23. Fisher's Wife; or Marten and Fisher.
(Lower Uta’mqt.)
(cont.)At last Loon dived and brought it up. They took it home and put it on the body of King-Salmon, who then became alive again.
Their canoe being light, the two brothers and the woman soon left the Fish country far behind. As they were paddling along, they saw a Wolf in the forest, near the water's edge, but he soon ran away out of sight. The woman was so fascinated by Wolf, that she said to the men, "Let me go ashore to pick crab-apples.” They let her ashore, and she picked crab-apples, while they remained in the canoe. Soon she disappeared in the woods, and, after some time, they called for her, but received no answer. Then Fisher said to Marten, "Take the canoe home and look after my son. I will follow my wife, and bring her back." Then he went ashore, and followed the tracks of Wolf and the woman to Wolf's house.
On the following day he saw his wife alone gathering fire-wood, and talked with her. Next day he changed himself into a small boy, and his wife took him home on the top of her load of fire-wood and told the people she had found him in the woods, and she wished to rear him as her son. Every day the Wolves went hunting; and only their father, a very old man, was left at home. Fisher grew surprisingly fast, and soon was almost a man. The Wolves said, " We will soon make him hunt for us;" but he killed them all one night, and took his wife home to his own house.
24. Tapped-his-Legs (Tski e'laxtem).1
(Lower Uta mqt.)The people all lived in four underground houses.2 They included Beaver and many others, among them Raven. It was winter-time, and although they all hunted, they had been unable to kill any game for a long time, and would have starved had it not been for Beaver, who provided food for them by spearing fish through a hole in the ice.
One day, while Beaver was fishing as usual, all the other men being away hunting, Raven appeared and strutted around in a boastful manner. He wore a necklace of fresh knee-bones of the deer strung on a string alternately with pieces of deer-fat. He went out on the ice where Beaver was spearing, and tapped his toes with his beak. Then, after using insulting language to him, and making fun of the people because they could not find any deer, he flew away.
When the hunters came home, Beaver told them of Raven's visit, and they made up their minds to stay at home and watch to see if he came the next day; and they put the small screech-owl (sqa'quq) on the top of a pole to watch. Towards evening Raven appeared, and acted in a similar way to what he had the day before.
1 Literally, "(he) tapped his legs (or feet)."
2 Probably near Spuzzum.
