Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/327

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312
Bureau of American Ethnology
[Bull. 59

52. The Kuyo^'kwe (No. 73). — The people are moving camp, and a woman is left behind boiling bones. The Kuyo'kwe arrive and look into the tent. They enter, take off their clothing, and the woman makes a fire for them and gives them to eat. She throws melting fat into the fire, which startles the Kuyo^kwe. She takes this opportunity to run away. She carries a torch. The Kuyo^kwe pursue her. She reaches a cliff and throws down the torch, while she herself jumps aside.* The Kuyo^we believe that they are still following her, and fall down the precipice. The woman follows the people, and tells her son to take the property of the dead enemies. Thus the boy becomes a chief.

53. The Great Epidemic (No. 74). — During an epidemic all the people die. One man only is left. He travels from one camp to another, trying to find survivors. He sees some tracks, and thinks that some people must have survived. He notices what he believes to be two black bears, follows them, and finds a woman and her daughter. He marries first the woman, then her daughter, and the present Kutenai are their descendants.

54. The Giant (No. 75). — The people in a village are eaten by a Giant. An old couple live at the end of the village. The Giant enters their tent, and says that he will eat them in the morning. The old woman wakes up. She calls her husband, who cuts off the Giant's head.

55. The Man and the Wasps (No. 19).

56. The White Man (No. 22). — A white man is chopping off a branch on which he is sitting. He is warned, but continues until he falls down.

57. The Frenchman and his Daughters * (No. 23). — A Frenchman has three daughters. When walking in the woods, he finds a stump, which is the home of the Grizzly Bear. The Grizzly Bear demands to marry the Frenchman's daughter. He takes the eldest daughter to the stump. She marries the Grizzly Bear, but runs away in the evening because she is afraid. The same happens with the next daughter. The third daughter goes to the Grizzly Bear and stays with him. The young woman's mother goes to see how she fares. During the night the Grizzly Bear is invisible. In the morning she sees him again.

58. The Mother-In-Law Taboo (No. 77). — The men were ashamed to talk to their mothers-in-law. Only those who disliked their mothers-in-law talked to them.

1 Blackfoot (Uhlenbeck VKAWA 13:171, 197). Kaska (Teit JAFL 30:431). Shoshoni (Lowie Pa AM 2:273). Ts'ets 'aut (Boas JAFL 10:45). Ute, Uinta (Mason JAFL 23:316).

See Bolte und Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. Hausmarchen der Bruder Grimm, 2: 229.