E9M. The Magic Wife – the She-Bear. .39.-.42.46.

A man takes as his wife a she-bear (white or grizzly), who takes the form of a woman, or a woman who takes the form of a she-bear.

Chukchi, Asiatic Eskimo, St. Lawrence Island, Bering Strait and Northern Alaska Inupiat, Mackenzie Mouth, Igloolik, Ahtna, Han, Upper Tanana, Tagish, Southern Tutchone, Tahltan, Slevi, Tsimshian, Bellakula, Steppe Cree.

NE Asia. Chukchi (reindeer): Baboshina 1958, no. 46 [as in Menovshchikov, no. 63; a young man is carried away on an ice floe; he sees a naked woman, gives her some of his clothes; she is a She-Bear, she rewards him, marries him; his mother calls her a werewolf, she leaves with the children; he follows her; her ex-husband, a Bear, proposes challenges; (without a story about returning home)]: 118-122; Belikov 1982: 24-27 [a polar bear kidnaps a man's wife; he comes to the bears, they propose a competition; 1) jumps further than the bear; 2) defeats the bear in single combat; 3) plays ball with a walrus's head (dodges, throws the head, the fangs pierce the bear); 4) kills the kidnapper, the bear Kochatko, with a spear; gets a she-bear as a wife, returns home with two wives]; Bogoras 1902, no. 31 [approximately like Menovshchikov 1974, no. 63]: 633-634; Menovshchikov 1974, no. 63 [an orphan is unable to catch a seal, is carried away on an ice floe; the she-bear tells him to sit on her back, takes him home, turns into a woman; gives birth to a bear cub and a boy; the husband's mother scolds them, calls them bears; the wife and children leave; the husband follows her to the land of polar bears; the she-bear's former husband suggests a competition; 1) hunt seals (the man killed five, the bear three); 2) lift a stone from the bottom (wearing a guinea cockerel skin, the man dives for a long time, lifts a heavier stone); 3) fight (the man kills a bear with an arrow); the bears scream in terror that a white bear is coming; it is a rat, a man easily kills it; the wife's relatives are in awe of his strength; =Sanghi 1989: 440-446]: 232-238.

Arctic. Asian Eskimos: Bogoraz 1949, no. 12 [an unsuccessful hunter is carried out to sea on an ice floe; the White Bear kills a seal for him, becomes a woman, he brings her home; she gives birth to two sons; her mother-in-law reproaches her for eating fat intended for a fat lamp; she leaves, taking her sons; her husband follows her to the land of polar bears; the Bear's former husband suggests a competition; 1) to lift a stone from the bottom (wearing a polar bear skin, a man lifts the stone for a long time and at the same time kills a seal); 2) to play ball with a walrus's head (wearing a bear skin, a man wins); 3) to fight; a man kills a bear with an arrow; lives with his wife and children among the bears; having grown old, he wants to return to people; his bear sons bring him to the shore]: 161-176; Rubtsova, Vakhtin 2019, No. 20 [a man lived with his mother without a wife; one day a polar bear came towards him, took off his hood, and found a woman underneath; she became his wife and gave birth to a son, then a second; the man's mother is unhappy that she ate fat and calls her a she-bear; she puts on her hood, takes her sons with her and leaves; upon learning what was going on, the husband sets off in search; the polar bear wife takes him and his sons across two ice holes, and they come to the polar bears; the elder wants to test the man and offers to play ball with a walrus's head; the old man (i.e. the father of the bear wife) warns that the elder is going to kill him; the man took a pebble in his mouth and spat it out on the skull flying at him, which cracked; now they have to slide down the mountain, there are two holes below; the bear will lower a stone from above; but the man fell into one vent and climbed out of the other; now they have to fight; but the man cut his leg tendons with a spear, he fell, the man finished him off; the man and his wife returned to their mother]: 254-276; St. Lawrence Island [a young man, whose relative is mocking him, sees a light in a cave, finds a woman there; the relative suggests exchanging wives, comes to the cave, is killed by the woman; she is the White Bear, takes the husband to her people; the bears with the necklace were killed by hunters and were reborn; the wife's sister's husband suggests a competition, the wife teaches how to win; 1) dive into the sea, get heavy stones from the bottom, throw them up; 2) play with the heavy head of a walrus; the man wins]: Slwooko 1979: 86-91; Bering Strait Inupiat : Curtis 1976(20) (Cape Prince of Wales) [a young man does not marry for a long time; he sees an unfamiliar girl, brings her to her home, she makes it a condition that his mother not insult her; they have a son; mother-in-law says that daughter-in-law eats raw blubber, she is a White Bear; wife