One time in winter, Fox saw Coyote coming, and sat down on a beaver-hole in the ice. Coyote asked him what he was doing. Fox said he was fishing with his tail. Coyote thought he would like to have some fish, and asked Fox to let him fish. Fox agreed, and told Coyote not to get tired if the fish did not bite at first; he would certainly catch many fish in time. Coyote sat down on the hole, and, Fox left. Then Fox later caused a cold wind to come, and Coyote's tail froze in the hole. Coyote called for help, and Beaver came and released him. (Others say that Coyote induced Fox to put his tail into the hole. Coyote caused a cold wind to come, as Cold was one of his guardian-spirits, and Fox was frozen in the hole. When Fox discovered that Coyote had fooled him, he called the Chinook Wind, who was his guardian-spirit, and released himself. Then he pursued Coyote, lumps of ice rattling on his tail.2 He chased Coyote, who ran into a hole, and Fox sat down to club him when he came out. Coyote found that the hole had another outlet. Then he defecated, and ordered his excrements to talk, while he made his escape. Fox remained sitting by the hole, thinking that Coyote was still there; but finally the excrements dried up and ceased talking. Then Fox knew that Coyote had cheated him, and went away.)
This is the same story as JE 8 : 406, the only difference being as follows: --
The party consisted of ten women. There was only one scout, who had climbed a tree close to where the women camped. The women intended to dig roots on the morrow. In the evening the scout gave a flying-squirrel call, and then coughed. The women spoke to him, and invited him in. He became so tired when all the girls were playing with him, that he fell sound asleep, and could not be awakened. Then the three oldest women took their sharpened root-diggers and pinned him to the ground by pushing with all their weight,-one through his throat, one through his stomach, and one through his abdomen. The other women had already left. Then the oldest woman scalped him with a stone knife (or cut off his head). He had his hair tied in a knot. She seized the knot, and cut the skin all around beneath it. His face was painted in stripes, which were made by rubbing off the paint with deer's teeth or with a comb. Day was just breaking when the women reached the top of the ridge above the valley. The oldest woman called out in a loud voice, "Where is Striped-Face? Why don't you look for him?" The war-party heard it, and started off. When they reached the women's camp, and found their scout killed with root-diggers and scalped by women, they were so angry that they ran their spears into his body and mangled the corpse. Then again they heard the oldest woman calling as a person calls to dogs and as a war-party calls to the enemy. They gave chase. When the Shuswap reached the river, all the women had gone across and were already dancing a scalp-dance. The old woman was carrying the scalp at the end of a spear. The Shuswap retreated, and on their way back were attacked by a party that had tried to head them off. Several of them were killed, and the rest made good their escape. A large war-party of Thompson Indians was unable to overtake them. This happened about a hundred years ago.39. (a) The Hunter Who Fooled The Grizzly Bear.3
(From Spences Bridge.)A man was travelling in Botani Valley, and saw a large grizzly bear approaching. He saw no way of escape, and, being unarmed, he thought he would feign death. He lay down on his back; and when the bear came to smell him, he held his breath. The bear threatened to strike him and growled, but he never moved. At last the bear, thinking the man was dead, went away (following her cubs?).
(b) A Hunter Who Feigns Death, And A Grizzly Bear.4
(From Nicola Valley.)
[An Historical Tale.]Once a hunter from Spences Bridge camped in Botani Valley. An old man told him to be careful when he hunted that morning, as he had had a bad dream about a grizzly bear. The hunter did not hunt that day, but instead went down the valley to visit another camp. He carried no weapon except a knife. Suddenly, when he turned a bend in the trail, he saw a large silver-tip grizzly bear, and was unable to get away unobserved. He remembered that his grand father had told him that in such a case it was best to lie perfectly still and to hold the breath. He threw himself on the trail, and remained quite still. The bear approached him cautiously. It stood over him with its paw raised, ready to strike him. Then it lowered it, and smelled him all over. It felt of him with its paw, and turned him over. The hunter remained quite rigid. Then the bear went away, evidently beheving that he was mysterious. He was not even scratched by the bear.
1 See Oskar Dahnhardt, Natursagen 4: 219.
2 This tale is said to be among the southern and also the Fraser River Shuswap.
3 The narrator thought that this actually happened to a Spences bridge Indian long ago, but he did not remember the details. He did not class it as a mythological tale.
4. The incidents related in this story are said to have happened to a man called Naukawi’lex, who was a great bunter. and who died an old man about fifteen years ago. Some say they happened to his father. I include the story here because of some similarity to an incident in a Shoshoni myth (see Lowie, PaAM 2 : 284)
