Coyote knew of these salmon, and made up his mind to release them. He waited until morning. The younger sister (Steneechken) went down to get a salmon for breakfast. She saw the basket-dish floating on the water. She landed it, and took it to her tent. The elder sister (Wiswiskin) said, "No, sister, do not keep the dish. Throw it into the river. It may bring us misfortune." The younger one would not give it up. She ate out of it. Each day after her meal she left some salmon in it when she put it away.
Every day at this time of the year they went to pick berries. When they returned, they would find the dish empty. The elder sister became alarmed, and insisted that the dish be thrown into the fire. When she did so, it made a loud report, and a little boy came out of the fire. The younger sister was delighted, and kept him, although the elder sister objected. They made a bow and arrows for him, so that he could amuse himself while they were away.
Each morning after the sisters had left home, the boy worked at the dam with a hard rock instrument he had made. After he had been there one month, the girls did not find him when they came home in the evening. They ran to the dam, and found that he had taken the form of a man. He was digging at a hole that he had made in the dam. They tried to crush him, but he had a piece of horn on his head. Just then the water broke through and separated him from them. He called to the girls, who were weeping on the bank, "Women were never intended to guard salmon."
He started up the stream, and the salmon followed him. As he went away, he turned one sister into a water-snipe, and the other into a kildee. They always live near the water and eat fish.
Coyote travelled up the river with the salmon. Whenever Coyote met people, he made a salmon jump out of the water into his arms.1 Then he cooked it and asked the people to eat.
At one place he met a number of girls picking berries. They were very beautiful, and he decided to select one of them for his wife. He winked his eye, brought salmon from the water, and feasted the girls. They were pleased, and their parents wanted him to take one of the maidens, so that they might always have salmon to eat. He fell in love with one of the girls, who had a fine voice, and who was in the habit of using it to hear her words repeated by the echo.
When Coyote asked her to be his wife, she refused him with scorn. He became angry, and started back down the river, taking the salmon with him. He stopped at the Forks of the Similkameen, about five miles from the Okanagan. There he formed falls to keep the salmon from going up. Then he made falls in the Okanagan, Kettle, and Columbia Rivers, because in all these places the maidens refused him.
Coyote lived in a tent alone. There was no prospect of food: everything was covered with snow. He stirred up his fire and lay down near it. He wanted to sleep, but was too hungry. He wished for some bones with sinew. Just then he heard a noise. He went to the door and looked out. He found a bag of bones in front of the tent. He took them in and made some soup. They lasted for several days. Then he was hungry again.
He made another wish. He wanted deer-ham with chunks of meat. He heard another thump. He found another bag of bones. He thought he could have plenty to eat by making a wish. He wished for a bag of fat, and it came also. He puzzled over it. He thought that some one must bring this food.
Near him lived a queer old wizard, -- misformed, with many arms on his body. He knew of Coyote's wish, and carried the food to him. Coyote decided to watch and see who came. The next time when he wished, he stood close by the door, looked out, and saw the wizard disappearing from sight. He followed him to the top of the hill.
There he saw a tent, and around it a platform for drying meat. Coyote went near, and found an old man warming his back by the fire. He offered to carry water for him if he should be allowed to live there. Although he was not allowed to live with the old man, he was given a tent close by. After three days he thought that if he should kill the old man, all the provisions would be his. Therefore next morning he followed him to a pile of rocks, and pounded him flat. He threw the body into sagebrush. Then he went back to the tent. He was astonished to see all the bones jump up and run away. The Old man had revived, and had resuscitated the deer-bones. As the last deer ran away, the old man caught its tail and hung on. Coyote turned him into a wood-tick, and said that in the spring of the year it would live on deer.
1 See RBAE 31 : 674; also pp. 68, 70, 139, 141, 143, of this volume.
2 See JE 8 : 207, 211: this volume, pp. 170, 184.