leaves, husband comes to the White Bears; father-in-law tells him to throw a bead into his son's mouth, the Bears become friendly; elder challenges man to a competition, father-in-law gives him his skin; 1) play ice ball (man throws it the farthest); 2) who dives the longest (man breathes secretly, wins); 3) hunt seals (wins); man stays with the Bears]: 157-160; Garber 1940, No. 24 [ Taktakmeets a strange woman on the ice, marries, they have a son; T.'s mother tells her grandson that his mother eats like a polar bear; she takes her son and goes to the polar bears; T. comes to them, they are happy; her father helps him, gives him a bear skin; these bears are the souls of those killed by people; they are divided into two parties, white and speckled; T. is in the white party; wins a ball game (a ball made of ice); is the first to catch a seal; stays with his wife and children with the bears]: 195-203; Garber 1940, no. 27 [the orphan Seetuk lives with his uncle, studies with him; the uncle's wife eats all the supplies, tells her husband that his nephew is doing it; the uncle puts S. in a box, ties the lid, and lowers it into the sea; the box comes to shore; S. is freed, hunts, gets everything he needs; someone drives fish, deer, wolves (they have valuable skins) to his house; two brothers and a sister arrive; she is ready to marry S. if he overtakes her and defeats an evil rival; S. first lags behind, then casts a spell, overtakes; the girl's father gives him the skin of a polar bear; S. defeats his rival in a ball game (it is a large stone); in diving into the sea; kills with an arrow when he appears in the form of a bear; S. gets married, his father-in-law gives him hawk plumage; S. flies to his native village, picks up his uncle, throws him into the sea, after taking off his bird clothes and saying why he is going to kill him; brings his uncle's corpse to the village, tells his story; people kill his uncle's wife, bury her with her husband; S. returns to the Hawks, becomes their leader]: 204-215; Inupiat of northern Alaska [a man marries a White Bear woman; his mother-in-law does not like her daughter-in-law's eating too much fat; she goes back to her own people; in her village, Angusiliuk , he kills strangers by challenging them to a competition, takes the wives of the dead; the man's father-in-law and brothers of his wife help him; 1) play with a heavy ball made of bone and ice (the man breaks it); 2) get seals (the man is the first to pull out a seal); 3) A. turns into a walrus, the dugout fills with water; the man harpoons the walrus; heals his opponent; 4) dive for a long time (the man breathes through a snorkel; A. is barely alive); the man returns to his parents with his wife and son]: Spencer 1959: 419-425; Inupiat of northern Alaska [ Inyuhuyukmarries a girl with big teeth who plays ball; the mother-in-law notices that she licks her fingers, says that she is like a she-bear; taking both sons, the offended daughter-in-law leaves; I. follows them, the trail becomes the trail of bears; his wife's relatives are kind to him, but the bear's former companion suggests a competition; 1) run to an ice hole, catch a seal, come back; 2) dive for a long time (the old man advises to take a breath in the parka, to sigh at the bottom); 3) slide down a mountain; I. wins; often visits his parents with his wife, she takes human form], PM87 [the father-in-law tells his son-in-law to bring a partridge with fused legs; the son-in-law turns into a squirrel, sneaks under the snow, kills, brings the partridge; 2) check the traps; the ice is thin, the son-in-law falls through; shoots an arrow with a rope through an ice-hole from under water, gets out; the partridge and weirs were traps for people; the father-in-law sends his son-in-law home]: Hall 1975, #PM71: 270-274; Mackenzie Mouth [a man meets a woman, follows her to her relatives; these are Polar Bears; the father-in-law demands that he 1) hit a target with a ball, 2) get a seal in an ice-hole, 3) get a "narrow" (a fabulous animal); the son-in-law wins each time, returns home, leaving his bear wife]: Ostermann 1942: 91-95; Igloolik (Repulse Bay) [a good hunter Angusugjuk finds a puppy near the house, and a woman in the house; she leaves when her mother-in-law reproaches her for eating only fat; A. follows a trail - partly human, partly polar bear; the wife jumps into the water, takes A. to the polar bears' settlement; the wife of the biggest one looks into the house, says that her husband is challenging A. to a competition; the mother-in-law teaches what to do; there is no need to accept the challenge to dive for jellyfish at all; 1) pick up and carry a stone (it is slippery, but it has four notches, A. wins); 2) dive for seals (A. grabs something black, at home it turns out to be a seal)]: Spalding 1979: 12-14.

