9. He-spit-on-her-Belly (Pitseqa'nekatem).2
(Lower Uta' niqt.)
(cont.)Now, the sisters set out on their journey to their aunt's house, and after some days saw a house on the trail. The weather became cold, and the younger sister desired to enter the house to warm herself. The elder sister said, "Remember our brother's advice;" but the younger persisted, so they entered the house, in which they found Coyote, who was busy tanning skins. He treated them kindly and put on a large fire for them. He took some of his dried semen from under the prepuce, and, placing it in a dish, offered it to the sisters, saying, "You are no doubt hungry. Eat some fat." The elder sister was suspicious, and threw some of it into the fire. When she saw that it did not burn like fat, but only crackled and smoked, she advised her sister not to eat of it; but the latter disobeyed, and as a result at once became pregnant.
The sisters then continued their journey. When they were out of sight, Coyote took his underground lodge on his back, ran ahead farther along the trail, and, placing his house down, began to dress buckskin, as before. Again the women were forced to go inside (owing to Coyote making the weather very cold), when they were treated in the same manner as before. This was done four times by Coyote. The last time the younger sister was taken in travail, and the elder sister left her in Coyote's house. On leaving, Coyote said to her, "If your sister has a female child, I will rear it; but if a male, I will hang it up in the branch of a tree."
The elder girl went on. Her aunt the Elk knew of her coming, and so did some of the other people. When the girl was about two days' journey from her destination, Lynx sent Hare to meet her and fix camp for her that night. Hare ran very swiftly, and soon reached the spot where the girl would camp at sundown. Here he erected a brush lodge for her to sleep in, gathered fire-wood, and made a fire. Now, Lynx had told Hare not to be ashamed, but to wait for the girl in the lodge he should erect, and give her food when she arrived; but when Hare saw the girl approaching, he became bashful and ashamed: therefore he hung the meat on one of the lodge-poles and ran and hid himself.
The girl arrived, and camped in the lodge for the night. Next morning Hare watched her from his hiding-place underneath a log. She continued her journey next morning, and, while stepping over the log which lay across the trail, Hare ran out from underneath and called her names, such as "red privates," etc. The woman got angry and threw her root-digger at him, splitting his nose. This is the reason that the hare has such a peculiar nose and nostrils at the present day.
When the girl came within sight of her aunt's house, the latter said to all the young men, "Run out and meet your cousin! Whoever reaches her first shall be her husband." Then Grisly Bear, Black Bear, Wolf, Eagle, Humming-Bird, Puma,1 and all the other animals and birds except Coyote, Lynx, Hare and Deer, ran to meet the girl. When they had run some little distance, Elk herself ran out, and, passing the others, reached the girl first. She took her niece home and watched carefully over her, so that none of the young men might see her. Nights she put her in a basket (sLuq), which she hung to the beams of the lodge immediately over her own bed-place.
1 Puma, also called Couger, Panther, and Mountain-Lion (Felis concolor).
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