Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/178

Rh Someone said: "Go ashore || and ask him something." Then one of 15 them went ashore. | He said to him: "Why do you say that?" Coyote said: | "We wanted you. You are playing nicely. | We are not able to go on the water." The Duck started, and said: | "They are wishing for us. They want to have our way of playing." Then|| one of them said: "Go ashore. Take them | and play with them." 20 Then the Ducks went ashore. They made it so that | Coyote and his son should not sink, but they did not give them | their feathers. Coyote and his son were told: "Now | let us go together!" Then they went out together — Coyote, his son, and the Ducks. || Then they 25 played with the Ducks. While they were at play, all the Ducks | flew along to another lake. They flew there. | Coyote went ashore over- land. When he came to the water, he swam, | but the Ducks flew again to the other lake. | All at once Coyote laid down a rule. He 30 said to them: || "It is bad for you to fly away. Don't do it any more. | Swim there through the middle of the water. | Arrange your- selves in a Une right across, and all of you dive together." Then | the Ducks said to one another: "It is good, what the manitou says. | Let us do it I" Then the Ducks did so. || At night Coyote went ashore. 35 He stepped on shore.. | Then Coyote made something to stretch across | the brook. Then the Ducks came diving along, and did not do anything. | The first one he tied, the next one that came divmg along I he let go, and the last one that dived coming along he tied again. He said || to the Ducks: "When you start diving, close your 40 eyes. | Don't look!" Coyote was clever. | (He thought) they might see his trap. They | did so for several days. Then Coyote had much food. I The Ducks just knew that they ceased to be many. They said among themselves: || "We are getting few in number." OneDuck 45 said: | "The wind is blowing from the place where Coyote's tent is. | It gives a smell of burnt fat. Now go and look into his | tent." One Duck was called Great Diver.^ | He dived and came to Coyote's tent. He went ashore, and saw || many dried ducks. Then he 50 knew that it was | Coyote. He went back; and when he came back, he said: "It is | Coyote. He is killing all of us." Then the Ducks cried. | The Ducks said among themselves: "He will do the same to us to-morrow. | Look out when you dive! You will see|| whether there is anything in the stream." Then | on the following 55 day the Ducks started diving to another lake. | The first ones all looked, and it was not long before they saw | something right across