he saw smoke on a point, put ashore, and came to the camp of OtterWoman, who had in her privates animals that bit and killed men.1 The woman ran down to meet him, and cried, "You must be my husband!" She hurriedly bundled his belongings into her game-bag, tied it up, and was about to carry it up to her lodge. Beaver said, "Stay! I want to drink some cold water. Will you fetch me some?" She hurriedly brought some water from near by; but Beaver said, "That is no good, it is too warm. Go up to the spring in the mountain and get some really cold water." When she had gone, Beaver cut one of the strings of the bag. Otter-Woman at once knew, and turned back. Beaver beckoned her to go on; and when she was far away, he cut the other strings of the bag, took out his belongings, and embarked in the canoe. He went downstream to an island where he made up his mind to camp over night. Otter-Woman came back, jumped into the river, swam to the island, and went to his camp. Beaver killed two beavers at this place for food. Otter-Woman took the skins, tanned and dressed them, sewed them into mitts for Beaver, and laid them by his side. Beaver and Otter-Woman staid on opposite sides of the fire. When Beaver awoke, he found the mitts the woman had made, and, looking across the fire, he saw her lying naked with her legs apart, in a tempting attitude. Beaver heated a stone, and, instead of having connection with her, he pushed the stone into her vagina and killed her. A weasel and mink came out, and he killed them.2 These animals bit men who had connection with the woman, and killed them. Beaver continued his voyage down the river. He saw the smoke of a big camp, and put ashore. Here lived Shrew-Woman, who was very small and very wise. The smoke from her lodge rose out of the grass. She asked him where he was going and where he had come from. When he told her, she advised him not to go farther down the river. She said, "An evil being lives lower down. He is gifted with great magical power, and has many cannibal monsters under his control. Above his house are two huge snake-like monsters with hairy manes, that lie one on each side of the river. When they sleep, their eyes are wide open; and when awake, their eyes are shut. When anything comes down the river, they both dart out their heads and seize and devour it." Beaver said he was hungry, and Shrew cooked a few 1 See notes in RBAE 31: 604 (No. 63), 614 (No. 12), 773, 809 (Arapaho, Bellacoola, Chilcotin, Comox, Dakota, Fraser Delta, Jicarilla Apache, Kwakiutl, Lillooet, Maidu, Pawnee, Sahaptin, Shoshoni, Shuswap, Thompson, Wichita [also in the Old World]). Also known to the Tahltan. See also MAFLS 11:17, 152.

2 See Tsetsa'ut (Boas, JAFL 10: 46).

3 Compare many tribes where a mouse is an old woman noted for wisdom, and people ask her for advice, a small black mouse among the Tahltan, the short-tailed mouse among the Shuswap. See Kwakiutl (for instance, JE 3: 12), Tahltan, Thompson (MAFLS 6:64; JE 8: 209), Tlingit (RBAE 31 : 838), Tsimshian (RBAE 31 : 752).

• See RBAE 31: 797.

salmon-eggs for him in a tiny kettle. Beaver thought to himself, "That is not enough." Shrew read his thoughts, and said, "You will find there is enough." As the eggs cooked, they and the kettle grew bigger, and Beaver found he could not eat all. When Beaver left, Shrew gave him two fish to throw, one on each side, to the snakes when he reached them. He came down midstream in his canoe; and as he approached the snakes, he saw that their eyes were shut. He then knew they were awake; and, as he passed between them, they darted out their heads to devour him. He threw a fish into the mouth of each; and while they were devouring the fish, he passed on out of reach. A short distance below this place he saw two girls, sisters, playing on the shore. He went ashore above them, and, changing into a bluebird, flew near them. The sisters thought the bird could not fly very well, and chased it. At last the younger girl caught it and carried it home. When they reached their lodge (they slept together, and apart from their parents), the elder sister offered to buy the bird from the younger one by paying her a silver spoon she owned. The younger one agreed, and they exchanged. The elder girl took the bluebird to bed with her, and placed it between herself and her sister. When she awoke, she found a young man lying between them, and the bird was gone. The girls began to cry, for they knew their father would kill the man. They left him and went to breakfast. Their father noticed tears in their eyes, and asked them why they were crying. At last they told him of the young man, and he told them he wanted to see him. They brought the man to him, and he at once seized him and put him into a large kettle that he had on the fire. He kept him in there for two days boiling, then he lifted the lid to see if he were properly cooked. Beaver had changed himself into a little bird; and when the lid was lifted, he flew out and escaped. The cannibal tried hard to catch him, but without avail. During the interval the sisters felt very sorry for the man and cried often. That night Beaver came to them and slept between them as a man. In the morning they cried again, for they knew that their father would try again to kill him. Their father heard them, and knew the man was there. When they went to breakfast, their father asked them, and they finally told him the man was there. He said to them, "All right, you may keep him as

