Some people were hunting elk in Highland Valley. When near Kokwela'ntEn, they saw an elk-skull with large antlers moving along the ground. They did not see any living being. Some of them were afraid, and would not go near. Two men, however, more courageous than the others, followed the skull, and discovered that a wolverine had pushed his head into the skull and could not get it out. He was thin, for he could not eat. He could not see where he was going, and ran into them. The Indians killed him, and left the skull. The hair was worn off around his head.
A boy was very quarrelsome. Once when the people were encamped on an island, his parents told the boys whom he abused to take him into the woods and to twist bark with him. Then they were to defecate, urinate, spit and blow their noses on the ground, and to leave him. While they were running away, the urine and the other objects whistled. At last the boy found out what was whistling, and struck it with a stick. Meanwhile all the people except the boy's grandmother had left. She taught him to snare mice and other small game. He made blankets of bird-skins which the Sun bought for bow and arrows and a goat-hair robe. His grandmother sent him to hunt grouse and small game. Later on she said, "Go up that hill. Your parents used to hunt deer there. They have long ears. If you see any, shoot them." The boy went, and shot a deer. He said to his grandmother, "I have killed a mysterious being with very long ears." She said, "Cut it up. It is food and clothing." He killed many deer, and his scaffold and drying-frames were covered with meat. One day he saw Crow eating the scraps that were lying about. He invited him,and gave him a pack of good meat, which Crow took home, and fed to his family at night. Afterwards Crow often visited him. The starving people were suspicious of Crow, for they noticed that he and his family belched at night, and were getting fat. Wolf said, "He must get meat from Nke'kaumstEm." The others laughed at the idea, thinking that the boy and his grandmother were dead. They sent Magpie to see, and he brought back the news that the boy's scaffold was loaded with meat. The starving people at once broke camp, and went back to their old place where Nke'kaumstEm was. He had put deer-fat in the cellars of those who had left fish-skins and back-bones for him. The others he had given meat; to still others, bones or hoofs. In his parents' cellar he put only sinews of deer-legs. Coyote tried to claim the cellars with fat meat as his. He defecated in them to keep the owners away; but they rolled him in the excrements, and kicked him out.
Wolf-Boy was an3 ancestor of the Thompson Indians. He was a chief's son, and lived with his grandmother in a country beyond a great lake to the west or south.4 Formerly many people lived there. A great war-party of strange people attacked them; and all the people were destroyed5 except Wolf-Boy and his grandmother, who hid in a hole in the ground. Wolf-Boy was very small when his people were killed. His grandmother reared him, and taught him all the arts and knowledge of his people. She would say, "Thus your ancestor did," or "Thus did those who are now dead." She taught him how to make bow and arrows, how to shoot and how to snare game. Soon he became a proficient hunter and trapper. At first he killed only small animals and birds, and his grandmother made robes of their skins; soon he killed larger game; and finally grizzly bears, elk, and all kinds of large animals.
One day he asked his grandmother who his ancestors were of whom she always spoke; and how it happened that he and she were the only people in that country, while of each kind of animals there were plenty. She told him that formerly many people lived there, but that they had been attacked and slain by a strange people, who had always harassed them; that their enemies thought all had been slain, but that she had managed to hide herself and the boy; and that they were the sole survivors.
1 The Indians claim that this Is an historic story, and that the incident happened about seventy years ago. I include it here, because it is somewhat similar to stories found among other tribes.
2 Said to mean "twisted bark with him." -RBAE 31: 784.
3 Some say "the" ancestor.
4 Some say this lake was away to the south, within or near the Sahaptin country; while others claim that it was the Pacific Ocean, and that Wolf-Boy lived on the other side, away to the west. According to the common version, their enemies lived on this side (i.e., on the east).
5 Some informants say their enemies started a fire, which encompassed the people and burnt them.
