G. DIRTY-BOY.
(Continued)Sun asked his wife to tell her father to divide the game, and give one to each house, but to keep the large, lean steer for himself. He added, "He must also pluck one hair from the back of each animal, and four hairs from the back of the steer." When they cut up the gaunt steer, they found that it was nearly all fat. There were only threads of flesh running through the fat. Sun took the hairs which the chief had saved, and turned them into game again. Thus game became plentiful. The four steer-hairs became cattle,1 and therefore cattle are more plentiful than game at the present day. Since this time some chiefs' daughters have been wise, others foolish.
[A variant of this story is as follows: Sun goes out hunting with the people. All the hunters had been out, but could find no game. They saw only old droppings and old tracks. Sun separated from the others, and soon found plenty of game, chased it to a deep hollow, and killed it. The other hunters returned empty-handed, but Sun was loaded with meat. The people were starving. Then Sun told his wife to let her father go to the hollow and divide the game. According to some informants, Sun returned to the sky with his sister and wife.]
It was late fall, and people were in the mountains hunting. Six people were living together, -- a man and his wife, his parents, and his two sisters. One day when out hunting, the man came on a patch of lily-roots.3 On his return home, he said to his wife, "I saw a fine patch of large lilies. Tomorrow morning we shall move there, and stay for a few days, so that you can dig them." They set up a lodge near the place; and on the following morning early, on his way to hunt, he showed his wife the place, and left her there to dig. In the afternoon a large Grizzly-Bear appeared at the place. The woman was intent on her work, and did not notice the Bear until he was close to her. He said to her, "I want you to be my wife." She agreed, for she knew he would kill her if she refused. He took her on his back and carried her to his house. Towards evening the hunter returned, carrying a load of, deer-meat. His wife was not there. He thought, "She is late, and will come soon." He roasted meat for both of them. He ate, and then took his bow and arrows and went in search of his wife. He saw where she had been digging roots. He called, but received no answer. It grew dark, and he returned to his camp. He could not sleep. At daybreak he went out again. He saw the tracks of the Grizzly-Bear going away, but no tracks of his wife leaving the spot. He thought she might have gone to his parents' camp, or the Bear might have killed her, but he saw neither her tracks nor signs of a struggle with the Bear. He went to the camp. His father told him that she had not arrived. He related what he had seen; and his father said, "the Grizzly-Bear has not killed her: he has married her." The man could neither sleep nor eat. At last the fourth night. He slept, for he was very tired. His wife appeared to him in a dream and said, "the Grizzly has taken me." She told him where the Bear's house was. She said, "Every morning at daybreak he takes me to dig roots at it certain place. If you are strong, you can kill him; but he is very fierce and endowed with magic power. You must fix your arrows as I direct you, and sit where I tell you. I have prepared a hiding-place for you, where you may sit on a bowlder. Prepare medicine to wash me with, for otherwise, when the Bear dies, I shall die too through his power. If he kills you, I shall kill myself. Get young fir-tops and konêlp4 and soak them in water. With these you must rub me. Prepare one arrow by rubbing it with fat of snakes, and the other arrow anoint with rattlesnake-poison. Sit down on the rock in the place that I have prepared; and on the fourth morning, when I bring the Bear past close to the rock, shoot him in the throat." The hunter prepared everything as directed. He made two new arrows with detachable fore shafts. He made them very carefully, and put good stone heads on them. He searched for snakes, and anointed the foreshafts of his arrows and the points. Early in the morning he was at the place indicated. The Grizzly-Bear's house was a cave in a cliff, and at daybreak the man saw the smoke from his fire coming out through a hole in the top of the cliff. Soon he saw his wife and the Bear emerge from the entrance. Her face was painted, and she carried her root-digger. She dug roots, and the Bear gathered them. The man returned home and told what he had seen to his father, who said, "I have a strong guardian-spirit, and I shall protect you. Do not be afraid. Act according to the directions your wife has given to you in your dream, and kill the Bear." On the fourth morning at daybreak he was sitting on the rock. His wife and the Bear drew near. She was digging in circles, and the Grizzly-Bear followed her. When she made the fourth circle, she passed quite close to the rock. He aimed an arrow at his wife, and she cried, "Husbands never kill their wives!" He lowered his bow and laughed. The Bear stood up and was angry. He abused the woman, calling her bad names. Just then he was close to the rock. The hunter spoke to him, and the Bear turned to look at the hunter, who shot him right in the throat. The Grizzly-Bear tried to pull out the arrow, but he could remove only the shaft. He rushed at the hunter, but could not reach him. The hunter shot his second arrow with such great force that the shaft fell off. The Bear fell over and died. Then his wife swooned, and would have died through the Bear's power, had not her husband rubbed her with fir-tops and Veratrum. She revived and stood up. She said, "I warn you not to have connection with me. The influence of the Bear is still over me. Build a lodge of fir-brush for me some distance away from the people. Let your sisters feed me, and wash me with fir and Veratrum-leaves. You may speak to me from a distance. Next spring, when the snow is almost gone, I shall be your wife again." In the spring she washed at a stream, using hot water, and her sisters-in-law rubbed her with fir-boughs. The hunter also washed. Then she went into his lodge, and lived with him as before.
1 Some say "buffalo;" and that is why buffalo were more plentiful than other animals in the plains country, or wherever they were to be found.
2 See p. 46; also pp. 109, 175, 188.
3 Lilium Columbianum, hanson.
4 Veratrum Californicum, Durand.TOP