1 Compare incidents of the magic kettle or dish which cannot be emptied: Bellabella (Boas, Sagen 223, 227), Chippewayan (Petitot 369), Kathlamet (Boas, BBAE 26: 103), Kwakiutl (Boas, Sagen 154), Lillooet (MAFLS 6:96), Micmac (Rand 24), Newettee (Boas, Sagen 181) Nootka (Boas, Sagen 103), Ponca (CNAE 6: 138, 139), Shuswap (Boas, Sagen 4; JE 2: 644, 648), Thompson (MAFLS 6:43; JE 8: 221, 315). Also known to the Tahltan.

2 See RBAE 31 : 797.

See RBAE 31: 806 (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Tsetsa'ut); also known to the Tahltan.

a husband, and he shall work for me." He told his son-in-law, "You must finish my canoe for me," and showed him a large, partly finished canoe, the sides of which were kept apart by a cross-stick. When Beaver went inside to work, the cannibal pulled out the stick, and the sides closed in and imprisoned Beaver. The cannibal went home and told his wife that the strange man was dead or a prisoner. Shortly afterwards he returned to the canoe, and found it split and his son-inlaw gone. Beaver had burst the canoe by spreading his elbows. Next morning the cannibal heard his daughters crying again; for they knew the difficult tasks their father would give to their husband, and that if he failed in any of them, he would lose his life. That day the cannibal told his son-in-law that he wanted some eagle-feathers for his arrows, and directed him to a big tree where the Bald-Headed Eagle lived, who ate people. Beaver climbed the tree, and found only two young Eagles in the nest. He asked them when their parents would come home; and they answered, "Our mother will come with wind and rain at noon, carrying the legs of a man. · Our father will come with wind and hail in the evening, carrying the upper part of a

He eats the rest." One of Eagle's children always told his parents everything. He therefore could not be trusted, so Beaver killed him. Beaver said to the other, "When your mother comes, tell her your brother got sick in the head and died; and you are sick in the head now too, and will die by and by if you eat any more of that meat she brings. You must not eat any of the meat. If she asks what it is that smells like a man around here, tell her it is only the smell of the game she brought." Beaver hid with a club outside the edge of the nest. When the Mother-Eagle arrived, she asked why her son was dead, and the boy told her all as directed by Beaver. He also refused to eat of the meat she had brought. The mother said, "Very well, I will eat the meat myself." When she had eaten just a little, a piece stuck in her throat and threatened to choke her. She then knew there was something wrong. Beaver jumped up and clubbed her, and threw the body away. Beaver told the boy to tell the same story to his father, and, if the latter asked where his wife was, to tell him she had not yet come home. When the Father-Eagle arrived, he asked for his wife. When he was told that she had not yet come, he said, "That is strange, she always arrives here before me." The boy refused to eat the meat he brought; so the father began to eat it himself, choked on it, and was killed by Beaver, who now descended, plucked the feathers out of the dead birds, and returned. The cannibal was 1 See RBAE 31: 801 (Bellacoola, Chilcotin, Chinook, Comox, Coos, Fraser Delta, Haida, Kodiak, Kwakiutl, Lillooet, Newettee, Nootka, Quinault, Squamish, Thompson, Tlingit, Tsimshian).

* See BBAE 59: 286 (Arapaho, Assiniboin, Beaver, Chilcotin, Chippewayan, DogRib, Gros Ventre, Hare, Jicarilla Apache, Kutenai, Okanagon, Ponca, Sanpoil, Shoshoni, Shuswap, Sia, Thompson, Uinta Ute).

