1892-93.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN DENES. 109 



that her mind was as if paralyzed in his presence. As she pretended that 

 she had no provisions for the journey, he told her that the distance was 

 short, and that he had plenty in his own place. Whereupon he seized 

 her and she had to follow him. Now the stranger was no other than the 

 lynx. She managed however ^to snatch from her lodge in leaving a 

 grouse {Dendragapus franklinii, Dougl.) which her husband had shot a 

 while before. As she walked behind her seducer, she would pluck a few 

 of the grouse's feathers and down and drop them along thereby marking 

 her trail on the ground. By the time that she reached her new home, the 

 bird was entirely stripped of its feathers and down. 



" The lynx's lodge was full of pieces of the fat of cariboo and moose 

 hanging up to dry. Before dark, he went out to do a little hunting a 

 short distance off 



" Meanwhile the young woman's lawful husband who had experienced 

 no difficulty in tracking her, thanks to the fallen feathers and the 

 trampled herbage — for it was summer time — came upon her as she was 

 sitting lonely in the lynx's lodge. She at once told him the story of her 

 abduction by the stranger. At the same time she insisted that the latter 

 was uncommonly powerful, and cautioned her husband against using 

 violence in this case. " We had better try and take him by stratagem, 

 for both of us together are nothing to him," she said. 



" She had barely uttered these words, when the lynx came home after 

 a successful hunt. The woman went out to him and said presenting the 

 new comer: " Husband, here is your brother-in-law, for he is indeed my 

 own younger brother." Upon which the lynx asked : " Have I then a 

 brother-in-law .''" — "Yes indeed, and a very good one," answered the 

 woman. Then her own lawfuThusband told the lynx how very pleased 

 he was to see his sister married to so good a hunter and thereby delivered 

 from her first husband who had been living with her against the wishes of 

 all her relations. To confirm the sincerity of his declarations, he pre- 

 sented the lynx with his own quiver full of arrows, keeping only his bow 

 for himself " I will hereafter see you more than once," he added " and 

 each time I shall make you similar presents." 



" The lynx was so pleased that he insisted upon preparing himself his 

 guest's supper. 



" Now prior to his return home, the young woman had related to her 

 real husband how the lynx had asked her whether she was having her 

 menses. Lest she may have been tempted to prove unfaithful, she had 

 answered affirmatively, though that was not the case. Hearing this, the 

 lynx had manifested a great dread of her and left her untouched. They 