Subarctic. Atna [A Lynx came to a Bear; he has two daughters; he insistently calls Lynx his son-in-law; Lynx asks where to get material for arrows; 1) shafts; The Bear sends some trees into the forest to knock down trees; Lynx jumps between the converging trees, brings back hard wood; 2) feathers for arrows; on such and such a cliff; there are two eaglets in the nest, their parents have flown away to hunt people; the older eaglet promises to tell his parents about Lynx, who kills him; tells the younger one to say that he fell asleep and fell out of the nest; the Eagle flew in, Lynx killed him with an arrow; then the Eagle, the same; each of them brought half a man; Lynx told the eaglet to feed on partridges and rabbits from now on; brought feathers; 3) a bowstring; there lies a deer (moose) as big as a mountain; The Lynx asks the Mouse to gnaw the wool from the place where the heart is; she gnaws it, tells the Deer that her children are freezing; the Deer allows it; the Lynx pierces him in this place with an arrow, brings sinews; 4) glue for fixing the bowstring; the Bear sends the Lynx to where the resin boils on the fir; he brings it without getting burned; the Bear suggests hunting bears (they are his daughters), gives arrows with bark tips, but the Lynx uses hers, kills the Bear's daughters; he pursues the Lynx, the Lynx hides in the middle of the lake; the Bear tells the Frog to drink it; the Lynx asks the Sandpiper (snipe or curlew) to pierce the Frog's belly, the water pours out; The Bear digs a drain for the waters into the lower lake, but the Lynx slips through, and the Bear cannot catch him]: Tansy 1982: 8-14; khan : Mishler 2004, no. 2 [having killed the man-eating Otter, Tsá'Wëzhaa comes to the Bear; he gives him a daughter, sends him for material for a bow and arrows; 1) eagle feathers; Ts. kills a male and female man-eating eagle, feeds the chicks ordinary meat, and orders them to eat animals from now on; 2) the tendons of a dangerous elk; Ts. asks the Mouse to climb into the anus of the lying elk, cut its heart; Ts. made a bow and arrows], 3 [3) now the Bear asks to get resin; it is dangerous to approach the resin hanging on a fir tree, Ts. knocks it down with a stick; C. kills the She-Bear with a bow, it turns out that she is the Bear's daughter; C. runs away, hid in the lake, the Bear tells the Frog to drink water, she drank, but Bekas pierced her belly with his beak, the water spilled out; the Bear began to wait with a net where a river flows out of the lake, but C. threw his clothes into it, and slipped through himself]: 147-149, 149-151; Schmitter 1910 (Eagle) [The Bear harpoons salmon; the old man turns into a salmon, lets himself be harpooned, breaks off the tip and carries it away; comes to the Bear in the guise of a man; the Bear suspects that the old man stole the harpoon; the old man marries the Bear's daughter; he demands 1) to bring wood for arrows (a stump falls on the son-in-law, he dodges, makes shafts from the stump); 2) to bring feathers of man-eating eagles for arrows (the son-in-law climbs into the nest, kills one chick, asks the other, how will the parents arrive; Mother with snow, father with hail; kills adult birds with a spear, brings feathers); 3) get resin to glue the tips (the son-in-law sticks a long pole into a lake of boiling resin, splashes it on all the firs; since then the firs are resinous; brings resin); 4) bring sinews (the son-in-law asks the Mouse to gnaw wool from the place on the body of the monstrous moose, under which the heart is (the Mouse explains to the moose that she needs wool to warm the babies; the son-in-law kills the moose with an arrow, brings sinews); 5) The Bear advises to make tips from birch bark; sends the son-in-law to hunt, tells his daughter to become a she-bear, to kill her husband; the son-in-law kills her with arrows with bone tips; the Bear chases him, the son-in-law hides in the lake; the Bear tells the Frog to drink the lake; the son-in-law tells the Snipe to pierce the Frog's belly, the water pours out; son-in-law runs away from Bear]: 21-23; upper Tanana [ Tsaosha (Beaver) marries two daughters of the Bear; he asks 1) to bring the tendons of a huge Elk (Mouse gnaws off the wool from the place on the Elk's skin where the heart is; explains that her children need warm moccasins; Ts. kills the sleeping Elk with an arrow); 2) get feathers for arrows from man-eating eagles (Ts. climbs into the nest, kills the male chick; asks the female how her parents arrive; the mother with a cloud and snow, the father with a storm cloud and hail ; Ts. kills the adult eagles, tells the chick to feed on squirrels and partridges from now on; 3) get larch resin to attach the feathers to the shaft (the tree grows on a high cliff; Ts. wets a branch, touches the trunk, the resin freezes to the branch, Ts. pulls the branch back); 4) The Bear turns his daughters into two she-bears, Ts. kills them; sees how