Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/302

Rh Fourth Version (VAEU 23). — Hare's wife (a small red bird) has deserted him and (^62) lives with a red hawk. Hare finds tracks of elks (not moose, as given in the original), and goes home to make snowshoes. The animals start in pursuit of the elks. When Hare goes to get wood for his snowshoes, he meets Doe. He wishes to many her. She refuses him. He goes home and tells his grandmother Frog what has happened. She informs him that the Doe is his sister. Hare takes her home, and she lives in the tent. Her presence is unknown to the other people. Hare goes out to pursue the elks. His grandmother tells him to put mittens on his feet in place of his snowshoes. When going out, he meets Raven and other hunters, who are returning empty handed. They maltreat him, but he goes on. He meets Woodpecker, a diver, and Wolf. He passes the game hunters, and meets Hawk and his wife, who pelt him with snow. Only Weasel, Fox, and young Wolf are ahead of him. On the following day he meets them. They return, because they are unable to overtake the elks.

Hare puts on his mittens and soon overtakes the elks. With one arrow he kills (163) one-half of them, and with the second the rest. He butchers them and shakes the fat, which becomes small in size. He fills the stomachs with blood, piles them up, and tells them to burst if any one should carry them. He carries the fat home, shakes it, and it assiunes its former size. He feeds his child, and throws some fat into the fire in order to inform his brother Duck, who comes and is given food. He sends his brother to tell the people that they may go to bring in the meat. He wishes that Hawk should select the stomachs. Bear demands the ribs; Wolf, the legs; Raven, the eyes. Hawk loads the stomachs on the back of his wife. Hare follows them, steps on her snow- shoes, so that she falls. The blood runs over her, and she freezes to death. The skins are carried into Frog's tent. When within a few days they are ready tanned, the people grow suspicious, and find the tracks of Doe. Lynx finds the place where the girl stopped, tears out four nairs, which he puts on the ground. The hairs impregnate her when she urinates. Doe gives birth to a child. The people hear it crying, and dis- cover the Doe. In order to discover the unknown father of the child. Frog orders the men to take up the child. Coyote, Raven, and others take it, but the child con- tinues to cry.. Lynx comes back from himting. He buries his clothing and strike-a- light under stones. When the people see Lynx coming, the child quiets down; and (164) when he takes it up, it does not cry any more. They maltreat Lynx, extinguish the fires, and desert him. Doe, and their child.

Lynx is a good hunter. After some time Doe has a second son. The people are starving. Lynx's grandmother, Magpie, comes to look after her grandson. He feeds her. In sxunmer Lynx goes to fish salmon. He makes a fish weir. ^Mien the boys are grown up, their mother sends them to the place where "the sun is being made. She tells them that they will pass their father's fishing-place. The boys start and reach the place where the sun is being made. Raven is the sun ; it is dark and cold. Coyote acts as sun; it is very hot, and he tells the people to keep food for him. Because he runs home quickly the day is short. He tells everything he has seen in the daytime. The sons of Lynx are tried, and one is made the suny the other the moon. Coyote is (165) envious, and shoots the sun at sunrise. His arrows catch fire, fall down, and set fire to the grass.