84. The Snake-Lover;1 or, the Woman and the Snake Mystery.
A man's wife always went to dig roots near a certain lake. She constantly complained of being sick, and therefore unable to dig many roots. Her husband became suspicious, thinking she only feigned sickness, and that there was another cause for her bringing home so few roots. One morning he went hunting very early, and hid himself among the roots of the tree near the lake. Soon his wife appeared walking quite sprightly. When she had reached the lake-shore, she divested herself of her clothes, and bathed. As soon as the water was disturbed, a large snake arose out of the middle of the lake. She called him, and he came ashore. When he reached the land, he became a man, and had connection with the woman. They lay in one another's arms all day. At sundown the man entered the water and became a snake again. The woman clad herself, dug a few roots and went home. When she got near the house, she pretended to be sick, tired, and lame.
On the following morning the husband told his wife to stay at home, as she was too sick to dig roots. He sharpened his large knife, dressed his hair like his wife, went to the lake, and called the snake as his wife had done. It came ashore and wished to have connection with him, thinking he was the woman. He stabbed it with his large knife, and cut it to pieces. Cutting off the privates, he took them home and cooked them for his wife. When she saw what he offered her to eat, she fainted. Then he killed her with
the same knife.1 Compare Shuswap, p. 725; Lillooet; Cheyenne, L c., p. 185, and Traditions of the Thompson River
Indians, xxxi.
85. The Brother who went to the Underground World.1
A brother lived with his two sisters, and they had a little dog. Every morning he bathed in the creek at the same spot, and used a fresh fir-branch each time for a sponge. He told his sisters never to go to his bathing-place but, because he told them this, their curiosity was aroused, and they went.
There they discovered an immense pile of the fir-branches which their brother had used; and the needles which had rubbed off from them and fallen in the creek had all changed into dentalia. These they gathered up, and went home
highly delighted.Now, their brother had known at once when they disobeyed him, and was angry, because women, by going to his - bathing-place, would spoil it for training. He made up his mind to desert his sisters, and descended to the under world through the floor of the underground house., The girls waited in vain for him to return, and at last, believing that he had deserted them for their disobedience, they commenced to cry.
Now, the little dog scratched continually at the bottom of the fire-stone which guarded the foot of the ladder, and at last the sisters lifted the stone away to find out what the dog wanted. Then they saw a hole through which they could look right down into the lower world. They saw the people playing a ball game,2and their brother was among them. They began to weep, and some of their tears fell on his hands. He said, ' It does not rain here, and yet drops fell on my hands.' Looking up, he saw his sisters weeping, and said to them, ;Come down here and join me. This is a fine country: there is neither rain nor snow, nor heat nor cold. Neither do we have to hunt or work, but can spend all our time playing.' His sisters were afraid to go down, however: so he took' pity on them, and returned to the earth and lived with them as before.1 Compare p. 213 of this volume, also Traditions of the Thompson River Indians, xxviii.
2 Like lacrosse.
