2. NLi' kEsentem
(cont.)The following variant of this legend was obtained front a Nkamtci'nEmux. The references refer to my "Traditions of the Thompson River Indians."
(p. 25.) When NLi'kEsentem was ready to be lowered down by the Spider and his wife, the latter put four stones in the basket, saying, "Throw one of these stones overboard when you reach each of the four obstacles." She also gave him a present of four articles of clothing, a coat, shirt, leggings,' and moccasins of buckskin, and some food to eat on the way, consisting of four bundles of roots which grew plentifully in the upper world. Each bundle was of a different variety.1
(p. 25.) When NLi’kEsentem reached the earth, he ran four times with the slack of the rope -- twice to the east and twice to the west. He tugged the rope four times2; twice at each quarter; then the Spider pulled the basket up. He cached his present of clothes at Lytton, but carried the roots on his back to BEta'ni. Although he ate of them, they did not decrease in number.
He overtook four old women on the trail, - the Ant, Beetle, etc., and learned from then' that hi, wife, Lqô'qena (the teal duck), had been taken by his father. He overtook his other wife, and where he told her to camp, he created a spring which runs at the present day.
(p. 25.) When out hunting one day, he was carrying his lunch of roots, as usual, and he felt them heavy. He thought to himself, "These roots are heavy, and do not decrease when I eat them. What shall I do with them?" Then the Spider's wife called from the sky, saying, "Throw them on the earth to the people." NLi'kEsentem took some roots from the bundle containing tat?'un3, and threw some to the east, saying, "You shall henceforth live on the earth, and grow plentifully in that direction. People will dig you and eat you in great numbers." Then he threw some to each of the other quarters, addressing the roots in the same fashion. Taking some roots from each of the other bundles, he did the same thing with them. Thus these roots from the sky became plentiful all over the mountains of the earth. Still most of the roots remained in the bundles, so NLi'kEsentem emptied them out in the BEta'ni valley, saying, “You will become very plentiful here, and this place will become a noted root-digging resort.” Therefore the BEta'ni valleys are celebrated for the great quantity and variety of roots to be found there.
(p. 26.) Raven heard a man talking in NLi'kEsentem's widow's lodge, so he returned to his sons and said, "A stranger lives with our deceased brother's wife (nqo'itsten). Let us go and kill him.” Taking their weapons, they repaired to the lodge, where they were surprised to meet NLi'kEsentem, who welcomed them, and gave them food to eat.
NLi'kEsentem made a woven packing-line (snaza'xén) of the deer's entrails, with patterns on it like those of the Uta'mqt. He made a flood to come in the creek, and, before the coyote could cross the log, he was washed away.
(p. 27) When the girls answered that they wished to have some backbone of the humpback salmon, he threw his penis up stream, and, drifting down, it entered the youngest girl. The other girls, being unable to pull it out, tried to cut it with a sharp stone, but to no purpose. Coyote cried across the river, "Cut it with Swamp-grass,"4 and with this they managed to cut it off short.
(p. 28.) When Coyote asked the Similkameen girls if they wished any backbone of the humpback salmon, they said to one another, "He addresses us in the Thompson (Lü'ktemüx) language." They answered, "We want the back of the head of the male mountain sheep (komé'pstEns a solró’ps). He answered, "Very well, you shall have your wish. Your moccasins will have many holes, and your horses' feet be much worn by travel, before you will be able to get salmon."
1. One bundle contain tatû'en-roots (wild potato or Indian potato, a species of Claytonia); another bundle consisted of skametc-roots (adder-tongue lily). The roots in the other two bundles are uncertain.
2. Some say, eight times.
3. See refernce to this plant in Traditions of the Thompson River Indians, p. 22, note 45.
4. A variety of swamp-grass with very sharp edges.
