Traditions of the Thompson River Indians (cont.)
[Nkamtci'nemux.]
The daughter of a chief at Lkamtci'n (Lytton), who was very pretty, refused all offers of marriage from her numerous suitors. At last her father became angry with her, and said, "Is a dog to be your husband, that you refuse all these offers from the best young men?" To which she replied in anger, "Even if a dog were my husband, it would suit me as well as these." After this, one of her rejected suitors, who was gifted in magic, changed a dog into a young man. At night this man went to the girl, unknown to the other people of the underground lodge. He did so repeatedly; but at daybreak, when he left the girl, he was changed back into a dog, therefore she could not find out who her lover was.
After some time, when she was with child, she devised a plan to discover the identity of her lover. She rubbed red ochre on her hands, and when her lover came, she embraced him, drawing her painted hands along his sides. The man left her early, but she did not see him go out of the underground lodge, although she had watched all the people go out and in. At last she noticed her father's dog go out, with a red streak of ochre on each of his sides. Overcome with shame, she sat down and wept. The people asked her the cause of her sorrow, but she would not tell.After some time she gave birth to a litter of four male pups. Her father and all the people were so much ashamed and angry, that they immediately left her, and went to BEta'ni. She took her four children, and went to live in a lonely place a little distance above Lytton, where she worked very hard to provide food for herself and her children. When they had grown a little, she used to leave them at nights, and went spearing fish by torchlight along the bank of the river. One morning, when she was nearing home, she heard the noise of the children playing. She went on noiselessly, peered into the house, when to her astonishment she saw her children in human form, playing together. As soon as they became aware of her approach, they were all changed into dogs again. Thus she watched them three successive mornings, and discovered that they were really children, who threw off their dogskins and laid them aside when they went to play, or whenever they thought their mother had gone away; but as soon as they became aware of her approach, they put them on again. That day she prepared four kettles of medicine.207 On the fourth night she suddenly appeared at the house, and, getting between the children and the place where their skins were lying, she threw the contents of the four kettles of medicine over their bodies, and thus prevented their resuming the shape of dogs.
The woman stayed in this place for several years, neither visiting nor being visited by people. In the mean time her four boys grew up into young men of great beauty and of fair complexion. They became great hunters, and filled all the cellars and houses of the deserted village with deer fat and dressed skins. They put the choicest food and the best skins in the cellars and houses of the Raven and the Crow, because these, when leaving, had taken pity on their mother, and had left a few fish-heads behind in their cellars for her to eat. One day in the early summer they were visited by the Magpie, who had come down from BEta'ni, where most of the people were at that time camped. The woman and her sons treated their visitor hospitably, and gave him plenty of deer fat to eat. The Magpie then returned to BEta'ni, and related to the people what he had seen. He went to the lodge of the woman's parents, and told them, "Your daughter is still alive and well. Her children are no longer dogs, but are young men of fine appearance and of fair skin. They have become mighty hunters, and have filled all our houses and cellars with meat, fat, and skins." The Wolf and some others laughed at the Magpie, for they did not believe his story; but most of the people believed him, and said, "Let us go down and see our friends." So they all moved down to their old village, and found that the Magpie's story was true. Then they sent out messengers to the woman and her sons, asking them to come and stay with them, but they would not consent to do so for a long time. Many people were anxious to marry their daughters to them, but for a long time their propositions were rejected. At length the woman and her sons removed to the village, where they took up their abode with the people, and the young men married many wives, and became the fathers of numerous children."208
[Nkamtci'nemux.]
Formerly the Owl was a great hunter. At one time some people who were hunting happened to camp near his haunts in the mountains. They were accompanied by a boy who was in the habit of continually making a noise, and crying, thus causing them much annoyance. One evening his parents, intending to make him quiet, said, "Owl, come and take him." That night the Owl came and took him away. He reared him, and the boy eventually became, like the Owl himself, a celebrated hunter.