much surprised that Beaver had returned alive. Next day he told his daughters that their husband had to get sinew for tying the feathers on his arrows. When they told Beaver, he sent one of them back to learn where he had to go; and her father told her he had to go to the hairy cannibal monster who lived beyond Shrew-Woman's house. On the way Beaver called on the Shrew and told her of the task he had to perform. She said to him, "I will help you." They went off together; and when near the monster's place, she dug a hole for Beaver in which to conceal himself. The hair was worn off the monster's haunches through sitting on the ground. When Shrew drew near, the monster asked her what she wanted. She said, "I want you to help me. I am cold, and I want some of the long hair from your body to weave a blanket for myself." The monster told her to pluck some hair from his haunches. She pretended to pull the hair, and said, "The hair is too tough and coarse here, it will not pull out." He told her to try another place. She did so, and said the same. Finally she said, "The hair under your arm seems to be the best. I will pluck some from there." The monster said, "All right." She pulled out much of the hair from under the arm over the heart, and left a bare spot. Beaver then shot an arrow at this vital place and mortally wounded the beast, who immediately crawled into his hole or den. Shrew crawled in, and found he was dead. Shrew-Woman now had plenty of meat, and she cut out the sinew for Beaver, who went back with it. When Beaver brought home the sinew, the women were glad, and their father was very angry. Next morning he told his daughters to tell their husband to get glue to fasten the feathers and sinew on his arrows. He sent one of his wives back to ask where to get it. Her father said, "Down there in the lake." There lived a monster-fish, probably a kind of pike or a sturgeon, that ate people as they went along the shore. Beaver took his spear and went to the lake and speared the fish, which moved the whole lake in his deathstruggles. When he was dead, Beaver cut out the part used for glue from behind the dorsal fin, and returned home. The cannibal was now very angry, and said to his wife, "This fellow has killed all my pets that kill men, and my arrows are not yet made." Next day he sent him for paint to paint his arrows with, and sent word that it was up the river where he had passed. As Beaver went by, he called on Shrew-Woman for advice. She told him that the snake-monsters he had passed coming down the river lay on the paint. She said she would assist him. She made a man of clay to throw into the middle of the river. She said, "When they see him, they will pounce on him,

1 Kutenai (Boas, BBAE 59: 105).

2 See Beaver (Goddard, PaAM 10: 235), Gros Ventre (Kroeber, PaAM 1: 88-90), Okanagon (Gatschet, Globus 52 : 137).

and then you may steal the paint from underneath the tail of the one on this side of the river." Beaver brought back the paint. The cannibal now transformed his daughters into grizzly bears, and put them on a side-hill across the river. He pointed out the bears to his son-in-law, and said, "Do you see those bears across the water? Let us go and kill them! You will go on the top of the hill, I shall drive them to you, and you will shoot them." He gave his arrows to Beaver, who saw that none of them had heads. Beaver, however, was prepared for this, and had hidden two bone arrow-heads in his hair. When Beaver got to the top of the hill, he put the bone heads on two arrows. The cannibal drove the bears, and, when they came near the top, Beaver shot the headless arrows at them; but they all broke, and none of them penetrated. He then fired the arrows with heads, and killed both the bears. The cannibal was very angry, and chased him with a knife. As he could not run fast, he called on his wife, who was fleet of foot, to chase Beaver. When she had nearly caught up with Beaver, the latter made the ground crack behind him, and the woman fell down. Again she gained on him; but he reached a lake, jumped in, and changed himself into a beaver. The cannibal said to his wife, "You can run fast; go back and fetch my net, that I may catch him." The woman brought the beaver-net, and they set it in the lake. They tried for several days, but could not catch Beaver. The cannibal then called for the man (bird) with a big stomach to come and drink up the lake. He came and drank the lake dry. Beaver then hid in the mud, and the cannibal and his wife probed all over for him. At last they felt him, and Beaver realized that he was in extreme danger. He called on Snipe, saying, “Quick! They have found me. Hurry and punch a hole in the stomach of that bad man (bird)!" Snipe approached the Bird-Man, who was sitting quite still on the edge of the basin where the lake had been. He was so full of water he could not move, and felt very heavy. He said to Snipe, "Don't come near me!" Snipe answered, "I shall not harm you. I am just looking for food near you." Snipe made a swift stroke with his bill, and punched a hole through Bird-Man's stomach and belly; and the water gushed out, and soon filled the lake. Beaver began to swim about, and the cannibal and his wife rushed hurriedly away for fear of drowning. The woman told her husband to come home, saying he could not beat their son-in-law. On the way back they came to the bodies of their daughters, and began to cry. Beaver followed them, and, coming to the 1 See RBAE 31: 742 (Bellacoola, Chilcotin, Okanagon, Shuswap, Thompson, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Wasco); also Teit, MAFLS 11: 79. Also found among the Tahltan. Also known to the Tahltan.

A kind of bird. The narrator had forgotten the name.

See BBAE 59: 304 (Beaver, Chihula, Huron, Luiseño, Micmac). See also Lillooet (JAFL 25: 333). Thompson (JE 8: 254).