Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife on the shore of the cold sea. At nights the husband slept at home with his wife, but at dawn he used to leave his house - barabara - and went hunting or fishing. At that time his wife worked at home, skinning prey, cooking food or making clothes and footwear from the skins of hunted game.
One spring day the husband went hunting as usual, but returned home tired and empty-handed. He came into his house, lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, not saying a word to his wife. Since that time, he used to go out at dawn without a word. The whole day he would spend, wandering aimlessly. His wife did not know why he wouldn't come home in the afternoon, where he would spend all the time and what he was doing there. She decided to find out where he was roaming all day long.
One early morning the man got up, went out of the barabara, and his wife secretly followed him at a distance. They came to the place where he usually wandered: there was a hut standing on the nearest hill and smoke was curling above the roof. The woman silently came close to her husband and noticed that he had only one eye!
"Ai, Ai, Y-a-h, Ai, Ai, Yah! He has got a second wife - One-Eyed Witch!" - she thought that the evil spirit of the witch had captured the soul of her husband. The cruel witch was used to attracting attention of a successful hunter in the guise of a beautiful girl, in order to deprive his soul and ruin his life.
As soon as it dawned upon the woman, she got scared and decided to leave her husband.
The next day she went outside the barabara and hit the road. While she was walking, she suddenly saw a giant coming towards her at a rattling pace. The giant came close to her, then grabbed her, slung her on his shoulders and carried her to his house.
He came to the high mount and climbed to the top of it, where he had his underground dwelling - yurt. Only the roof of the yurt stood slightly above the ground. The giant threw the woman down, through a hole in the roof. She fell to the ground and lost consciousness...
The unhappy woman woke up in the morning and began to weep with sorrow and pain: what if the giant gets back to the yurt and kills her? Never could she get home!
It was dark and cold inside the house. Having no clothes, she became frozen. She repented sincerely of her deed: she left her husband just because he had lost an eye and got a second wife! There was not anything special - many families lived in the same way...
Suddenly she heard a deep voice:
"Hey, you, stop crying! Right over your head, there are skins of land birds, hanging on the wall. Take them and put them on!"
The woman looked up and saw a basket, woven from grass. She took the basket and found there a shirt of raven skins - koohklianka. However, trying as she might, she could not do anything: the koohklianka was small for her. The woman began to cry again: what if the giant eats her up? And again she heard the voice:
"Stop crying, woman! Right over your head, there is a grass basket. You will find there the skins of land animals. Take them and put on one of them!"
She looked up and saw another basket. There were animals' skins in it. The woman took one of them and tried to muffle herself up. Finally, she could put the skin on, and gradually she got warm. Having been wrapped in the skin, she began to seek a way out of the yurt. After a long search she found the exit, went out and broke into a run.
On the way home, the woman felt thirsty. She came to a little river, bent down to drink, and suddenly saw that she had got fox ears instead of her own. Being unable to do anything, she continued her way, but felt that someone was following her. She looked back and saw a fox tail, trailing after her. The woman tried to get rid of it, but she couldn't, and she kept on with the fox tail.
When she felt that it was much easier to run, leaning on the ground with her hands, she realized that all this time she was wrapped in a fox pelt, and eventually she had turned into a fox.
The fox-woman came running to the seashore, where her father usually hunted for sea animals. She walked down the beach for a long time, then stopped and saw her father far in the sea, who was sitting in a rowing boat - kayak - and hunting sea otters. The old man noticed a fox and moored to the shore, where she was hiding. He understood that the fox was not afraid of him and he tried to catch her, but she pulled away. The man threw her a piece of meat and went home. The fox-woman ate up the meat and followed the tracks of her father, avoiding a meeting with people.
In the evening, the fox-woman reached the house of her father. Her father was the only person, on whom she could rely! Many times she tried to enter his house, but as soon as she bent her head to the entrance, the head was bouncing away - a Fox Spirithadalready captured the heart of the woman.
The fox-woman could not get into the house, she could not live with people, and she went to a field and remained a fox forever.
![The Woman Who Became a Fox [Славянский Владимир Владимирович]](/img/s/slawjanskij_wladimir_wladimirowich/thewomanwhobecameafox/thewomanwhobecameafox.jpg)