THE WINTER WIFE: An Abenaki Folktale

The silent Winter Wife appears at the hunter's tipi shortly after he has encountered, but not shot, a young cow moose with the same kind brown eyes. Each summer the hunter takes his furs to his' father's village and returns to find a newborn child already walking about, but on the third visit he gives in to community pressure and takes a ""summer wife"" in the village. The result when the two women meet is the disappearance first of the winter wife and then of her children. When the hunter leaves his new wife to look for them, at last tracking down a cow moose and three young ones, he too becomes a moose and wanders with them through the snow. Parker's pale watercolors establish a remoteness and mystery and support the feeling of precarious tranquility. A tale with an adult theme but some quietly haunting transformations.