Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/323

308 and finds it contains bear hair with which he was to be poisoned. Bear sees this and rushes after them. He kills the brothers. Only Mink survives. Mitik makes a small pit and throws something into it, which is transformed into a girl. He throws her away. He repeats this experiment, and finds a boy, whom he raises. When he sees the Bear on the other side of the river, he jumps into the water. The Bear tries to get him, makes a raft, drifts down the river. Here Mink kills him. He meets Bear's brothers, transforms himself into a fly, but is seen by the Bears. Then he transforms himself into a very small fly, which the Bear swallows without noticing it. He kills the Bear with his knife.* At Bonner's Ferry he builds a salmon weir under an overhanging rock. Every day the weirs are found empty, except that of Mink. The people see a meteor coming down, .which empties the weirs. The meteor is a basket. The thieves leave the basket and carry the fish back. The ftnimalH discover that the rope by which the meteor is let down is a snake. Owl and Lynx cut the snake. They find that in the basket there are a buffalo, a mountain goat, a frog, and a turtle. These are transformed into stones. The people try to kill the frog by strik- ing it with sticks, but they are unable to do so. For this reason the place is named Strong Belly.

42. WoLP (No. 67). — ^Wolf is married to Doe. He does not like the moccasins that his wife makes, and therefore goes to fight his brothers-in-law. The Buck hides his wife and son in a hole, and transforms himself into a deer. He goes up a mountain. The Wolves kill the people, but can not find Wolf's brother-in-law. Wolf follows the tracks of his brother-in-law; but whenever he reaches one mountain, Buck is on the following one. Finally Buck goes to his father's father, the fish KI/k!om', who is smoking. The Fish throws his mittens on the Buck, and thus hides him. Wolf enters Fish's tent, but does not see his brother-in-law. He asks for him, but the Fish denies having seen him. Fish makes the figure of a deer of grass, throws it out of the smoke hole, and it becomes a deer, which stands on the other side of the river. When Wolf sees it, he swims across the river in order to get it. Then the Fish launches his canoe and goes aboard with Buck. They catch up with Wolf and kill him.

43. Skunk ^ (No. 68). — Skunk and his younger brother Fisher live in one tent; Frog and his granddaughters Chipmunk and Big Chipmunk, in another one. The Chipmunks want to get meat; and Frog sends them to Fisher, but warns them to beware of Skunk. She tells them that Fisher always gets home in the evening. The girls wait at some distance from the tent. Skunk causes his guardian spirit to pound bones in the tent, while he himself goes out dressed like Fisher. Big Chipmunk insists that the person who came out is Fisher, and finally persuades her elder sister to go in with her. When Fisher comes home, he sends Skunk for water. Skunk is afraid to go far away, and goes to his own spring. Fisher sends him back to get water from his spring ^ and to bring in the game. He gives him a tump-line made of entrails.^ Skunk is afraid that Fisher may take the girls, but has to go. Fisher causes a gale to overtake Skunk. The tump-line breaks repeatedly, and he is almost frozen to death. Meanwhile Fisher finds the girls, and with them leaves the tent. He tells them to

1 See discussion in Boas RBAE 31:611, 659, 687, 718, 868. » Achomawi (Dixon JAFL 21:163).

Coos (Frachtenberg-St. Clair JAFL 22;35).

Kathlamet (Boas, BBAE 26:129).

Shuswap (Teit JE 2:752).

Takelma (Sapir UPenn 2:65).

Ute, Uinta (Mason JAFL 23:311).

Yana (Sapir UCal 9:133).

See also Lillooet (Teit JAFL 25:318); Shuswap (Teit JE 2:684); Thompson (Teit MAFL8 6:67; JE 8:243, 345). » Shoshoni (Lowie PaAM 2:238, 239).

Shuswap (Teit JE 2:718).
 * LiUooet (Teit JAFL 25:309).

Thompson (TeJt MAFLS 6:26; JE 8:297; Boas, Sagen 18). Ute, Uinta (Mason JAFL 23:321).