Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/109

 THE STAR HUNTERS

Chilcotin

HERE were once three young men who spent most of their time with their two dogs in hunting. They lived with their grandmother. When they came in from hunting, they gave meat to her.

One day the hunters were gone all day without finding anything. In the evening, for a joke, one of them gave grandmother a piece of punk, saying, "Here is some caribou liver for you," but when she put it into her mouth, lo, it was punk wood! She was angry.

Now the next day, when the young men were out hunting, grandmother heated a bear's foot in the fire, and danced about the camp and sang her song. So she turned them by this magic into stars, and they lived up in Sky Land.

One day the young men were hunting in Sky Land, and they found the tracks of a great moose. They followed him for several days. Then as they were tracking the moose, they looked down and saw the Earth Land far below them. The eldest brother said, "I am going to try to get down to the earth again."