Dûnwa Stone Woman
Tcoóks Crane
Wŏn Elk
An old woman and her granddaughter lived together. When the girl was
grown, the grandmother urged her to get a husband, but she didn’t want
one. The old woman teased till the girl got mad, struck her with a
club, killed her, and said: “Now the crows can eat you!”
The girl took a basket on her back and started off. The body of the old
woman called out: “You won’t get there!”
The girl saw a crow carrying off a piece of her grandmother. She felt
sorry; she thought: “She used to be my grandmother; now black crows are
eating her.”
When the girl got near the place she wanted to go to, the ground grew
soft and she sank in it; the old woman made it so.
Wŏn, the husband of Dûnwa, was on the top of a high mountain. He saw
the girl, and said: “She was coming fast; now she is standing still. I
will go and see what the trouble is.” He found that the ground had
dried up and fastened the girl’s legs down. He thought, “What shall I
do to help her?” That minute there was a noise like a heavy clap of
thunder. Wŏn said to the girl: “That is my wife. She is mad, but I am
going to get you out of the ground.”
He ran to a pile of bones that he had on the mountain, took a leg bone
out of the pile, went back and rubbed the girl’s legs with the bone;
right away the dirt loosened, and she pulled her legs out.
Wŏn said: “Now you are my wife. I will have two wives. Dûnwa won’t
care. You must be careful what you think. If you talk right out Dûnwa
won’t know what you say, but what you think she will know. She is a
great eater; she eats three deer at a time. I am afraid of her. In the
daytime she is like a rock with big eyes, but at night she is a
nice-looking woman.”
Dûnwa knew that her husband and the girl were coming; she kept striking
rocks and making a terrible noise. When they went into the house, the
man thought: “This girl is my wife.”
The rock woman knew what he thought. She was like a pounding stone, but
she could move around and work. She cooked a whole deer for Wŏn and the
girl.
Wŏn said aloud to the girl: “You must eat this meat or she will get
mad.”
The girl thought: “I can’t eat so much.”
Dûnwa jumped up and down and raised a terrible dust.
The man said: “I told you not to think anything about this woman.” They
were both frightened.
When night came, Dûnwa was a woman. The three slept in the house. Just
at daylight Dûnwa was a rock again. She said to Wŏn: “To-night your new
wife must sleep in the bushes; I will sleep in the house.”
That night Wŏn said aloud to the girl: “Will you stay around here, or
shall we go off to a new place?”
The girl said: “Get ready; we will go away from here. I am afraid of
Dûnwa.”
The next day Dûnwa was busy eating; she didn’t miss Wŏn till almost
night. Then she began to track him. Wŏn and the girl had got to a big
river when they heard her coming a long way off. She was mad; she made
a noise like heavy thunder.
Wŏn was scared. He asked: “What can we do? If she overtakes us she will
kill us. If we could cross the river, maybe we could get away.”
There was a house on the other bank of the river, and near it old man
Tcoóks was fishing.
Wŏn called out: “Uncle, help us across?”
Tcoóks said: “Don’t you see that I have no canoe?”
The man begged so hard that at last Tcoóks lay down and stretched one
of his legs across the river. When Wŏn and the girl were over, he told
them to go into the house; he went back to fish.
Dûnwa came like a great stone ball; she hit rocks and trees. Sometimes
she rolled along on the ground, sometimes she flew through the air.
When she got to the river, she called out: “Old man, take me across!”
“I have no canoe. How can I take you across?”
“Did you see my husband?”
“I haven’t seen any one.”
“His tracks are here; you put him across. How did you do it?”
Dûnwa scolded and threatened till Tcoóks stretched his leg across the
river. When she came down hard on it, Tcoóks said: “Be careful, I am
not a canoe.” He was mad; he turned his leg and shook her off. She
sprang on again. He turned his leg a second time, and a second time she
sprang on. The third time he shook her off she fell where the water was
deep. Tcoóks drew away his leg and she was drowned.
Wŏn didn’t go back to his old home; he and the girl stayed with Tcoóks.