22. Skunk.
(Lower Uta'maqt.)
(cont.)The warriors were very wroth at Skunk, and attacked his house. They killed all the women inside, and also Skunk's boy. When they- struck the latter, he turned into excrement. Skunk himself was sorely wounded, and stabbed in many parts of the body. He cried out, "You may as well dispose of me now, and kill me outright. Put me in a sLuq1 and throw me into the river." They did with him as directed; and when they threw him into the river, they transformed him and cursed him, saying, "Henceforth you shall only be the animal the skunk, and you shall never again be able to betray your friends or to steal their wives. You shall be shunned by all men and animals because of your odor." Skunk floated down the river in the basket, and got ashore in the S'atcinko country, where he remained. Therefore skunks are very plentiful in that country at the present day.
23. Fisher's Wife; or Marten and Fisher.2
(Lower Uta’mqt.)A wealthy woman lived in a certain part of the country, and had Crow as a slave. No other people lived near by, and at that time men were very scarce in the land. Crow was desirous of marrying his mistress; but, being afraid to make proposals to her, he- thought of a scheme which he hoped would delude her and bring about the desired result. He began to stay away from home some nights, until it became a frequent occurrence and his mistress thought nothing of it. He had in the mean time made a canoe and placed limbs of trees in it, which he shaped to look like people, and also made a large blanket of long white moss.
One dark night, after painting himself to look different from usual and donning his blanket, he embarked in his dug-out canoe and paddled for the woman's house. Having reached there, he entered, and pretended he was a wealthy stranger who had come to ask her in marriage. She consented, and at his request took off all her clothes. He gave her his moss blanket to put on, and conducted her to the canoe. He said, "These are my slaves in the canoe, and they will paddle us to my house, where you will be very happy." When they had embarked, he pushed the canoe from shore, and told the pretended people (or limbs) to paddle out to his house. Then he lay down with his former mistress and had repeated connection with her throughout the night, while the canoe kept drifting down the stream. He was afraid the woman would discover the deception as soon as it became daylight: so, just about break of day, he opened her legs, pretending he wished to have connection with her again, and defecated in between. After he had done this, he flew up on the branch of a tree near the river's edge. Then the woman knew the deception, which had been practiced on her, and cursed him, saying, "You shall henceforth be a crow, and shall never again be able to deceive women."1 A large oblong or square shaped basket with lid.
2 See Shuswap, p. 673.
