Once upon a time there were a man and a woman who had two children, a boy and a girl. The girl was quite tall, but the boy was still quite small. The man used to go on long hunts, and the woman used to dig roots. Whenever they went to work, they left the children at home alone. One day the woman came home quite late. She was very thirsty, and asked the children to get her some water. In spite of her repeated orders, they refused to go. Finally she became very angry, and said she would fly away. She fastened along her arms her husband's eagle-feathers, which were hanging on the wall, and flew off.1 The children cried, begging her to come back, and promised to obey her; but it was too late. She refused to return. The children wept bitterly. When the man came home and asked for their mother, they told him that she had taken his eagle-feathers and flown away. The father, on learning the cause, reprimanded his children and left them. He was a Bow.
The children were now all alone. They cried all night long. They had an old relative, a maker of canoes, who lived a few miles away, across the river. The girl suggested that they should go to the old man and stay there. She put the boy on her back and started off. Night fell, and the Screech-Owl -- who kills everybody that comes along, and who is particularly on the lookout for children -- met them on the trail. When the girl saw her, she jumped to one side, but not before the Screech-Owl had seen them. The girl said, "Let us turn into worms and crawl under the grass!" They did so. The Owl, however, looked for them, found their tracks, separated the grass, and saw the worms. She concluded that these must be the children. She put them into the basket2 that she had brought for the purpose, and started for home. She had gone but a short distance when the children made themselves very heavy. The girl shouted, "A widow's children are burning up! A widow's children are burning up!" The Owl heard this, and thought, "Those are surely my five children." She hung up the basket and ran on home. Just as soon as she was out of sight, the children tried to get down. The girl kicked the basket to pieces, put the boy on her back, and made for the river. When she arrived there, she saw an old man on the opposite bank making a canoe. She called to him to come and take them across. He paid no attention to them. They called again, and told him that the Owl was coming. The man then asked, "Are you my only grand-children?" -- "We are the ones," the girl replied. Then he stretched his foot across the river. The children stepped on it and held on very firmly, while he doubled it up and so transferred them to the other side.
The Owl, in the mean time, had reached her home, and had found her children in no danger whatsoever. She went back to get the boy and the girl; but when she arrived, she found her basket broken and the children gone. She followed their tracks. The old man saw her coming. He had recognized her at a distance by her long hair. She asked him if he had seen two children pass that way. The old man merely kept on hammering. "Why don't you listen?" asked the Owl. The old man told her that he had eaten the children. Then she asked him to ferry her across in a canoe. The old man now decided to kill her. He told the Crawfish, the Mussel, and the Butterfly to ferry the Owl across in a thin canoe. When they reached her, they were to tell her to tie many rocks to herself in order to weight the boat properly. When they arrived at the centre of the river, the Crawfish was to split the canoe in two. The three set out. They told her to tie rocks to her body. She did as she was told, and they embarked. When they reached the middle of the river, the Crawfish, in accordance with his instructions, broke the canoe. The Owl fell into the water. She held up a stick that she had carried with her. They seized it and kept her underwater until she was drowned.3
That is the end.
Rabbit lived with his grandson on John Creek, near Snake River. On a camas prairie, near Mount Idaho, lived Thunder (hinma'at). He had five wives that he had taken from other men. The boy decided to go and see him. He took the claws of a grizzly bear with him, and then went up. When he arrived near Thunder's tent, he saw a number of women digging roots. He asked them which of his five wives Thunder liked best. They told him that he was fondest of the oldest one, with the colored dress. Thereupon the boy went up to her and asked her not to dig any more roots, but to throw away her digging-stick and her sack. The woman laughed, and told the others that the boy was making fun of her. "Throw it away for fun," the others said, "and see what he will do." So she threw them down, and the boy seized her arms and dragged her off. The others tried to rescue her, but were unsuccessful. Then they sent word to Thunder, telling him that one of his wives had been stolen.
When Thunder heard this, he made ready to pursue Rabbit. He painted himself, and a thunder-clap was heard. Then he went up into the clouds, thundering all the time. The boy was hastening away. The thunder-cloud stood right over him, and a terrific storm raged. The lightning struck everywhere. The abducted woman cried, for she was afraid that she would be killed. The boy, however, paid no attention to it all.
After a time the boy looked up, and said to Thunder, "That is enough for you." He took his grizzly-bear foot and struck the cloud with it. The cloud split apart, and Thunder fell down to the ground. "You can take the woman," he then said to the boy, "for I know I cannot get her back." So the boy went home with his wife.
When he arrived there, he left her outside, while he went in and told his grandmother that he had brought a wife. The old woman brought the young one in, and they lived there.
1 Kathlamet (Boas, BBAE 26 : 142, 146), Nootka (Boas, Sagen 109).
2 BBAE 59 : 296 (note 5); this volume, pp. 26, 192.
3 See Waterman in JAFL 27 : 43, under "Crane-Bridge."
4 JAFL 21 : 154, 155.
