• One day, Crow noticed the smoke arising from the place where the old village had been, and let curiosity take her there.
• She saw all the whales lying on the beach, and met the grown children, who fed her as much as she wanted, but told her if she wanted more food she would have to come visit them again.
• The sister instructed Crow to cry and pretend they were dead when Crow made it back to the current village, but Crow told them the truth, and had a piece of whale meat as proof.
• Everyone in the village talked it over, and decided to go back to the old village.
• The boys became chiefs of the village and kept it supplied with whales.

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