Chatalem lured away hunters by her beautiful, sad wailing. She always kept at a distance from them, so that they could not see her. They followed her until they perished.
One brave hunter followed the stream to its source. Then he camped and built a sweat-house. Every morning at dawn he heated rocks and took a bath. One morning, when he came back to his tent, he saw a beautiful woman sitting in the doorway. He fell in love with her, and made up his mind to ask her to remain. However, as he approached, she rose and floated away like a cloud, wailing. He was strongly tempted to follow her, but he turned and went the other way.
Later on, she came to him when he had killed a deer. He heard her voice, but did not see her. He thought of her often. He also thought of his wife and children whom he had left at home, and tried to forget her.
One day in mid-winter he slept soundly. When he awoke, she was cooking for him. Then for the first time he saw her back. She carried a child with its head down. She told him she had come to keep him company. When he left for home, she told him to come back alone, and promised to meet him at the entrance of the forest.
In the fall of the year he prepared to go hunting. His wife wished to accompany him. At first he refused her request; but when she insisted, he told her that she might go as far as the forest.
The next year she desired to accompany him again. As before, he refused her request, but she insisted. She went as far as the forest, but then she would not return. She followed him and heard a wailing sound. She asked him what it was, but he would not tell her. Then came a high wind and a terrible storm. The man's mortal wife was killed. This made the hunter angry, and he returned at once to his own people, and did not go back to the weeping woman.
There was once a camp by a river. Among the people there was a handsome man, who was a brave warrior and a great hunter. He had two children. His wife was beautiful, and he loved her dearly. One day he met a very plain maiden. She attracted him. He took her for his wife, and put her in another tent. He took most of his meat to her.
Then the first wife and his children grew hungry. The younger child cried. Then the mother sent her son to his father for meat. The boy went to the tent and stood in the doorway. When his father asked him what he wanted, he said that they were hungry. He was sent back without any food, and the new wife laughed.
The boy returned, and told his mother that he had been rebuffed and scolded, and that his father's new wife had laughed at him. His mother listened to his words, took a deer's antler, and whittled three sharp bones out of it. With two of these she killed her children while they were asleep. The last one she drove into her own breast.
In the morning the grandmother of the children came with food, and found them dead. She raised a wail, and the people came to see what had happened. Then the father was grieved. He took his bow and arrows and left the camp.
He crossed the plain, and came to a river in which was a large island. He saw canoes and camps on it, but he did not see any signs of life. He became sleepy. One tent on the island was open. A woman came out, boarded a canoe, and paddled across. He recognized his first wife, who took him across. They landed, and she pulled the canoe up on shore. She took him into the large tent. Inside there were only skeletons. He saw his children's skeletons. Then he saw that his wife too was a skeleton. He looked at himself, and he saw that he had no flesh. He had crossed the River of Death.
One winter there was a very heavy snow, and the people were starving. A man lived alone with his wife and children. On account of the snow he was unable to kill any game. One night when he returned, he heard his wife saying to the children, "Your father may bring us some nice meat today." He felt very much downcast when he heard this, and went back without entering the tent. He lay down to sleep, and in his dream he heard a voice saying, "Don't leave this place! Awake, and look towards the rising sun!" When he awoke and the sun rose, an elk appeared, which he shot. Whenever he needed meat, an elk would appear. In this way they lived through the winter.
