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Totem Pole by James Bender at Pike Place Market (#72: 15046 bytes)

Print Series by Greg Colfax


Series Print #1


Series Print #2


Series Print #3


Series Print #4


Series Print #5

The Hunter and the Wolf

There once was a very successful hairseal hunter who knew of a rock where seals always sleep at night. He would go there and get one or two any time he wanted. One day he went there, and there were no seals left--only traces of blood leading to the water’s edge. After two nights of this, he decided to catch whatever was beating him to the seals.

Next night he went there and hid his canoe and climbed a tree and watched. Suddenly he noticed something approaching on the smooth, clear water: a V-shaped thing--something moving along underwater. It got to the rock where a seal was sleeping, and out jumped a wolf and killed the seal!

Then the wolf buried the seal in the beach, howled in the air, and left. Soon, the wolf came back with some other wolves, and they all came down to the beach and watched as the wolf dug up the seal. Then they began feasting while the hunter paddled away quietly in his canoe.

The hunter thought about how to get rid of the wolf, and next night, he decided he would set a trap. He waited until the wolf came and killed the seal and buried it in the beach as it had done the night before. After the wolf had howled to its mates and left, the hunter went down to the beach and dug up the seal.

After a while the wolves began to emerge from the bush and sat in a circle where the buried seal was supposed to be. The wolf that buried the seal started to dig in the sand but could not find the seal, as he had done the night before when the wolves feasted on his catch.

This time the wolf had nothing. So the other wolves surrounded him and killed him. After that the hunter began to get seals again. That is how he got rid of his competitor and also had his revenge.

John Thomas

 

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Last modified: November 09, 2014