KO. 4 UPPER YUKON NATIVE CUSTOMS — SCHMITTER 29 



would throw his coat away she would pick it up and cat it. The man now 

 knew that the young wolverenes had no coats, so he wished that a cold storm 

 would come. Then the storm came and they called to the man, "Partner, come 

 and build a fire for us, because it is cold and we won't kill you." The man 

 started to build a fire. He got wood together and started a fire under it. He 

 didn't want it to burn right away, so he put a little snow on the fire. Then he 

 told the young wolverenes to sit in a row and all blow the fire at once to- 

 gether. As they bent to blow it he struck all of them over the heads with a 

 long pole, killing them all with the one blow. 



THE WOLVERENE AND THE HUNTER 



The wolverene used often to go out hunting with a man, but every time he 

 would return without his partner. One man decided to go out with him and 

 find out what he did with them. They traveled together all day. Every time 

 they saw a moose track the man wanted to follow it, but the wolverene said, 

 "That's no good; we must go long way to get good hunting." At dark they 

 made a camp. There was plenty of wood about, but wolverene said that he 

 would get a hollow rotten stump and a large squirrel's nest (the kind built on 

 pine-tree branches). The man had stripes about his pants below the knees, 

 made of porcupine quills. The wolverene didn't have any stripes on his pants. 

 They both got wet. The man knew that the wolverene was going to do some- 

 thing bad with the rotten wood. They stretched a pole across the fire and 

 hung their pants on it to dry. 



The man turned his pants inside out, so the wolverene did the same way. 

 The wolverene sat on the left of the fire and the man sat on the right, with 

 their pants on their respective sides, so that they would know whose pants 

 each were. They both went to bed without pants on, beside each other. This 

 man was smarter than the wolverene. The man did not sleep, but pretended 

 to. He would snore ; then the wolverene would go to get up quietly : then the 

 man would move a little and the wolverene would lie down. The man did not 

 go to sleep, but kept awake till the morning hours, when he was sure the 

 wolverene was asleep. Then the man got up and changed the place of the 

 pants and went back to bed. The wolverene now woke up and took the pants 

 which he thought was the man's. He put them inside the hollow stump and 

 laid the squirrel's nest over it. Then he put it in the fire and burned it. At 

 daylight the man got up. The fire was out, so he built another fire. After that 

 he took his pants down. Then the wolverene got vxp and said, "Partner, that's 

 my pants." The man said, "No, they are my pants." The wolverene tried to 

 take them away, but the man said, "You haven't any stripes on your pants; 

 there are the stripes, so they're mine." The wolverene was sorry he lost his 

 pants, and said they must have fallen on the fire and burned. The man got 

 lots of small wood, no large pieces, so that it would burn up quickly ; then he 

 told the wolverene he would go home to get a pair of pants and come back 

 after him. When he started he got a few hundred yards away ; then he called 

 to the wolverene and said, "I have found out now what you do with your 

 partners. I won't come back to you any more." Then the man went home and 

 let the wolverene freeze to death. 



