Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/88

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Boas]
Kutenai Tales
73

off from him. Then he knew that he could kill him, and he was given || back to Flicker. It was he again.[1] Then | Flicker fought him down, 50 and that one was killed. | Thus Coyote won again in a bad manner. | He said: "Now we will go." They went, | and arrived at a town. He was told: "What do you want?" || Coyote said: "We will 55 play." He was told | somebody would play eating. Much food was prepared. | Coyote and his children were told: "Who will play?" | Bluejay said: "I'll be it." Then they went into | the tent. Bluejay sat down and || began to talk of his great-great-grandfathers, who 60 lived long ago, and | those before them. Then he ate and talked. There was a great pile | of food. He had not been talking very long before he had eaten it all. He was still hungry. | Then they won. (Coyote) said: "Enough!" They went along. |

At once they began to quarrel. Coyote said || he would take 65 them through swamps. Coyote was told: "You | may go there alone, for you like them, therefore you say so." Little Duck said: | "We will go through little lakes." He was told: | "You may go alone. You like them, therefore you say so." | Flicker said he would take them through young dry trees. || He was told: "You 70 may go there alone. You like them, therefore | you say so." Woodpecker said he would take them through | thickly wooded places. He was told: "You may go there alone. | You like them, therefore you say so." Hawk said he would | take them through places with scattered trees. Thus they quarreled. | They became 75 angry at one another and separated. That is the end. |

50. The War on the Sky[2]

There was a town. There was Muskrat's brother's widow. He thought | he would marry her. Then she refused him. He was angry and shot her. | The arrow was of a different kind. He made it in a different way, what he used for shooting her. | Then he ran away. He said to his grandmother: "—— (?)"[3] Then | his face 5 was torn up. Then the dead woman was discovered. | The arrow was not known. They sent for Frog, who (was in the habit of going) all I over the world. They wanted to know where that | arrow came from. Then she (Frog) went into the house where | the arrow was kept. She herself knew that it was her grandson's arrow. || She did 10 not know what to do, because it was her grandson, and she did not want to tell on him. | She spat into her hands and nodded. | They thought there must be a country in the sky, and that there must be a lake. | Some one said they would go on the warpath. One of them | was able to shoot far. He shot upward, and a noise was heard || as the point hit. Then another one shot and | hit the notch 15 of the (first) arrow. Then all of them shot, | but they did not reach

  1. That is to say, Hawk's power had entered Flicker, and now left him again.
  2. For another version see p. 87.
  3. My interpreters did not understand this sentence. The word soˑq!ᵘne′ᵢtoˑ is derived from aₐ‵ka′q!neˑ ("face").