84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [buli,. 47 



The man replied, "I will return it to you if you [all] will marry 

 me." "Agreed," said the Deer women, and then he gave them the 

 skin. "But before we can act in the matter, we must first tell the 

 chief," said the Deer women, and for that reason they departed for 

 Deer Land, taking the man with them. By and bj^ they came to a 

 hole in the ground that was covered by a box. They pushed the box 

 aside, and went down into the hole. When they reached their own 

 land, they put a deerskin on the man: it was a skin which the chief 

 gave him. 



In the course of time the Deer women departed, taking the husband 

 along. [Up to this time only one woman had become his real wife, 

 the rest must have been his potential wives.] Said the chief to the 

 man before starting, " When your wife emerges from the hole in the 

 ground and makes a leap, you too must leap." But the man did not 

 leap at the proper time, so another person came and deprived him of 

 his wife. After he was separated from the Deer women he was walk- 

 ing about as a deer, and when some Indians spied him they shot at 

 him. They had almost given him a fatal wound, when he started off 

 to Deer Land, which he soon reached. 



Another skin was given him, and the chief said, "Look sharp; she 

 goes again! " And though he went with his wife, he was forgetful of 

 the warning given him, and so they shot at him again. Though he 

 was wounded, he did not die, but off he went again to Deer Land. 

 On his return thither another deerskin was given him, and again did 

 he depart for the Indian country. Another time did he prove forget- 

 ful, and therefore he was wounded again. On his return to Deer 

 Land the chief said, " If you go again, and do not remember, in that 

 case you must surely die! " Then the chief gave him a magic deer 

 instead of a deerskin, and let him return to the Indian country. 

 On his return thither he killed so many deer that the Indians won- 

 dered how he could do it. So they watched all his movements, and 

 at last they found his magic deer, at which they shot. The man went 

 to the spot, took up the deerskin [of the magic deer] and carried it 

 back to Deer Land. After going for some time, he arrived, and when 

 he saw the chief, the latter said. " She came back long ago," referring 

 to the magic deer. 



Then the chief gave to the man a deer head, instructing him how to 

 use it. The man took the deer head and departed once more for the 

 Indian country. He reached there again, and from that time forward 

 he was using the deer head, by means of which he killed many deer, 

 so the old people have said. It was in consequence of the gift of the 

 deer head to the Indian that the Indians who lived long ago became 

 expert in killing deer by means of other deer heads. And the people 

 say that, because of the acts of the man who had the Deer woman for 

 a wife, now each natural deer seems to die four times, and not till 

 it dies the fourth time does it really expire. 



