Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/128

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Boas]
Kutenai Tales
113

(b) Coyote and the Giant

Then they started to where they were going. They were going along. Ya.uk"e'ika'm said, he said to Coyote: "A child is hanging in a cradle. | The child is crying. One does not listen to it. || Don't 45 listen to it!" Then they arrived there. Coyote heard | the child cry- ing. Then, when Ya.uk"e',kam arrived, | he went past. He did not look at the child. When | Coyote arrived, he also did not look at the child, and went past; | but he had not gone past far when he took pity on the child. || He turned back and arrived there. He put his finger 50 into the child's mouth. | The child sucked his fingers and found them nice. The child did not cry. Then his hand began to go into the mouth, and he knew that the child was going to swallow him. | He pulled at his arm, but could not pull it out. || Then Ya.uk"e',kam knew it. He looked back, and his friend 55 Coyote was not there. The child was not crying. | Ya.uk"e'¡ka m turned back, and he came to the child | which was swallowing Coyote. Ya.uk'e',ka'm took | his knife and stabbed the child's head with it.|| Then the child was dead. Ya.uk'e',ka'm took | Coyote's arm. 60 There was no flesh on Coyote's arm. Coyote saw | that it was no child, but a giant. | Then the friends went on. One of them had no flesh on his arm. |

(c) Coyote and the Thunderbirds

The friends were going along. Coyote was told: "The way where we are going along you will hear birds. Do | not listen to them." 65 Then they went along. Then | they heard the birds. They made a noise. | Ya.uk"e'ika'm went past, and also Coyote. He did not | listen to the birds that made a noise. || Coyote said: "I am not listening to 70 you, but lāko'lsak, ko'lsak, | ko'lsak!" When Coyote said so, the friends, without knowing it, | were already raised from the ground. They were going up. | Then they arrived there where the birds were. They had gone into their nest. These were two young thunderbirds. Both friends went in, Coyote and Ya.uk"e',kam. Then | they 75 staid there. Ya.uk"e'¡ka'm said to the children: | "Where is the sun when your parents come back?" One of them said: | "It is almost evening when the one comes back, and it is evening | when the other comes back. They look terrible." It was on rocks on 80 one side of the mountain, and Ya.uk'e'ika'm said | to his friend:

"Listen to me! If you do not listen to me, we shall die. You know |

85543°—Bull. 59—18——5