“The Dead Wife.” The Yellow Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, London, New York, Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1906, pp. 149-151.

Tale Summary

Once there was a man and his wife who lived in the woods far away from the rest of their tribe. They often hunted together, but after a while, the wife decided to stay home because there was much to do there. The man found that without her he had terrible luck. One day while he was away his wife fell ill and died shortly thereafter. Her husband was distraught and made a wooden doll her size and dressed it in her clothes. He was very busy because he had to tend to his hunting as well as the work his wife had done at home. After a year, he came home to find that all of the household chores were complete. The next time he hunted he came home early to try and see who had done this work, and saw a woman going into the house. He made haste to see who it was, and inside he found instead of his wooden doll his wife she told him that the Great Spirit felt sorry for him, and so he let her come back, on the condition that he do not touch her until they had seen the rest of their people, or else she would die. After 2 years he urged her to see the rest of their tribe so that he could touch her again. The camp of the tribe was 6 days away, and only one day into their journey it began to snow. They made a fire and when they laid down to sleep the man wished to touch his wife, who waved him away telling him that it was only a short time until he could touch her. He would not listen to her and as soon as he touched her he found he was clasping the wooden doll. He made it to the rest of his tribe and told them his story. Some doubted him and they traveled back to where he left his wife and they found the doll as well as the footsteps of two people in the snow. The man grieved the rest of his life.