Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/112

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Boas]
Kutenai Tales
97

Stone had become very hot. Grizzly Bear said: | "I'll watch and bite Chief Ya.ukᵘe′ᵢka·m." | Then Grizzly Bear opened his mouth, and Gray Stone | burst from the heat.[1] He flew into the mouth of Grizzly Bear. | Gray Stone went right through him, and came out || at his backside. Then Grizzly Bear fell back. | Gray Stone rolled himself about and said: | "I have soiled my flesh." Thus Grizzly Bear was killed. Then | Grizzly Bear was changed into a grizzly bear. He was not a person | when he started from the tent. Then he changed into a grizzly bear, || and he remained a grizzly bear when Gray Stone had killed him. | He was no longer a man. |

Chief Ya.ukᵘe′ᵢka·m. stood there. He thought: "My uncle Gray Stone is skillful. | He killed the grizzly bear. If it had not been for Gray | Stone, Grizzly Bear would have killed me." Ya.ukᵘe′ᵢka·m. thought: || "Well, let me see my grandmother Frog. What may she do | if I go back to her tent?" He said: "Well, cut off the head of | the grizzly bear. I'll drag it to my grandmother Frog. What | may she do for me?" Then the head of the grizzly bear and its paws | were cut off. Ya.ukᵘe′ᵢka·m. dragged it along. He entered his grandmother's || tent. He said to her: "Grandmother, Grizzly Bear is pursuing me." Frog said: | "O grandson, grandson! what can I do for you? | What am I? Why do you come back to me? | You should go back to your parents. Your uncle | Gray Stone is very skillful. He ought to kill Grizzly Bear." Frog arose. || She sang(?). She took red paint and painted her legs. | She took a sharp flat stone and put it up by the doorway. | She took her hammer and stood ready to strike Grizzly Bear. Frog did not | see the rawhide strap with which Ya.ukᵘe′ᵢka·m. was dragging the head. | (The head) was lying in the doorway. When Ya.ukᵘe′ᵢka·m. || saw his grandmother ready (to strike), he pulled the strap. | Then the grizzly-bear head dropped down under the door. | Grizzly Bear put his nose into the tent. Then Frog saw | Grizzly Bear put in his head where the flat stone lay. | Almost the whole head of Grizzly Bear came in. Frog thought: || "The head might jump at my grandson," | and she struck the grizzly-bear head. | When Frog was striking it, Ya.ukᵘe′ᵢka·m. pulled hard at | the strap and pulled the grizzly-bear head in. Just then Frog | struck it and hit her flat stone. She broke || the flat stone. Then Frog saw that her grandson | was fooling her. She cried because | her grandson had done some damage. Therefore she cried. |


  1. Here the narrator indicated the flying about of the stone by clapping his hands.
85543°—Bull. 59—18——7