Love About the House
About-The-House Girl is a Karok Indian myth about a young woman’s
commitment and a young man’s determination to find love. Ifapi’s mother died
when she was a young girl. Her father raised her until she was grown. Her
father then chose to send her to live with her aunt, secretly hoping her love
would find the Flute Player from Rekwoi, Patapir. Patapir lived down the
river with his mother and his father. He had always worked very hard and had
never been with a woman before. And so, the story begins as Patapir adventures
up river to find love. Throughout the story, there is much intrigue, love and
adoration towards Ifapi from most characters in the story, however, not
everyone was so completely enamored by her.
It is important to note
that as a myth, there is not a single or solo author of this story. There is,
however, a storyteller; Theodora Kroeber. Kroeber was born in Denver, Colorado
in 1897. She moved to California where she went to school, graduated from the
University of California, Berkeley, and eventually met her second husband,
Alfred Kroeber. Alfred was known as “the father of American anthropology” (Kouzmanoff). Alfred took in and cared for the
Yahi Indian, Ishi, who was the last known survivor of his tribe. He learned
much of Indian traditions, myths, history, etcetera, from Ishi as well as many
other Native Indian storytellers and kept many handwritten notebooks of these
encounters. Theodora Kroeber used these notebooks as well as other second-hand
received Native Indian myths and published them, but not without adding a
splash of her own personal style.
Theodora Kroeber
writes of Ifapi as if she has a soft spot for her. Kroeber describes Ifapi as
“quiet, loving, and gentle.” (pg. 40, Kroeber). Her attitude towards Ifapi is
that of adoration and respect. Ifapi was a woman whom others looked up to. This
is evident when we learn of Ifapi’s special role during an honored tradition,
the Life Renewing Dance; “it is a position of honor for a woman, and since she
must not have borne a child and must submit to training, to prescribed diet,
and to purification, it follows that the leader will select her with care.”
(pg. 44, Kroeber). This account further expresses that the image the
storyteller has of Ifapi is of an honorable woman, pure and disciplined.
Many characters
display and/or express feelings of love and adoration towards Ifapi, while there
is a strong theme of change and evolution among these feelings. For instance,
Patapir is definitely intrigued with Ifapi from the beginning, it is written
that "Patapir had questioned his mother about the young girl"...
"Patapir continued to think about her, wondering what she was like,
wishing he might have a glimpse of her." (pg. 40 - 41). Keep in mind,
Patapir had never been with a woman and would have likely been intrigued by
woman he had heard of. While definitely intrigued to meet the girl, Patapir was
not yet in love with her, nor was he after his first interaction with her.
While looking across the river towards the house on top of the hill, Patapir had hoped to see
Ifapi, however, this day he sees “two strange young women” (pg. 41, Kroeber),
and decides to adventure towards them. His initial intent was to get to know
them when he is suddenly distracted by the smell of seaweed coming from the house
at the top of the hill. Finally, he has an excuse to go to the house. The
strange women seemed less interesting as he headed towards the smell. It here
that Patapir first laid eyes on Ifapi as she sat by the fire, wrapped in a
blanket, looking unwell. The fire, the blanket and sickness are all symbols to
remember for later. Patapir leaves the house and returns home, not thinking
much of Ifapi at all. It was a very impassive first meeting.
Patapir goes back to
the two young women the following day and states plainly to them that he would
like to sleep with them. Playfully, they insist he only wants to be near the
girl at the top of the hill, but they eventually agree and accept his forward
invitation. They invite him to return after dark. The two young women’s playful
comments towards Ifapi reveal signs of jealousy from these women toward Ifapi. Even
though it is common knowledge that Ifapi is sick, they still feel threatened by
the girl. Patapir returns that evening intending to sleep with the two young
women, still, not thinking about Ifapi, when his evening is redirected by a
group of men who convince him to join them to “the dancing across the ocean”
(pg. 43, Kroeber). It is at the dancing that Patapir’s mere curiosity of Ifapi
instantly turns into infatuation. “During the early morning hours of paddling
home, back under the sky rim and all the way across the ocean, he thought of
her…Patapir had quite forgotten the two young women who had seemed so pretty to
him the day before” (pg. 45, Kroeber).
