Crow questioned him: "Have you any grandmother? Have you any mother? Have you any elder sister? Have you any younger sister?" He answered that he had. Crow asked him, "Have you any toy dried salmon? Have you any toy dried berries? Have you any toy salmon-oil? Have you any toy deer-fat?" He answered that he had. Crow said, "Shall I go and get them?" and the boy answered, "Very well."
16. OWL AND NTSAA’.Z.
(continued)Then Crow flew away, and arrived at the cellar of the lad’s mother. She was inside, taking out some dried fish, and her daughter was sitting on top of the cellar. Crow said to the girl, "I have come to get the toy dried salmon of your elder brother." The girl spoke to her mother, saying, "Crow is here, asking for the toy dried salmon of my elder brother."
Then the mother cried, saying, "You ought not to speak that way." The girl remonstrated, saying that she was speaking the truth: therefore the woman came out, and asked Crow where her son was. She made up a pack for Crow, who said, "Now, watch where I go! Where I end my flight, there you will see a pillar of smoke. I live there with your son." They watched Crow, and lost sight of him in the distance. Crow came successively for all the toy food belonging to the lad. The longest-sighted among the people watched his flight, but none could see where he stopped. The fourth time they asked the Ska'kuk to watch from the top of an underground lodge. Ska'kuk followed Crow's flight, and discovered a pillar of smoke. Then he fell in a swoon, because of the strain of looking so far. The people revived him with cold water. Then he told them where Crow had gone.
Then the lad's mother and sister set out to find him, and at last reached the place where he was. He returned with them; and when passing a lake on the way home, he said he would bathe in the lake, because he felt hot. They tried to dissuade him, but he persisted. He bathed and dived. When he came up again, he had become a loon. he said to his sister, " Do not worry. I am going to stay here. If you long for me, come here and call me." The women went home. After some time his sister went to see him, and called him from the lake-shore. He was glad to see her. he came out of the water and sat beside her. When she was about to return, he gave her a present of many fine shells, and also his neck-ring of dentalia, which he took from his own neck and put around hers. He told her not to show the shells to any one. A woman in the camp saw the necklace and the shells, and surmised where they had come from.1
The woman said to the girl, "Let us go and see your brother!" She had prepared four kinds of medicine from herbs, and carried the decoction with her. When they arrived at the lake, she hid herself, while the girl called her brother. he came out of the water, and looked very handsome. he was covered with shells. She asked him to come up and sit by her. He did this, although she was far from the shore. She said, "Sit close to me, brother!" When he sat by her side, she threw both arms around him, and the woman threw the medicine on him. Then he gradually assumed human form.
Then he journeyed with them until they passed the lodge of Ntsaa'.z. Then he said, "I am going in to warm myself." They tried to dissuade him, and said, "It is bad in there. Ntsaa'.z has a bad smell. No one ever goes in there." He persisted and went, while the women went home. When he had entered the lodge, he took Ntsaa'.z by the nose, and shook him so hard that his body fell out of the skin. Then he entered the skin, and became Ntsaa'.z.2 The young woman who had thrown the medicine on him was wooed by all the young then of the tribe, but she refused them all. Finally her relatives said to her, "Who is going to be your husband? You are not satisfied with any one. Go and take Ntsaa'.z for your husband." They intended to shame her, but she took them at their word, picked up a mat, and left the house. When she returned carrying Ntsaa'.z wrapped up in the mat, the people laughed, and the young men jeered at her. She carried him into the house, and placed him on the best mat. The people cried, "Don’t bring him in here, he stinks too mcuh!" That night her relatives thought to shame her still more. They said, "Let our son-in-law cut wood for us tomorrow. Give him a hammer and chisel." Early the following morning the young woman went up the hills carrying her husband wrapped in a mat. When she opened the mat, he came out of his skin, ran to four dry trees and kicked them down. Then he made the wood cut and split itself, and assume the dimensions of four short branches, which the woman carried on top of her pack. When they arrived at the village, she put her husband down, and threw the sticks on the ground. 'They resumed their original size, and there was wood enough to fill four underground lodges. She threw the wood clown into tile lodges. In one lodge Moon was sitting near the fire. The people told him to move away, but he was too slow. he had very large testicles. A piece of wood came down and hit them. The woman filled the four houses, piling the wood over the people who had not gone out. The young men said, "The wood was cut by this woman herself. She must have great magic power." Then the girl's father said, "Make snowshoes for our son-in-law, that he may hunt tomorrow." Some men made snowshoes, and soon finished them.
They made a fine pair, and, after tying eagle-feathers to the heels, they hung them up on the post near where Ntsaa'z lay. They did so in mockery of him. During the night he put them on, ran around the houses in the snow, came back, and hung them up again. On the following morning the people saw the tracks, the wonderful running, and the leaps that had been made. They asked who had been using Ntsaa'.z's snowshoes. Some said in mockery that he himself must have used them. Raven and Coyote said they had done it, but no one believed them. The people started to hunt, Ntsaa'.z being carried by his wife. All the hunters passed them. When they were out of sight, Ntsaa'.z came out of his skin, ran ahead of them, gathered up all the deer, drove them into a deep gulch, and killed them: The hunters found no game, and returned empty-handed. While Ntsaa'.z was off driving game, his wife made a fire, and burned up his skin. He came back at once, but was too late. He tried to gather up the burnt pieces, but could not do so. He raked the fire, but the whole skin was burnt. He was now a handsome man, and every one envied his wife. He was a great hunter. The people carried in his game, and he fed them.
1 The details of this part of the story were forgotten by my informant.
2 RBAE 31 : 606 (No. 66).
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