Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/174

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Boas]
Kutenai Tales
159

He was going to attack | Fox and his friends. He thought he would kill them, because he had been beaten ǁ when he had gone to play 310 with them. (I have been all the time making a mistake. | It was Young Coyote who paddled, and Fox | who speared the salmon.) Then they paddled along. | They saw a salmon. Fox knew it was | the youth who had come out the day before. He knew ǁ that he had 315 turned into a salmon. When Fox was ready to throw his spear, | the boy put the torch to the other side. He did this so | that Fox should not hit the salmon, | for the one to be speared was his elder brother. Fox knew what | the boy was doing. He thought: I'll fool him! ǁ The fish was coming along on one side, but he pointed 320 the other way. | He said to the youth: Salmon is coming there. | He fooled him in regard to the side whence it was coming. | The youth turned the torch, and Fox speared him. | When the youth saw that Fox had fooled him, ǁ he said to him: " Don't hit it in the belly; | 325 hit its tail!" The youth thought | the sahnon would kill Fox if he should hit its tail, | because then he would upset the canoe. When Fox was told: | "Don't hit its belly," he would not hsten, but he hit it II in the belly. The salmon at once turned sideways. | The boy 330 saw that his brother was killed. Then | he stepped on one side of the canoe, fell into the water, | and became a salmon. | Then he went back to his tent and arrived there. Then ǁ he said: "They have killed us." 335 He thought the one remaining might also be killed, | as two had been killed. Then three had been killed.[1] | Then Fox and his friends went on paddling. | The youth who had been killed wore ear ornaments. They cut off his head j and put it into the canoe. He also had a long braid. ǁ (In olden times the people used to do this. When they 340 made war and some one killed | a chief, they cut off his head and took it back to their country.) | Then in the morning Coyote and his son were told: "Don't | look back!" They paddled on. At sunrise | many people from a large camp ǁ came to make war on Fox. Coyote 345 thought: I "They are already paddling after us." He looked back | and said: "A great many are making war on us." | Fox told him: "Why don't you obey me and do | what I tell you? Don't look back!" Then ǁ Coyote and his friends stopped. No matter how hard 350 they tried, j they could not move their canoe. Then the warriors

arrived. | (Fox) took the head of the youth. | He lifted it up and


  1. The Two old people and the Salmon.