34. Stabbed-with-his-Leg.1
(Lower Uta'mqt.)A man cut off his foot, and filed the end of his leg-bone to a point. When his friends wished to see what he was doing, he said, "No, I cannot let you see; you will shoot my foot." Afterwards he stabbed his friends with his leg when they were asleep, and killed them all.
35. The Lad who shot the Snake.
(Lower Uta'mqt.)A boy who had reached the age of puberty went into the mountains to train himself and to gain knowledge. He continued his training for a long time, and returned to the mountains frequently. He did not wish to become a medicine-man, but desired to be a chief and a great hunter. His ‘spirit’ told him in his dreams to wear fir-branches on his breast.
After he had worn them for several years, and had attained the age of about twenty-five years, his ‘spirit’ told him to go to Spuzzum Creek early each morning, and fire arrows across the stream. He did as directed, and, going to that part of the creek near where the bridge is at the present day, he fired his arrows across the creek from the north side, so that each arrow alighted ahead of the last one he had shot, thus forming a line. He did this several mornings, and eventually, one morning when going to pick up the arrows he had fired, found that one of them had killed a huge snake by striking it between the eyes. The snake was about three feet in diameter. Before this happened he had always been a poor marksman; but now he always hit game in vital parts, and never again missed goats when shooting at them. He thus became a noted hunter, and eventually a chief.
36. Close-cut-Hair.
(Lower Uta' mqt.)A man called Close-cut-Hair (Aê'llkin) lived with his two sisters in a house near the river. He was noted because he wore his hair cut very short. The nearest people lived in four underground houses a considerable distance up the river, and in each house there was a young maiden just become of marriageable age. The two sisters knew everything that their brother did, although lie was not aware of it.
1 This story is said to be only a fragment.
2 Or Ahe'lkin, "close cut hair" similar to that of the whites and Indians at the present day (from the
3 Said to be the Fraser River, probaly in the upper part of the Uta'mqt country.
