49. Burned-Themseves (O'iatcu't)
(Lower Uta'myt.)
(cont.)The father hunted every day, and was very successful. Their lodge was full of dried meat. Each night when he came home, he brought some pitchwood1 with him, which he split up in thin strips and placed them in bets. een the poles or framework of the lodge. Before very long he had hundreds of these pitch-sticks stuck here and there all over the framework on tile inside of the lodge. They told the boy they wished him to go to his grandparents on a visit for a while, and gave him four gloves mixed with fat meat and other things as a present to the old people. They directed him how to go, and said if he followed the line of broken branches he could not go astray. They also told him not to look back on any account, but before he had gone a great distance, his curiosity was so great that he looked back and saw a great smoke ascending from his parents' house, which was in flames.
After their son had departed, the parents set fire to their lodge, then, lying down and covering themselves up, they allowed themselves to be burned to death. The large amount of pitch-wood in the house caused the great smoke. The boy reached his grandparents and remained with them.
1 Some say he walked home with a staff of pitch-wood even night.
