10. Nspatce'tceit, or The Four Black Bears; also called
The Qwa'qtqwal Brothers.
(Upper and Lower Uta'mqt.)
(cont.)Next morning, the brothers left the dog tied up near one of the houses,
and went out' walking over a prairie near the village. When they had passed over the prairie and were about to enter a forest, they were ambushed by a number of men concealed in the woods, and the elder brothers were shot. The other brother, finding his arrows useless, ran back towards the village, where the people were all gathered around and on the tops of the houses, watching the fight.
Now, the brother who was running was loved by a girl of the village, and he knew she loved him; so he cried out to her to let the dog loose. She turned the dog loose, and at once he ran around, through and over each house; and the people, who were standing thickly, were all killed. Then he attacked the warriors who were pursuing his brother, and killed them all. Every one who was bitten by the dog or stabbed with his tongue, and all those who were touched or cut by his hair, died. Then they revived their two elder brothers who had been killed, and together they journeyed to the upper world. While travelling there among the stars, they saw a Grisly Bear, and gave chase to him; but. the eldest brother became afraid as they neared the bear, and hung back , saying, "I wish to defecate.” Then they changed themselves into stars, saying, "We will be seen by all future generations, who will tell our story." Hence the one Grisly Bear, followed by the three Black Bear hunters and the dog, in the group of stars called the “Grisly Bear."II. Child-of-Hog-Fennel (Kokwe'laha'it).
(Lower Uta' mqt.)There once lived a maiden in some place in the upper country who went out to dig hog-fennel roots (Peucedanum macrocarpum Nutt.).' While digging, she took a fancy to a very large thick root, cohabited with it, and as a result became pregnant. Feeling ashamed of her condition, she left the people and erected a lodge some distance away, in which she lived. In due course she gave birth to a son, who, when he became old enough to use bow and arrows, asked his mother who his father was. He said, 'I never see my father, and he never comes home." She told him that his father fell in the rocks many years ago and was killed.
Some say the people asked them to go and gather material to make baskets.
Some say while hunting there.
Hence the reason assigned for one star being some distance behind the others.
4 This is the constellation of the Dipper.
s Kokwe'laha'it or Kokwe'lae'it has the same meaning as kokwe'las sku'zas; viz., "child or offspring of Kokwe'la." Compare chic story with the Lillooet one of Tsu'ntia (Traditions of the Thompson River Indians, P• 95) and the Upper Thompson one (Ibid.. p. 45)•
s Some place in the country above that of the Uta'mqt, to the east or north.
I This root is used as food by all the southern interior tribes of British Columbia.