The dancing across the
ocean further supports the theme of change and evolution. This dancing was
called the Life Renewing Dance. The word “renewing” in itself expresses a new
start or a new beginning; a change. It is more than a coincidence or irony that
Ifapi reveals herself to Patapir at the “Life Renewing Dance” or that it was a
fire that showed him her face, “The fire blazed high, lighting her shadowed
face, and Patapir saw that she was Ifapi” (pg. 45, Kroeber). She was lively and
well, wearing not a blanket, but a skirt made of shells, exposing her thighs
and legs. We never learn exactly where the men who convinced Patapir to go with
them to the dance actually came from. Had they been sent by Ifapi?
Not only had Patapir’s
feelings toward Ifapi been changed, but his purpose, determination, his resolve
had changed. Patapir’s purpose was now to make Ifapi his wife and he was
determined to do so. The connection he had with Ifapi is much different than
the connection he had with the two young women. With the two women, he merely
wanted to sleep with them, however, after seeing Ifapi through the fire at the
Life Renewing Dance, he wants to marry her. The following day, Patapir went
straight to the old woman’s house, past the two young women who he now had no
interest in. He sees Ifapi, again wrapped in a blanket and looking unwell. He
reaches out for her, but is stopped by the old woman who insists she is unwell.
After a conversation between Ifapi and the old woman, Patapir is finally able
to speak with Ifapi, who is again wearing the shelled skirt from the night before,
and express his love for her and his intent to marry her. She accepts his
proposal and insists to the old lady that she would tell her father of how well
she had been taken care of. It is clear the aunt cared greatly for Ifapi. The
two leave, are married and venture to Ifapi’s father’s house the next morning.
Upon the news from his daughter that she has been married, Ifapi’s father
seemed disappointed that she had not found love for the Flute Player, but was
happily surprised to hear the Flute Player was indeed the man she had married.
Ifapi, Patapir, and
Ifapi’s father return to the Life Renewing Dance together. This trip is
significant in that it would be Ifapi’s final dance serving as the assistant to
the Leader. It is also the first dance Ifapi and Patapir would attend together
as husband and wife. There is further change as Ifapi would no longer be a part
of the dance, while Patapir would take his place as a regular participant,
singing and dancing. The two young women from the beginning of the story are
there as well. They are overheard talking about Patapir, who was participating
in the singing and dancing. They were surprised that he could sing and made jokes
that all he does is plays the flute and visits the sick girl. A bystander
informed the two women, “don’t you Rekwoi people know? She is the ‘little sick
girl.’ The Flute Player married her” (pg. 49, Kroeber). It may have been a
change in their opinion of Ifapi or a change in their opinion of themselves,
either way, the idea that the “little sick girl” was actually a beautiful woman
who had not only been handpicked by the Leader, but was now married to the
Flute Player, was too much for the two women to take. Their insecurities left
them exposed and vulnerable. “They felt
such fools they had slipped away and were never seen in Rekwoi or at the
dancing again” (pg. 49, Kroeber).
There is an
overwhelming amount of love for Ifapi throughout this story. The love of a
father who wants his daughter to be happy and taken care of (preferably by the
kind, flute player down the river whose family he is well aquatinted). The love
of an aunt who cared so deeply for her niece that she agreed to help hide her
from men until “the one” came along. The love of Patapir who was as pure and
genuine as Ifapi herself. Separately, the two of them were shy and timid and
equally inexperienced, but together, the two came alive. There was love and
adoration for Ifapi from the Leader and all who would attend the Life Renewing
Dance. The only few who felt negatively towards Ifapi were the two young women
whose jealousy and spitefulness eventually drove them into hiding; never to be
seen again. Finally, the love of Ifapi for herself, self-love, is possibly the
most important take away of this myth. Ifapi loved herself enough to see that
she was worth waiting for and worth fighting for. Ifapi insisted to be hidden
from all men until she found the one who would love her as much as she
deserved. That man would be who she would reveal herself to. While the river
had kept them separated all this time, fire brought them together. Ifapi had
always been destined for the Flute Player of Rekwoi.
Works Cited
Hicks, Jack, and James D. Houston. “About-The-House Girl.” The Literature of California, storyteller Theodora Kroeber, University of California Press, 2000, pp. 40–50.
Kouzmanoff, Adam. “Theodora Kroeber.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2017. EBSCOhost, 0-search.ebscohost.com.library.4cd.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=ers&AN=89875947&site=eds-live.
Kroeber, Theodora. The Inland Whale. University of California Press, 2006.
