Big Eater ate and ate. He never stopped eating. He had his wigwam and
two canoes on an island close to the mainland shore. Big Eater was
powerful, but sometimes an evil ghost woman can defeat the most powerful
man. One day Big Eater was looking across the water, and there on the
opposite shore he saw a beautiful young woman digging clams. How could he
know that she was a ghost-witch? He hailed her across the water:
"Beautiful girl, come live with me. Be my wife!" "No," she said. "Yes - No.
Yes. No. Yes, yes, yes! Well, all right." Big Eater got in one of his two
canoes and paddled over. The woman was even more beautiful close up.
"All right, pretty one, step into the canoe." "Yes, but first I must get
my things." Soon the girl came back with a mortar and pestle and some
eggs. She put them in the canoe, and Big Eater paddled her over. They
ate. The beautiful woman said: "Oh my, what great heaps of food you can
eat!" "Yes, I'm powerful that way." They went to bed. "Oh my, how often
you can do it!" "Yes, I'm powerful that way." "Indeed this is so!" So
they lived happily for a long time. But after a while this girl got
tired of Big Eater. She thought, "He's fat, he's not young. I want a
change; I want to have a young, slim man loving me. I'll leave."

So when Big Eater went out fishing in one of his canoes, the girl made
a doll, large as a grown woman. She placed the doll in her bed, took
her mortar, pestle, and eggs, put them in Big Eaters' second canoe, and
paddled off. Big Eater came home early from fishing. Thinking it was his
wife he was climbing in with, he got into bed. He touched the doll, and
the doll began to scream and shriek. "Wife," he said, "stop this big
noise or I'm going to beat you." Then he saw that it was a doll lying in
bed with him. Big Eater jumped up and looked around. The mortar and
pestle and eggs were gone. He ran down to the shore, got into the
remaining canoe, and paddled furiously after his wife. Soon he saw her, also
paddling hard. But he was stronger than she and pulled closer and closer.
He drew up behind her canoe until both almost touched. "Now I'll catch
her," he thought. Then the woman threw her mortar out of the canoe over
the stern. At once all the water around him turned into mortars, and
Big Eater was stuck. He couldn't paddle until at last he lifted his canoe
and carried it over the mortars. By the time he gained clear water
again, his wife was a long way off.

Again he paddled furiously. Again he gained on her. Again he almost
caught her. Then she threw her pestle over the stern, and at once the
water turned into pestles. Again Big Eater was stuck, trying to paddle
through this sea of pestles but unable to. He had to carry his canoe over
them, and when he hit open water again, his wife was far distant. Again
Big Eater drove through the water with all his strength. Again he
gained on her; again he almost caught her. Then from the stern of her canoe
the woman threw the eggs out. At once the water turned into eggs, and
once more Big Eater was stuck. The eggs were worse than the mortar and
pestle, because Big Eater couldn't carry his canoe over them. Then he
hit the eggs, smashing them one by one and cleaving a path through the
gooey mess. He hit clear water, and his wife's canoe was only a dot on
the horizon. Again he paddled mightily. Slowly he gained on her again. It
took a long time, but finally he was almost even with her. "This time
I'll catch you!" he shouted. You have nothing left to throw out." But
his wife just laughed. She pulled out a long hair from her head, and at
once it was transformed into a lance. She stood up and hurled this magic
lance at Big Eater. It hit him square in the chest, piercing him
through and through. Big Eater screamed loudly and fell down dead. That's
what can happen to a man if he marries a ghost-witch.

  a.. Retold from several nineteenth-century sources.