9o. The Hunter and the Wolf.1
A man was destitute and despised. He could kill no game. and the others all laughed at him. He depended mostly on what food and clothing people gave him, and generally went almost naked. One day he was hunting and had no clothes on, save a small apron. He was very sad because he. could kill nothing. He wished that some person would help him. As he was sitting with his head on his knees, he heard a voice. He looked up and saw a handsome man standing before him. The man said, "I am Wolf, and I know all about hunting and war. I will help you; and, if you follow my directions, you will become a great hunter and very wealthy."He gave him an arrow with a picture of a wolf painted on it, and told him to make all his arrows after that pattern. He said, 'Go and seek the little yellow flower nkukaxemu's,2 and rub it on your arrow-points. It is powerful, and causes death. The arrow I have given you is poisoned with it. When you hunt, paint your face red, and wear a feather on each side of your head.' 3 He gave him his head-band of wolfskin with an eagle's feather on each side. The man did as the Wolf had directed him, and became a great hunter and warrior. He became wealthy, and had for his protectors the wolf and the eagle. Thus the Indians learned to poison their arrows with the flower nkukaxemu's.
91.The Grisly Bear who stole a Woman.4
One fall a man and his wife were living in the mountains, hunting and root-digging. One day, while the woman was busy digging, a Grisly Bear approached her unobserved, and commanded her to follow him. She obeyed. and he led her to his den. Her husband returned from hunting, and waited in the lodge for her. As she had not arrived on the fourth day, he set out to search for her. He found where she had been last digging roots, and saw a Grisly Bear's tracks along with hers. He followed their tracks for some distance, but at last lost them on bad ground. Then he returned to the people and reported that his wife had been taken away, and probably killed, by a Grisly Bear. The following spring, as he believed his wife to be dead, he went up the mountains to burn their old lodge. He heard a woman singing, and presently saw his wife coming along with a grisly bear following her. She was digging roots and, the Bear was gathering them up. He hid himself; but she had already seen him, and shouted, "There is no use trying to help me. The Grisly Bear is too powerful. He is sure to kill you."
1 Compare Nicola story, Ntsikepsatem, p. 367; Shuswap, p. 719; and Cheyenne, 1. C., •., p. 163.
2 Ranunculus. p.
3 Hunters thus used feathers in imitation of a deer's ears or antlers.
4 Compare Shuswap and Chilicotin stories of Grisly Bear taking women or men
