9. He-spit-on-her-Belly (Pitseqa'nekatem).2
(Lower Uta' niqt.)
(cont.)When the sisters arrived home, they saw their brother's quiver and pack of meat; so they knew he had been home. His dog was whining, and scratching up the earth around the base of the fire-stone: so the sisters turned it over to see what was the matter. When they did so, they saw there was a hole there, and the wind rushed up through it from below. They looked down through it, and saw their brother playing ball2 with the people in the lower world.
The elder sister was angry at the younger because she had enticed her to their brother's bathing-place. She said, "You see what the result is of disobeying our brother's command." The sisters were very sorry, and wept sorely; so that some of their tears fell down the hole and on their brother, who was playing below.
When their brother noticed the drops falling on him, he sat down, and said to himself, "That is a wonderful thing: a drop has fallen on my hand." He looked up, but saw no signs of rain. He wondered, because it never used to rain formerly, and he saw no signs of it then.3 Now he thought to himself, "It must be a tear, and my sisters are weeping for me in the upper world." The other ball-players asked what ailed him. "Has any one struck you with his ball-stick?" they said; but he answered, "No, I am only sorrowful because my sisters weep for me."
Then he made himself invisible, and, going up the hole, he stood at his sisters' backs. They were glad to see him, and implored him not to desert them. He said, "I must return to the lower world." Then his youngest sister said, "Then we will accompany you." He said, "Very well, shut your eyes and jump down, but do not open them until you reach the bottom." They shut their eyes and jumped, but opened them again; so they were forced up again. Thus their brother tried to get them down four times, but each time they opened their eyes and came back. Then their brother said, "It is useless to try to get you to the lower world. You better go to your aunt the Elk." He gave them meat5 to eat on the road, and directions how to go. He also said, "If you see any house on the way, do not enter it." Thus he left them and returned to the lower world.
1 Most Indians say that these people lived in our world, and that the hunter went to the lower world underneath ours; but some say they lived in the upper world, and that when the brother left, he descended to our world.
2 Some say he was playing a ball-game called "tsu'kala," which is somewhat different from the ordinary ball-games of the Upper Thompson Indians.
3 Some of the Indians say that it never used to rain formerly; that is to say, in the spEta'kl period.
4 Their aunt's name was Nake'ltsa, and she is described as being an elk.
5 Their meat or lunch for the journey consisted of four deer's bladders filled with fat.