26 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. VII. 



said, "I feel sorry for these children, for their mother is dead." 

 So she gave them some meat, and when they went back they told 

 their father that the Indian woman was very good to them, and 

 said, "Father, let us invite them to come over and eat with us." 

 Then the old man told the girls to cook, and they invited her. After 

 the woman had come and gone, one of the girls said to her father, 

 "That woman is my mother, for she has got that scar on her leg." They 

 all started to move camp, and this woman and man would stay back 

 behind. So the father of the children waited for them on the road, 

 and killed them both. 1 



22. — The Woman who tried to marry her Son-in-Law. 



Once there was a man living by the big water. He was a deer 

 hunter. He would go out and kill wild turkeys and bring them in. 

 Finally his mother-in-law fell in love with him. There was a swing 

 by the water, and the old woman and her daughter would swing 

 across it and back, After a while, the old woman partially cut the 

 rope, so that it would break. While the husband was out hunting 

 one day the old woman said to her daughter, "Let us go to the 

 swing, and have some fun." The old woman got in first, and 

 swung across the water and back. Then the girl got in the swing 

 and she swung across all right, but when she was half way back, 

 the rope broke in two, and the girl fell into the water and was 

 drowned. 



The old woman went home and got supper for her son-in-law. 

 The man came in just at dark, and he missed his wife, and said, 

 "Mother-in-law, where is my wife?" The old woman said, "She 

 has gone to the swing, and has not yet returned." The old woman 

 began to prepare supper for her son-in-law. The* man said, "Do 

 not give me any supper." So he started to cry. The old woman 

 said, "Do not cry, she is dead, and we cannot help it. T will take 

 care of the baby. Your wife got drowned, so she is lost entirelv." 

 The man cut off his hair and threw his leggings away and his shirt, 

 and was mourning for his wife. He would go out, and stay a 

 week at a time without eating. He became very poor. Finally he 

 said he was going off to stay several days ; that he could not help 

 thinking of his wife. He went off and stayed several days, and 

 when he came home he would cry all the time. 



1 In the more common form of this tale, a father marries his daughter; in one tale, a man marries 

 his stepdaughter: See Dorse} and Kroeber (Arapaho), Anth. Ser., F. C. M., Vol. V., p. 82; Kroeber 

 (Ute), J. A. Folk-Lore, Vol. XIV., p. 268; Matthews (Navaho), Am. Antiq., Vol. VII., p. 271; Dixon 

 (Maidu), J. A. Folk-Lore, Vol. XIII., p. 270; Farrand (Chilcotin), Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. History, Vol. 

 IV., p. 17.; Petitot (Hare), Trad. Ind., p. 219. 



