286 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



The owl said to him, "Let us go to where your wife is and see how much 

 meat she has." Then the man went to her. When he arrived she was 

 surprised to see that he was different, that his eyes were bright, and 

 that he looked about him. Then she said to him, 'T have been drying 

 meat for you. Come; sit down and eat." '"Very well." said the man. 

 Then his wife gave him meat from the back. He said, "No, I do not 

 want it. But you take this pemmican," and he pushed the pemmican 

 into her mouth with a stick until she swallowed it. Then his wife said, 

 "Will you have some of this dried meat?" But he refused and pushed 

 some more pemmican down her throat. His wife offered in turn all 

 the best parts of the meat; and she now loved him again on account 

 of his bright eyes and fine appearance ; but he only continued to thrust 

 her pemmican down her throat. Soon she had enough ; but he con- 

 tinued to crowd the food into her, until the top of it was visible in her 

 mouth and she was filled. But he rammed and packed it with a stick 

 until she could not breathe, and died.^ — K. 



127. — The Deceived Blind Man and the Deserted Children." 



There were three streams, all flowing east. At the one farthest 

 north were camped an old man with his wife and a son and a daughter. 

 They had left the camp of the people, intending to obtain food for 

 themselves. When they first started the old man was nearly blind. 

 Later he became blind and was unable to go about. The family did 

 not know what to do to get food, since the two children were small 

 and the old man was now blind. One day his wife saw a buffalo pass- 

 ing near their tent and told her husband how near the buffalo was. 

 He said to her, "I will try to kill it for our food. We must have 

 something to eat or we will starve." She said to him, "You can kill 

 nothing. You are blind. You are a ghost already. What can you do?" 

 "Nevertheless I shall try it," said the man. "I want you to stand be- 

 hind me, and when I draw the bow aim it at the fattest buffalo that 

 you can pick out. When you have done so, tell me." She aimed the 

 arrow for him and said, "Ready," and he let go the bowstring. The 

 man knew he had killed a buffalo, but his wife said that he had not. 

 She said: "You are a fool, you can do nothing. I told you that you 



' This myth and the one of the woman who married a dog (No. 91) are the only ones that are 

 common to all the Eskimo and to the Indians ot a large area. Eskimo: Rink, Tales and Traditions 

 of the Eskimo, 99; Boas, Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., VI, 625; Kroeber, Journ. Am. Folk Lore, XIT, 169; 

 Holm, Sagn og Fortaellinger fra Angmagsalik, 31. Indian: Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada 

 Nord Guest, 84, 226; Boas, Indianische Sagen v. d. N. Pacif. Kiiste Am., 229; Farrand, Mem. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., IV; Morice, Trans. Can. Inst., IV, 171. 



' Informant H. 



