33. Owl and Tsa'au'z.
(Lower Uta' mqt.)
(cont)Now, the young woman who had recovered the lad from being a loon was much sought after by all the young men of the tribe, but she would not marry any of them. She steadily refused every suitor, until the people at last became angry with her and said, "You better go and get Tsa'au'z, the man of sores, for your husband." Feeling piqued at this taunt, she answered, "Yes, I will do so ; for I consider that even he is better than any of my suitors." Then she took a bundle of mats with her, went to Tsa'au'z's house, and told him that she had come to marry him. He said to her, "I cannot believe you intend to marry me. You will find the smell of my sores too obnoxious." She told him she meant what she said; rolled him up in the mats, and carried him to her parents' house. The latter did not refuse to receive him, but held their noses as he was carried inside. After dark, when they had all retired to bed, Tsa'au'z took off his sores or spotted covering, and became clothed in dentalia instead. On the following morning the dentalia fell off, and, by the time the people awoke he was clothed in sores again. This happened four nights, so Tsa'au'z's parents-in-law became rich in dentalia.
The woman would not let any of her sister's children get any of the shells, because they had laughed at her husband. A11 the people made fun of the woman and her husband. Raven especially made fun, and said, "Let our new son-in-law gather wood for us!" He said this because he thought Tsa'au'z was helpless and a cripple. The woman carried him to where some trees were standing. Tsa'au'z kicked the butts of four of them with his foot, and thus threw them down. Then at his command, they became four pieces of split wood, one piece for each underground house. His wife carried the pieces to the houses, and lowered them down with a line; but in lowering a piece down in one of the houses, it turned over, and, sliding quickly, it ran a splinter through the testicles of the Moon, who was sitting underneath.
When the pieces touched the floor of the underground houses, they increased in size and number, until each house was so full of split wood that there was no room left for the people. Then the people said, "Let Tsa'au'z hunt with us!” Wolf, Lynx, Hawk, and others got ready to hunt on the morrow. Tsa'au'z's father-in-law made a pair of snowshoes for him, and tied animal's tails1 to the ends. Tsa'au'z tried them on after dark, and, going outside ran around the houses, making great strides. Next morning the people observed the snowshoe tracks, and asked one another who had made them, for they were surprised at the distance between the steps. Raven answered, "These are my tracks. I only, of all the people, could stride so far."
1. Some say eagle-feathers. It seems there was a custom at one time, among some of the Upper and Lower Thompsons, of ornamenting the heels or the tails of snow-shoes with animal's tails and eagle's feathers as trailers. So far I have been unable to get any authentic information regarding the custom, and it is hard to say whether it was done with the object of giving additional swiftness to the feet, or because the animals or birds were the protectors (sEna'm) of the wearer, or as a mark of distinction, or simply as ornament. Nearly all of the moccasins made by the Upper Thompsons had trailers of buck-skin, which it is said were used to pull on and off the moccasins easily, and to save the heel to some extent in going down steep hills.
