Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/138

A few days after they had broken camp | in winter, Ya.uk'e',ka'm wasdown below. The people did not know || that Ya.uk'e',ka'm's mother 15had gone | down into the water, and that Ya.uk'e',ka'm was bornthere and had come from the water. Now, when they had thrownYa.uk'e',ka m | into the water in winter, then the fish ate him | be-cause he was dead. Therefore the fish did so. || They ate up his body. 20Ya.uk'e',ka'm knew at once that the fish | were eating of his feet,and he kicked them. He said: | "Why are you eating me?" Thefish said to him: "We are not angry at you. Why do you kickus? We are restoring you." Then Ya.uk'e',ka'm knew himself.'||The fishes said to him: "Go ashore! You shall go. | The people 25went in that direction. | Don't think that it is a long time since theybroke camp. | Crane dragged a young tree along to cover their tracks.They thought you would not know which way they went." | ThenYa.uk'e',ka'm went ashore to the village site. He looked at it || and 30saw which way they had gone. He started. After about | three orfour days he saw a village site. He saw that there was | some fireleft at the village site. He knew that they had started from thereearly in the morning. He started and went along. He heardCrane singing. He reached him, and said to him: "What are youdoing with that young tree?" Crane said: "Several days ago | 35Ya.uk'e',ka'm was killed and was thrown into the water.We areafraid he may come back to life, and he will go the way we aregoing and will kill everybody. I have been told to drag along thisyoung tree, so that, if he should come back to life, | he may not rec-ognize the trail."Then (Ya.uk'e'ika'm) knocked || Crane down. 40Ya.uk'e',ka'm went on, and reached | Crane's wife. Then he knockedher down. He started, and saw | somebody going along. Hereached that person, and saw that it was his sister-in-law. | She wentalong crying. She said: "My brother-in-law Ya.uk'e'¡ka'm used totake me along this way. | The people were afraid of him, || and the 45other day they killed him. Now I am poor. I am hungry, | for thepeople are not afraid of him. My husband's brother is no more." |She carried her child on her back. Her child's name was Duck.²Ya.uk'e',ka'm poked the child with a stick. The child looked athim and saw him; and Duck said to his mother: || "Uncle Ya.u- 50ke',ka'm is here." Then the mother of Duck turned around andlooked. There was a tree, and Ya.uk'e',ka'm had gone behind it |when his sister-in-law looked at him. There was nothing there.The woman thought | her child had told a lie. She struck him.She said to him: "Oh, | don't you know how I feel because mybrother-in-law has been killed? || The people make us suffer." | She 55was crying while she was naming Ya.uk"e',ka'm; | and Ya.uk'e',ka m1 Probably "came to his senses."

2 Species unknown.