Reading Notes: The Three Hunters

Three brothers lived in a mountain village. They were hunters and each brother had a wife and a sister that lived with them all. One day, the brothers went out to hunt and brought back a deer. After they each ate all the meat they wanted, they gave the rest of the leg bone to the sister. She then took the bone marrow inside and toasted it. It was a delicacy and the other wives of the two brothers got very angry watching her eat it. They were so angry in fact that they planned on killing the sister to get her out of the minds of the other brothers.

Once the brothers went out for another hunt, the women decided the time was right to make their plan a reality. When the brothers were on their way back from the hunt, they stopped to rest and noticed a bird was singing a repetitive tune nearby. One of the brothers thought that the bird had a message for them. He speculated the bird might be his sister because it sounded similarly to her. He asked the bird to hop in his hand if he was their sister and the bird hopped into his hand. All the brothers began to cry because they knew that meant the sister was dead.

When they came home, they found the wives but not the sister and no one said anything about her being gone. They found the younger wife crying. The brothers told the wife they knew what had happened because the sister's soul went into the bird and the bird found them. The wife told them the story and the brothers were so angry that they killed the two wives.

The Three Hunters by A.L. Shelton

Man holding bird. Source: Flickr