Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/305

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290
Bureau of American Ethnology
[Bull. 59

other. Woodpecker discovers that there is only one person, Muskrat, whom they kill. (166) When they find the arrow chain broken, they snare thunderbird, put on his feathers, and fly down. Those who receive feathers are transformed into birds; the others, into fish and land mammals. Coyote sails down, steering with his tail. The Sucker breaks all his bones. He is given new ones: therefore the sucker's body is now full of bones.

89 3. Ya.ukue′ika·m (No. 53).—Frog warns her granddaughter. Young Doe, not to drink at a water hole. She disobeys.[1] and is pulled down by a man named White Stone, who lives in the water, and marries her. Their son is Ya.ukue′ika·m.—White Stone's brother, Gray Stone, dislikes Ya.ukue′ika·m, who is sent by his mother to visit 91his great-grandmother Frog. Ya.ukue′ika·m goes; and when he sees the old Frog Woman, he is afraid.[2] He makes her sleep and plays in the tent. He goes back to his mother, who wants him to stay with his great-grandmother. When Frog wakes, she notices that somebody has been there. She makes a small bow and a small basket, and hangs them up. Ya.ukue′ika·m gets back, makes her sleep again, and plays with the bow, which he breaks. When the Frog wakes, she says that her grandchild must have been a boy, because he had been playing with a bow. Next time the Frog captures him. 93When Ya.ukue′ika·m is growing up, he asks the Frog Woman for arrow wood and service-berry wood.[3] She warns him, but he sets out to obtain the wood from the Grizzly Bear, who owns it. Cranes, Marmots, and Beavers are Grizzly Bear's watchmen, appointed to warn him of the arrival of strangers. The youth bribes them to be quiet until he returns. He takes the service-berry bushes and makes his escape. 95The animals make a noise; Grizzly Bear assumes his animal form, and pursues Ya.ukue′ika·m. The animals make excuses, but the Bear threatens to kill them after having overtaken Ya.ukue′ika·m, who causes a hill to rise behind him, which detains Grizzly Bear. Thus arrow wood is obtained. He goes to his mother's tent, and Gray Stone promises to kill Grizzly Bear. Gray Stone rubs himself with grease and becomes a stone, which is heated by the fire. He orders Ya.ukue′ika·m to stand next to the doorway. Grizzly Bear, when trying to bite him, closes his eyes; Ya.ukue′ika·m steps aside, and the Bear bites the post. Meanwhile Gray Stone becomes so hot, that the 97stone almost bursts. Just when the Bear opens his mouth, the fragments of the stone fly about; Gray Stone goes right through Grizzly Bear, who dies. After this the Grizzly Bear remains a bear. Ya.ukue′ika·m skins the grizzly bear, and drags the skin which is attached to the head into Frog Woman's tent. She is afraid of the grizzly bear. She paints her legs red and stands in the doorway, holding a hammer. She had put up a sharp stone in the doorway. Ya.ukue′ika·m drags the grizzly-bear skin in, and Frog strikes it; but Ya.ukue′ika·m jerks it at that moment, so that she strikes the stone, 99which she breaks. Ya.ukue′ika·m asks for feathers for his arrow. He is told that ducks on a lake own the feathers. He goes there, wearing ear ornaments. Ya.ukue′ika·m, who is painted red, asks one of the Ducks to come ashore, asks for his feathers, and promises to pay him with his ear ornaments. The Duck obeys, and becomes 101very beautiful. When the other Ducks see it, they all go ashore, and he takes their feathers. He adorns all of them.[4] Thus feathers are obtained.

Ya.ukue′ika·m goes to obtain the arrow straightener from Bighorn Sheep. He goes to Bighorn Sheep, who tells him that the arrow straightener is on the other side of the river. When he is climbing the mountain, Bighorn goes back across the river in his


  1. Blackfoot (Uhlenbeck VKAWA 13:156, 158).
    Hidatsa (Matthews 68).
    Shuswap (Teit J E 2:674, 694), etc.
    Takelma (Sapir U Penn 2:125, 157).
  2. Shuswap (Teit J E 2:693).
  3. Beaver (Goddard Pa A M 10:235).
    Gros Ventre (Kroeber Pa A M 1:88–90).
    Kaska (Teit J A F L 30:437).
    Okanagon (Gatschet, Globus 52:137).
    Thompson (Teit MA F LS 6:76).
  4. See p. 296, No. 18.