The Star Husbands

As told by Amy Allen
Translated by Bea Charles, Adeline Smith, and Tim Montler

Two young women slept
in the evening. So they were looking at
the stars. One said, “Oh, that bright
shining one is the good kind. I wish it
was my husband.” The other one said,
“Oh, that one is better. He could be my
husband.” So they went to sleep.

Then those two came
after them. The two young women said,
“Where are you from?”

Those two men said,
“It’s me you were wishing for.”

“Oh, we can’t go. He’s very important, our father.”

“But it’s me you were
wishing for. You are going to come.”

So they gave up. They grabbed them and they were taken away up
into the sky. So they were
thinking. It was that very white star. His eyes were rotten. And the one that wasn’t so bright he had
better eyes. He wasn’t like the
other. They, the two young women, were
very dissatisfied with the men. Then
they looked for what they were going to do.

While they were out
walking, one of the girls sprained her ankle.
She took something, “What is it?”
She took something kind of folded or bent. And got that thing that was going
through. She said, “Oh, that’s where
they took us from when they grabbed us.
They brought us up to the sky.”

They went. One said, “Let’s make a rope.” So the girls worked and worked on the
rope. The men were working at something.

Day after day the two
girls worked on the rope. They finished
the work on the rope. Then they tied it
to a tree.

The older one said,
“Let me be the first to go down. And
when I get to the earth, I’ll start running.
And the rope will move back and forth.
Then you’ll know that I reached the ground. And then you can come dropping down.

The hands and legs of
those who dropped down were worn to the bone (by the friction of the
rope). So she finished dropping. And she ran.
And the younger one figured, “She must have reached the ground. Now it’s my turn to drop down.” So she went down.

The two got to the
ground. Then they walked. The two girls walked. They were still walking like that when they
saw something like cute kittens.

The older one took
them. The younger one said, “This isn’t
a kitten. Throw it away. They’re like little…..little monsters.”

The other one said,
“They’re kind of cute little things. I
really like them.” So she tucked them
into her coat.

So they walked and
walked and walked. They were like
that. And her stomach started to
tickle. It had turned into a worm. She held it.

It wasn’t very long
and the older one fell dead. Now the
younger one was the only one walking.
She buried her sister at the beach. She buried her.

She was walking alone
looking for where to go. She got to some
houses.

So she went in. And told what happened to the other one.

Then she was
taken. And that’s where she was
kept. They took pity on her and kept
her. And that’s the story of the two
girls who should have known better.