30. Ntcimi'ken
(Upper and Lower Uta'mqt.)
(cont.)Now Ntcimi'ken knew that the boy had grown proficient in magic. They killed the beavers and Ntcimi'ken ate all their bodies except the tails, which he threw away. He only gave a little of the meat to the lad, therefore the latter was still humgry. --after having glutted himself, Ntcimi'ken fell asleep. When lie awoke, lie found the boy eating the tails which he had thrown away. He said to him, "Why do you eat that trash' Don't you know that it is Beaver's excrement" But the boy kept on roasting the tails and eating them, and only laughed at what Ntcimi'ken said. At last the latter tried one, and, finding it to be delicious eating, he reserved the remaining tails for himself.
Now they journeyed to the mouth of the Thompson River, and Ntcimi'ken sent the lad across the Fraser to attack the Cannibal. Seeing the latter near his house, he called names at him, such as "ear-rings," "broken leg,' etc. The Cannibal rushed at the boy with a very long spear, but the lad jumped on the top of a mountain-peak, and escaped his thrust. Thus the Cannibal followed him from peak to peak; but the boy, by jumping, always managed to evade the thrusts from his long spear. At last, however, the boy got tired, and called on Ntcimi'ken for help, saying, "Uncle, our enemy presses me hard. Blow the smoke from your pipe this way." Ntcimi'ken, who was sitting on the ground smoking and sharpening his knife, jumped up and attacked the Cannibal. They fought for the mastery, but at last the latter wrestled with Ntcimi'ken, who fell undermost in the struggle. He called on the boy for help, saying, "Take my knife and cut off our enemy's right arm, for he kills me with it.' The boy cut off the Cannibal's right arm. Then Ntcimi'ken said, 'Cut off his left arm, for he masters me with it." The boy did as directed. Then he said, "Cut off his penis, for he wrestles with it," and the boy did so. Thus the boy did as directed until he had cut up all parts of the Cannibal's body. Then Ntcimi'ken arose and threw the several parts of the Cannibal's body to the tribes of the four quarters. He threw the head to the Coast Indians (S'a'tcinko and Yu'kElta)1, therefore these people have large heads.2 He threw the heart and privates to the Okanagon tribes, therefore they are brave; and the men have large sexual organs. The arms were thrown to the Nkamtci'nemux and Shuswap, therefore they became expert warriors. After he had thus thrown parts of the body to each of the tribes, the boy said, "You have forgotten the Nlakya'pamux'o'e and the Uta'mqt. Then he took the knife and threw it to the former, and, wiping his bloody hands with a bunch of cedar-bark, he threw it to the Uta' mqt. Therefore the latter are inferior people,3 and the Thompson became a fierce people, and were noted for stabbing one another with knives.
1 Yu'kelta; the Le'kwilda'x, the most southern Kwakiutl tribe.
2 Some say high heads; others, broad heads.
3 Some say unwarlike people; others say poor people.
