Malahas

Malahas, the Woman of the Woods, is a cannibal ogress of Nuu-chah-nulth tradition who steals children from the villages and carries them off into the forest to her lair. She is the antagonist of the Andaokut narrative, in which the giant hero born of a mother's grief pursues her, kills her, and frees her captives. As a devouring forest-woman she belongs to the Northwest Coast family of wild cannibal ogresses whose stories warned children away from the dangers of the woods and gave narrative shape to the boundary between the safe village and the perilous wilderness.

Domains

• forest and wilderness
• cannibalism and child theft

Powers

• steals children away into the forest

Epithets

• Woman of the Woods — she who dwells in and rules the forestSapir, Edward, and Morris Swadesh. Nootka Texts. 1939. (secondary)

Relations

• enemy: AndaokutThe hero Andaokut hunts her down and kills her to recover the children she has stolen.Sapir, Edward, and Morris Swadesh. Nootka Texts. 1939, tale of Andaokut and the Woman of the Woods. (secondary)

Sources

• Malahas is a cannibal ogress of the forest who abducts children, earning her the name Woman of the Woods; she is slain by the hero Andaokut.: Sapir, Edward, and Morris Swadesh. Nootka Texts: Tales and Ethnological Narratives. Philadelphia: Linguistic Society of America, 1939. (secondary)