Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/347

 Athabascan Myths, 15

resumed the form of the raven and cried out to the girl, " Once more I cheat you," then he caw-cawed and flew away.

When the girl reported this to her mother the old woman asked her what she meant, and the girl answered that the rich son-in-law was the Raven, who had come to them dressed in his own lime, which the rain had melted, and so exposed the trick.

The Raven was always cheating the people, so they took his beak away from him. After a time he went away up the river and made a raft which he loaded with moss, and came floating down to the camps upon it. He told the people that his head was sore where his beak had been torn off, and that he was lying in the moss to cool it. Then he went away for two or three days, and made several rafts ; as the people saw these coming down the river, they thought that there were a large number of people upon the rafts, who were com- ing to help the Raven regain his beak ; so they held a council and decided to send the beak away in the hands of a young girl, that she might take it to an old woman who lived all alone at some distance from the camp. The Raven concealed himself among them and heard their plans, so when the girl came back he went to the old woman, and told her that the girl wished to have the beak returned. The old woman suspected nothing and gave him his beak, which he put on and flew away, cawing with pleasure at his success. The supposed people that had been seen upon the rafts proved to be nothing but the tufts or hummocks of bog moss which are commonly known as tetes de femmes.

III. THE WOLF AND WOLVERINE.

There was once a Wolverine who married a Wolf, and for some time he was very faithful in providing beaver for food. In the course of time he stayed longer upon his hunting trips, and brought home fewer beaver for his wife to cook. She reproached him for this, and he said that he had to go farther for beaver now, and that was why he was detained so long. His wife thought there was surely some- thing wrong, and decided to watch him. One day, as he set out on one of his hunting trips in his canoe, she followed along the river bank under cover of the forest. At length she saw her husband go ashore with a beaver which he had killed, and with which he entered a tipi that stood by the riverside. When he went away again, the wife went into the camp and saw a Wildcat sitting before the kettle in which the beaver was cooking. She saw that her husband had been un- faithful, and determined to kill the Wildcat. She told the Cat to look into the kettle and she would see herself there ; when the Wild- cat looked into the kettle the Wolf pushed her in, so that her face was burned so severely that death resulted. The Wolf then dragged

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