Reading Notes: Ashish, Part A

(source)

• When a god covets a man’s wife, he sends him away and tries to impersonate him

o Sends him away by telling him to find eagles in a tree. The tree keeps growing and he ends up way too high in the sky that he almost dies

o The wives can tell it is not really their husband. They can tell when he can’t perform the same in gambling and he can’t produce the same color fire. 

• The man is saved by some random butterflies

• Similar to the story of King David and Bathsheba

• What happened when he got back? How can you punish a god for doing you wrong?

• What was stopping the god from having the wife while the husband was away? All the people gambling just went back to their home.

The Story of Ashish: Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon, by Katharine Berry Judson (1910).