the Bear copulates with the corpses of his daughters; Ts. runs away from the Bear, asks the Frog to drink the lake, hides in the silt at the bottom; [ Beaver (Smart Man) marries Bear's daughter; Bear tells his daughter to wear a bearskin, invites his son-in-law to hunt, gives her arrows tipped with larch bark; Beaver replaces them with bone arrows, hits the She - Bear, her bearskin falls off, she dies; Bear and his wife pursue Beaver, who hides in a lake, shoves a log into the net instead of himself; Bear tells Curlew to drink from the lake, Beaver asks Snipe to pierce his belly, water spills out, Bears hang themselves]: McClelland 2007(2), no. 74a: 369-372; tagish[The Beaver wants the Bear's daughter as a wife; the Bear demands 1) to cut down a huge tree to make a bow (the Beaver cuts down the tree, it does not crush him), 2) to get sinews by killing a huge grizzly (mice dig a passage under the lying grizzly, gnaw off the fur on its chest; the Beaver thrusts a spear into this place, the grizzly dies), 3) to kill a huge Frog (the Beaver kills it, gets paint for arrows), 4) to get feathers for arrows from man-eating Eagles (the Beaver climbs into the nest; the chick says that its mother brings warm and sunny weather, its father brings hail; the Beaver kills the adult Eagles, turns the chick into an ordinary eagle); the Bear regrets that all his animal helpers have died; the Beaver kills the Bear, his wife and daughter]: Norman 1990: 109-113; Southern Tutchone : McClelland 2007(1), #2c [Beaver (Smart Man) marries Bear's daughter; Bear tells daughter to wear bearskin, asks son-in-law to hunt, gives arrows with bad tips; Beaver replaces them with good ones, kills Bear; Bear chases him, he hides in lake, Bear tells big bird to drink all water, Beaver asks Snipe to make hole in its belly, water spills out; Bear gives up chase], 11d [Beaver (Äsúya, Smart Man) marries Bear's daughter; bear gives him bad arrows to hunt bear, Beaver takes his own bow and arrows, kills bear, it turns out to be Bear's daughter; Bear chases Beaver, he hides in lake, pushes stick into Bear's trap; he orders the South Wind to drink the lake, Beaver asks Snipe to make a hole in his belly, water pours out; Beaver orders the Bear to eat animals, not people]: 37-39, 72-77; taltan [the father of the young man's wife demands 1) to hunt where huge toads live (Grizzly, Black Bear, Wolf, Lynx rush into the mouth of a toad, tear it from the inside, come out); 2) to hunt where avalanches come down (the young man turns into something light, unharmed); 3) turns his daughter into a Grizzly; the young man kills her, the father-in-law chases him; the young man throws objects (a piece of bear meat, the rest is not specified), creating gorges, lakes, etc. behind him; throws a stick, it turns into fire, the father-in-law burns]: Teit 1921a, no. 41: 235-236; left: Moore, Wheelock 1990, #9 [Yamonhdeyi's father advises him to marry; the old man is ready to give him his daughter; Ya. understands that she already has a husband, he kills sleeping people; Ya. kills him with an arrow; the wife replies that her father gets feathers for arrows from huge eagles; Ya. climbs into the nest in a tree; the eaglet says that the mother will fly with the rain, the father with the snow; the eaglet's sister promises to complain to the mother that he told this to a man; Ya. kills the girl eaglet, kills the female who gave birth to half a man; tells the eaglet to eat rabbits, ducks, fish; Ya. goes to get the sinews that the father-in-law uses for a bowstring; a mouse gnaws the wool under the heart of a lying monster, says that her children are freezing; Ya. pierces his heart, brings sinews; brings flint arrowheads from where they fly like arrows; wife turns into a bear, J. kills her with an arrow; her parents hoped that she would kill her son-in-law; J. runs, becomes a fish at the bottom of the pond; wife's parents tell two pelicans to drink water; J. tells a small snail bird (Tringa melanoleuca) to pierce the pelican's belly; water pours out, J. jumps out, father-in-law and mother-in-law drown]: 43-48; Petitot 1886, No. 5 [enemies kill everyone, grandson and grandmother remain; he gets married, needs arrows; climbs into eagle's nest for feathers; chick hides him under its wing, replies that father will bring snow, mother - rain; man kills adult birds, tells chick to feed on fish, not on people; asks the Mouse to dig a passage under a huge deer lying on the ground, to gnaw the wool from the skin under the heart; kills the deer, takes the sinews for the bowstring; kills a toad sitting on a piece of flint, makes arrowheads; his wife turns into a bear, he kills her; his father-in-law pursues him, turns into a flying monster; the man, having become a Beaver, hides in a lake; the monster drinks the lake; a Plover pierces his belly, water pours out; the monster flies into the sky; the Beaver makes rapids on the Mackenzie River]: 321-327.

