50. A'îlu'l
(Lower Uta'mqt.)
(cont.)As the pursuers reached the middle of the bridge, the girl gave the belt a turn, and precipitated her parents into the water, where they were turned into ducks.
When they reached A'llu'l country, the girl threw down a short stick, and it became a large house, in which they took up their abode. When. she threw down another stick, slaves appeared to serve them. Then A'ilu'l gambled with all his former opponents, and won back all his possessions, and much more besides. He also recovered his wives and children, and they lived with him.
51. The four children1
(Lower Uta mqt.)A man had four children who annoyed him very much, and followed him wherever he went: so he devised a plan to get rid of them. He rolled up a long piece of thread on a reel, and the next time he went away he unwound it as he walked along. His children accompanied him, as usual. After travelling a considerable distance from home, they camped for the night. On the following morning he told the children he was going hunting and would not return for some time, but, if they would only wind up and follow the string, they would find their way home without any difficulty. They were not desirous of going home, however: so, when their father came back to the camp at night, he found them still there.
Next day he travelled to another distant camp, where they staid for the night. On the way thither he gave them many pieces of phosphorescent wood2, which he told them to scatter along the path, so that by their aid they might be enabled to find their way back. On the morrow he went hunting and did .not return. The following day the children started for home,guiding themselves by the phosphorescence; but there was other phosphorescent wood in the forest besides what they had distributed, and thus by going from one light to ,another they were led astray and at last entirely lost.
After travelling a long time, they came to the foot of a very tall tree; and the youngest of the four climbed up to obtain a view of the country, and thus, if possible, locate their position. He saw a wide, flat country3 stretching all around, and away in the distance smoke ascending as if from a camp-fire. After passing the night at the foot of the tree, they proceeded next morning in the direction in which they had seen the smoke.
1 Some say they were four boys. ,
2 A kind of rotten, phosphorescent wood found in the forests and wet places.
3 There is practically no flat land in the Uta'mqt country, with the exception of little benches of a few acres in extent in some places.
