What Happened to the Lone Woman of St. Michael

The women south of St. Michael are poor seamstresses but fine dancers, while those to the north are expert needlewomen but poor dancers; and this is the way the Eskimo explain it.

セント・マイケルより南の女たちは縫い物が下手だが踊りがうまく、北の女たちは針仕事に長けているが踊りが下手である。エスキモーはそのわけを、こう説明する。

Very long ago there were many men living in the northland, but there was no woman among them. Far away in the southland a single woman was known to live. At last the shrewdest young man of the northland started and traveled southward till he came to the woman's house, where he stopped and became her husband.

遠い昔、北の国には大勢の男が住んでいたが、女は一人もいなかった。はるか南の国に、ただ一人の女が住んでいることが知られていた。とうとう北の国でいちばん抜け目のない若者が旅に出て、南へ南へと進み、女の家にたどり着くと、そこにとどまって女の夫になった。

He was very proud of himself for getting ahead of the other young men in the north. One day he sat in the house thinking of his former home, and he said, "Ah, I have a wife, while even the son of the Headman has none."

若者は、北の若者たちを出し抜いたことがたいそう自慢だった。ある日、家の中で昔の住まいのことを思い浮かべながら、こう言った。「ああ、おれには女房がいる。頭領の息子にだっていないのに」

Meanwhile, the Headman's son had also set out to journey toward the south, and while the husband was talking thus to himself, the son stood in the entrance to the house and heard what he said. It angered the son to hear the husband gloating over him. He hid in the passage and waited until the people inside were asleep, when he crept into the house and, seizing the woman by the shoulders, began dragging her away.

ところがそのころ、頭領の息子もまた南へ向かって旅に出ていて、夫がこうひとりごとを言っているとき、家の入口に立ってその言葉を聞いていた。夫が自分のことを得意げに見下しているのを聞いて、息子は腹を立てた。息子は通路に身を隠し、家の中の者たちが眠るのを待つと、家に忍び込んで女の肩をつかみ、引きずり出しにかかった。

Just as he reached the doorway he was overtaken by the husband who caught the woman by her feet. The two held on like grim death and tugged and pulled until it ended in the woman being torn in two. The thief carried the upper half of the body away, while the husband was left with the lower portion of his wife.

ちょうど戸口まで来たところで、夫が追いついて女の足をつかんだ。二人は死にものぐるいでしがみつき、引っぱり合ったので、とうとう女は二つに裂けてしまった。盗人は体の上半分を持ち去り、夫のもとには妻の下半分が残された。

Each man set to work to replace the missing parts from carved wood. After these parts were fitted on they came to life; and thus two women were made from the halves of one.

二人の男はそれぞれ、足りない部分を木を彫って補いにかかった。その部分をはめ込むと命が宿り、こうして一人の女の半分ずつから二人の女ができたのである。

Owing to the clumsiness of her wooden fingers, the woman of the south was a poor needlewoman, but was a fine dancer. The woman of the north was very expert in needlework, but her wooden legs made her a poor dancer. Each of these women gave these traits to her daughters, so that to the present time the same difference is noted between the women of the north and those of the south, "thus showing that the story is true."

木の指が不器用だったので、南の女は針仕事が下手だったが、踊りはうまかった。北の女は針仕事がとても上手だったが、木の脚のせいで踊りは下手だった。二人の女はそれぞれこの性質を娘たちに伝えたので、今でも北と南の女たちには同じ違いが見られる。「これこそ話がほんとうだという証拠」なのである。