20 HUGO RIED'S ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS 



Many affirm the child did not die but turned into a 

 squirrel. 



Then the mother went on alone until she came to the 

 place where her mother usually kept her seeds and acorns, 

 and lay down with the Charnuca. At length her mother 

 came to take out food, and on putting in her hand gave a 

 loud cry and jumped back. "Yes, be afraid of me," 

 said the daughter, " after all the injury you have heaped 

 on me by marrying me to a man who did not care for 

 me." The mother then heard the story, and left to in- 

 form the father, taking him out of the hut so no one might 

 hear it. 



The father proceeded with his wife to take food to their 

 daughter, and every day they brought her the same, and 

 herbs to drink so as to restore her to health and purge her 

 of the filth she had eaten ; also to restore her hair and 

 eyebrows, which she had lost, they applied the fat or oil 

 of the hamisar, a black berry. In three moons she was 

 well again, fat, young and beautiful, hair nearty equal to her 

 father's and brother's, which reached to the ground. She 

 was commanded then by her father, to go and bathe herself 

 daily in her brother's bathing place. She did so, and the 

 brother from seeing the water when he came, not limpid 

 as usual, suspected something. At last coming one day, 

 shortly after the other had done, he was convinced, and 

 more so on finding a hair half the length of his own. 

 This troubled him much, that others were bathing in his 

 well, and he became sad. At last, arriving one day, he 

 caught her in the bath, and saying, "so it is you who daily 

 dirty the water of my well," caught her by the leg and 

 threw her out ; she fell back and he beheld her nakedness. 

 This caused her so great grief and shame, that she left 

 and proceeded to the seashore to drown herself. She 

 made a run twice to throw herself into the sea but each 



