31b. The Hunter and the Goats.1
(Lower Uta'mqt.)A party were hunting goats in the mountains of the Uta'mqt country. They consisted of a father arid several sons. The former was noted for his visdom. They hunted many days, but could not find any game. The father knew what was going to happen.
One night when they were all in camp, a goat came within sight. Now, he youngest son had been training himself, and practising running and shooting. He was very swift of foot: therefore his father told him to run out and shoot the goat. He did as directed, and was successful in killing it. While he skinned and cut up the meat, he prayed and treated the remains very respectfully. He spread fir-boughs on the ground, and laid the pieces of meat very carefully on them. Then he tied the meat together with his packing-line and vrapped fir-twigs around the whole.
He had finished, and was just preparing to start for the camp with his burden, when he saw a woman approaching. She was good-looking and of a white complexion. He wondered who she could be. He did not know that she was the goat he had killed. She came up to him and asked him :o accompany her home. He said, "No, I cannot go with any woman. Iam training, and it would ruin me for hunting. I must keep myself pure.'She praised him for his prowess in hunting, for being so careful with the meat, and for showing so much respect to the goats. Then she told him if he would go home with her, he would gain great knowledge and become a much better hunter. He consented, and, leaving his pack of Goat-meat where it was, he went along with her. She took his bow and arrows and carried them.
At last they came to a high cliff, and entered it through a large crack, which immediately closed behind them. Everything was strange inside, and, feeling faint, he fell asleep. When he awoke, he perceived that he was in a large cavern, and there were many people of both sexes and all ages sitting around talking to one another. They all welcomed him heartily. Then the woman approached him and said, "I am your wife for the mean time. This is the dwelling of the goats. When they enter this their abode, you hunters cannot find them. This is the rutting-season of goats. I will make you a goat."
All the people had by this time departed. Now the woman took a very large skin belonging to an old male goat, and put it around him. Then she said, "Let us go and join our friends." She opened the cliff, which shut again when they had passed through. Repairing to some grassy slopes surrounded by cliffs, she said to him, "Jump on the rocks!'
He did as directed.
1. Compare, No. 31.a
