AN INTRODUCTION:

Tale of Mouse Woman and the Mischief-Makers 

Readers who have followed me on Wrights Lane are well aware of my fascination with folklore, Canadian in particular. At the same time, I have arrived at the conclusion that my interests are not always favorably received on line. Not to be completely discouraged, however (a writer does what a writer does -- stubbornly), I take delight in passing on the story of the "Mouse Woman", a mischief maker if there ever was one. I plan to make it a three-part series, on consecutive days, so you can follow it for the rest of the week on Wrights Lane just as you would Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless or The Bold and Beautiful soap operas on TV. I think it will be fun, for me any way! Due credit is initially given to fellow writer Christie Harris and her first-love, Northwest Indian lore.

During the past two centuries, the rich native cultures of the Northwest Coast have almost vanished into more dominant immigrant cultures. But, fortunately, there have always been concerned people like the aforementioned Christine Harris, Franz Boas, James Deans, John Reed Swanton, Waldemar Jocelson and Marius Barbeau to record the stories and songs before they were completely forgotten. Now about The Mouse Woman...

Drawing by Douglas Tait

An introduction: It was in the days when people on the northwest coast of North America lived in totem pole villages that stood with their backs to the big snow-capped mountains and their fronts to the waters of the rivers and the seas. It was then, among a people who fished and hunted in summer and feasted in their great houses when winter came, that the stories of Mouse Woman were told.

The stories were for young people and created to restore a proper balance of life for the Canadian native people.

Mouse Woman was a narnauk, a super-natural being. As either a mouse or the tiniest of grandmothers, she tried to keep order between the other narnauks and the people.  Being very proper, she did not approve of mischief-makers on either side, and there were plenty of both in those days.

Whether it was a narnauk or a human who began troubles, Mouse Woman was always determined to make everything equal and right for all concerned. So she used tact and more than a little trickery of her own to thwart the likes of a greedy porcupine hunter and the Great Porcupine when the two conflicted...Or to help a young man cheated by a princess, or a wife stolen by the head of the Killer Whales -- great stories all, but too lengthy to do justice in this space.

To Mouse Woman, anyone who disturbed the proper order of the world was a mischief-maker. And being the busiest little busybody in the Place-of-Supernatural Beings, she always did something about the mischief-makers she encountered.

How did Mouse Woman know when mischief was likely, or know how to use tricks as a means to her ends? Well, apparently she was not always as prim and proper as she seemed. In fact, once as a child . . . But that's another story, one that will be revealed starting tomorrow.

Be sure to tune in for Part 1 in the story of Mouse Woman and The Missing Tooth!