Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/235

 Rh her nails. She continued this for a little while, and then complaining that her fingers were sore with killing the vermin, suggested that she should be allowed to kill them with her teeth. The black bear, suspecting nothing, assented to this also, merely admonishing her to be very careful not to bite her. The grizzly promised to use care, but, getting her rival's head in a favourable position, presently caught the black bear by the base of the skull with her sharp and powerful teeth, which, penetrating into the brain, killed her instantly. Leaving the body where it lay, she hastened back towards home again. On coming near home, she stopped at a cross trail to await the woodpecker, who always returned by that trail from his hunting. She presently saw him approaching; and as he drew near, assuming her most pleasing manner, she cried out to him thus: "O dear husband, I am so glad you have come! I was on my way home from the rootdigging, and knowing that you always came by this road, I sat down to wait for you. You look very tired; come and rest with me awhile, and we will go home together. You must be weary after your long hunt; rest your head in my lap, and tell me what game you have brought home." The woodpecker, who was really tired from his hunt, and inclined to rest, did as his grizzly wife suggested, and laid his head on her lap. Presently she asked: "May I smooth your beautiful red cap? You have ruffled it in the forest." The request being granted, after she had smoothed the ruffled cap she began to stroke his hair gently and caressingly. A few moments later she cried out: "O dear husband, you have lice in your hair; let me take the nasty creatures out for you!" The woodpecker, who was a very clean person, was greatly distressed to learn that there were lice in his head, and readily consented to have them taken out, straightway laying his head face downwards in her lap for the purpose. Without loss of a moment the revengeful, jealous wife seized the favourable opportunity and caught her husband by the back of his head with her sharp teeth and made them meet in his skull, killing him instantly. Flinging his body into the bush, she hastened home, anxious to taste the supper she had bidden her son prepare for her. In the meantime events at home had not turned out as she had desired. After the mothers had gone to the root-ground, the two eldest boys made their soup as they had been instructed, and when it was cooked each exchanged soup with the