Azeban is a raccoon trickster figure common to tales from the Abenaki and Penobscot tribes of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Several different stories surround Azeban, and like all tricksters, he always plays a mischievous role—though compared with some other Native American animal tricksters he is relatively harmless. Rather than having one main story associated with him, Azeban the raccoon was woven into many different oral tales at the discretion of the Abenaki storyteller.
The story titled “How the Raccoon Got His Stripes” explains how the animal got the circles under his eyes and around his tail. Two blind men lived in a village. Feeling helpless because of their lack of sight, they decided to just sit on a log in the woods until they died. But Glooskap (the Creator or the first human according to some tribal myths) came upon them, built them a wigwam, and gave them a rope and pail. He instructed them to tie one end of the rope to a tree by the river and the other end to their pail to easily obtain water whenever they needed it. Observing this, the devious raccoon saw his chance to have some fun by pranking the blind men. When one of them went for water, Azeban moved the pail from the river into the sand. When the man returned to his friend, he reported that the river must have dried up because he only got sand from the pail. The friend accused him of being too lazy to get water, and they argued. Later Azeban found the men cooking dinner and stole two of the four pieces of meat in the pot. This led the second blind man to accuse the first of being lazy and selfish for stealing his portion. Again, the men fought, while the trickster raccoon sat back and laughed. Glooskap returned and saw the discord between the men whom he’d tried to help. He also saw Azeban rolling on the ground in laughter. To punish the devious raccoon, Glooskap grabbed a coal from the fire, marking black circles around his eyes and four rings around his tail, making him look forevermore like a bandit so people would know never to trust him.
Another tale tells of Azeban attempting to trick some baby birds to leave their nest to “play,” but their mother returned just in time to prevent them from being eaten by the nest-robbing raccoon. Azeban complained that he shouldn’t be faulted for being hungry and doing what is in his nature—being crafty and devious. Other bad qualities of the raccoon include his pride and bluster, which Azeban next showed by getting into a shouting match with a waterfall to see who could roar louder. As he stepped close to the waterfall to yell at it to stop roaring, he fell in and was swept over the falls to plunge into the river below. An old woman assumed he was dead and plucked him from the river to eat him. Here the story somewhat resembles the tale of the two blind men because the woman lived near the river with her sister, and the two shared between them just one eye, which they had to pass back and forth, thus taking turns being blind. The old woman with the eye skinned Azeban and threw him into a pot of boiling water. This awoke the unconscious, but very much alive, raccoon. As the sister with the eye leaned over the pot, Azeban splashed her with the boiling water. The other sister took back the eye so she could see what all the fuss was about, and Azeban splashed her in the eye with boiling water and escaped in the commotion. Rather than depart, just for amusement and mischief Azeban decided to play a trick on the old women. He imitated the voice of one sister and asked for the eye. The other sister handed it over without seeing that she was placing it in the raccoon’s paw. With both women now blind, they argued over who had the eye. They fought, stumbled, and fell, as Azeban merrily laughed from a distance. When he grew bored with this prank, he dropped the eye on the ground, knowing that the women would eventually stumble over or step on it, and went on his way in search of his next victim.
Douglas J. King
See also Coyote Tales; Glooskap, an Abenaki Hero; Great Hare; Tall Tales; Tricksters, Native American
Further Reading
Christen, Kimberly A., ed. 1998. Clowns and Tricksters: An Encyclopedia of Tradition and Culture. Denver, CO: ABC-CLIO.
Dembicki, Matt, ed. 2010. Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection. Golden, CO: Fulcrum.
Leland, Charles G. 2012. Algonquin Legends. New York: Dover.
Native Languages of the Americas. 2009. “Legendary Native American Figures: Azeban (Azban).” http://www.native-languages.org/azeban.htm. Accessed August 20, 2015.