NW Coast. Tsimshian [during a famine a noblewoman and her daughter were left alone; during the night someone came in and slept with the daughter; after this, whenever she touched the bark of a fir tree, it fell down and underneath were ever larger animals: squirrel, partridge, porcupine, beaver, mountain sheep, black bear, grizzly; a man appeared (he also often appears nearby in the form of a bird whose cry brings good luck), said that he was the one sending the game; then the animals fell two by two; they built two houses to store the meat; father orders son to be named Asdi-wâ'l, who becomes a great hunter; pursues white bear, who makes passages in a rock, A. sticks his bow into the crack and follows; follows bear up a ladder to heaven; there is a flowering plain; the bear turns out to be the Evening Star, daughter of the Sun; she warns that her father has killed many of her suitors; The father-in-law orders 1) to hunt mountain sheep; the stars think that A. froze in place, but he only left his cloak and hat on the pole; A. entered the house where the mountain sheep had gathered; they were beating out a rhythm, and the shaman was performing a shaman's ritual; the shaman and the lamb jumped over his head, and A. killed the rest, bringing a lot of fat; 2) to bring mountain water; it is in a cave, the entrance to which sometimes closes, sometimes opens; the slave was crushed, and A. got water; the Sun ordered his daughter to step over the bones of the crushed one and he came to life again; 3) to bring firewood; wife: as soon as you touch the tree, the bark will fall and crush you; under the tree there is a pile of bones of the dead; the tree fell on the slave, but A. is unharmed; the father-in-law revived the slave again and put the fallen tree up; 4) to lie down on the hot stones (the Sun wants to bake and eat his son-in-law); A.'s father gave him pieces of ice to put under his arms, A. was unharmed in the oven; since then the Sun and all his people of stars have loved A.; A. wants to return to his mother, together with his wife, who has 4 baskets of meat, berries, etc., he rolls down to the earth along the sun's rays; every day the wife orders water to be brought, dips a feather into the bucket - the water is clean; one day A. got together with another girl, the water became covered with slime, the wife returned to her father; he follows her, falls when he almost reached the sky, breaks, the Sun revives him; he lives with his wife again; they return to earth again; then the wife leaves completely, and A. takes the chief's daughter as his wife; challenges her four brothers to a bet, claiming that he is a better hunter of sea animals than they are of land animals; brings four bears, the brothers return empty-handed, take their sister; A. marries another girl, she bears him a son; A. is a better walrus hunter than his four brothers, who leave him on a rock in the middle of the sea; a mouse leads him to the walruses' underground home; he heals a wounded walrus; the walruses' master sends him home in a walrus's stomach; his wife helps him kill her brothers; he goes hunting in the mountains, turns into stone]: Boas 1912: 71-146; bellacula[a shaman and his three elder brothers come to the Sun; he gives them his daughter in marriage; 1) twice tries to kill his sons-in-law with heat, heating up the house (the shaman cools the house); 2) orders them to hunt many mountain rams; the wife herself turns into a bear, attacks the hunters; in the form of a ram, she pushes the shaman off a cliff (the brothers bring the game, the shaman descends into the abyss, becoming a feather); 3) the Sun brings the shaman in a boat to the middle of the sea, orders him to drive a pile with a hammer; he drives it, drops the hammer; dives after it, the father-in-law covers the sea with ice; the shaman turns into a salmon, gets the hammer, finds a crack in the ice; brings the hammer, throws it in front of the father-in-law, he crumbles to dust; the brothers return home, leaving the wife with them]: McIlwraith 1948(1): 671-672.

Plains. Prairie Cree [man lives alone; someone brings firewood, cleans house; he finds woman; they visit her parents; he realizes that wife and her relatives are bears, that he cannot be with them long]: Bloomfield 1930, no. 11: 59-61.