111. OKANAGON TALES, BY MARIAN K. GOULD.
A MAN had been killed by his enemies. When, his two sons were grown up, they decided to take revenge. Their names were Grizzly Bear (Kelauna) and Ketsinsiltin. Their uncle, Mo'lski, took them in his canoe to the camp of their enemies. The young men hid their bows and poisoned arrows at the bank of the river. At midnight their uncle gave them their weapons, and they stole into the tent of the man who had killed their father. They hit him on the forehead, the chest, and the back, and made their escape. When the young men were attacked by the friends of the person whom they had killed, Grizzly Bear was hit in the forehead with a white arrow. He was cared for by the Grizzly-Bear, his helper. His brother continued to fight, and killed all the enemies except one, who was sent back to tell the tale.
2. LEFT-ARM.1
Left-Arm (Tcätci'ko) was taking a sweat-bath, and a dense cloud of steam was escaping through the top of the lodge. A short distance away some enemies saw the cloud of steam, and surmised that Left Arm was taking his bath. They stole up to his home and killed his parents. His sister was carried away captive. Left Arm and his brothers, who had been out hunting, followed the enemies, and over took the war-party while they were sitting around a camp-fire. The young woman was in the centre of the circle.
Left-Arm had changed himself and his brothers into three wolves. Their bows and arrows had become wolf tails. They howled; and their sister, who recognized their voices, replied by singing. This made her captors suspicious, and they moved on, all the time watching her closely. The wolves followed them northward until the enemies camped again. They covered the girl with a buffalo robe.
Finally the brothers lost the trail of the enemies, and resumed human form. One of them put on his grizzly-bear cape, and was thus enabled to scent the trail. Soon they came in sight of the camp.
The enemies were asleep, and had piled their weapons together. Before dawn the brothers stole into the camp, selected weapons, and threw the others into the river. Then they attacked the enemies, and killed them with their own spears. The oldest brother (not Left-Arm) took the woman and escaped with her across the river.
When the fight was over, all but one man was killed. He was spared to return and tell his tribe what had happened.
Left-Arm and his brother set out to find their brother and sister who had crossed the river. Left-Arm jumped into the water to swim across. He was wearing his bear-skin robe. It caught on a snag, from which he could not disengage it, so that he was in danger of being drowned. Suddenly the thought came to him, "Why am I so foolish? I can turn into a frog, and the water will not hurt me." He did so, and remained in the water, calling for his brothers. They heard him, brought the canoe, and took him in.
Later on Left-Arm fell in love with a maiden named Ring-Around-The -Ankle (Kinpa'tcinten). She was carried away by enemies from the Columbia River country to a place near Kettle Falls. Left-Arm set out to search for her, and wandered about a long time. He owned a bone charm covered with rattlesnake-poison. Instead of carrying it on his person, he had embedded it under the neck-skin of his wolf dog. Therefore his luck turned.
Ring-around-the-Ankle carved a rock near the falls so that it resembled a canoe. Finally Left-Arm found her and tried to escape with her. However, they were overtaken and captured.
Left-Arm was bound hand and foot, and beaten with switches of the service-bush. They were kept prisoners for five years. Finally they succeeded in making their escape. They lived on the mountains, hunting moose and other game.
One day Left-Arm was wounded while hunting, and he knew that he was going to die. He told his wife to take the wolf-dog and to return to her people. Then his spirit passed away.
Ring-around-the-Ankle did as Left-Arm had told her. The dog ran away and joined the wolves. As it was still carrying the bone charm, Ring-around-the-Ankle tried to persuade it to return, but she did not succeed.
1 Told by Lalaha'p, the grand-daughter of Dark-Sky (Qwiqwita'ss) and Red-Dress (Quilpee'tsä).
