NELSON] TALE OF THE RED BEAR 469 
Morning came and Pi-tikh’-cho-lik’ came out of the house and 
arranged his hunting gear upon the kaiak. After saying “ good-bye” 
to the women on the shore he paddled out to sea, singing pleasantly. 
When he was out of sight Ta-ku/-ka went down from the hillside and 
followed the women into one of the houses; they seemed surprised to 
see her, but made her welcome, asking her many questions. They 
admired her face and its color, which was lighter than theirs, also 
several tattooed lines on her face, one up and down between her eyes 
and three that extended down across the chin from her lower lip; 
they were also pleased with the shape of her garments, which were 
different from theirs. By and by one of the women said, ‘‘ You are 
very handsome with the beautiful lines marked on your face; I would 
give much if you would teach me how to make my face like yours.” 
Ta-ku/-ka answered, “I will show you how it is done, if I can please 
you, but it will hurt you and you may not wish to bear the pain.” “TI 
shall not mind the pain,” said the woman, ‘for I wish to be handsome, 
as you are, and am ready to bear it.” “Be it as you wish,” said 
Ta-ku/-ka. “Go into the house and make a fire, and put by it a large 
clay pot, filled with oil; when the oil boils call me. I will make your 
face beautiful like mine.” When the woman had thanked her and had 
gone to make ready, the other women asked her many questions. 
“ Will it hurt very much?” and ‘“ Will she really be as pretty as you 
are?” and others. To which Ta-ku/-ka replied, “She will not be hurt 
very much, and she will be prettier even than I.” 
In a short time the woman came back, saying that the oil was ready. 
Ta-ku/-ka then went into the house and told her to kneel before the pot 
of boiling oil and to bend her face over it. As soon as this was done, 
Ta-ku’/-ka grasped her by the hair and thrust her face down into the 
hot oil and held it there until the woman was dead, saying, ‘‘ There, you 
will always be beautiful now.” Then she laid the body on the bed 
platform, and covering the face, went back to the other women, Dur- 
ing her absence the other two had been talking together, and when she 
came back they asked her if she had succeeded in making their com- 
panion handsome, and Ta-ku’/-ka nodded her head. 
Then both women said, ‘¢ We, too, will make you presents if you will 
make us beautiful,” and she consented. Then all went to the dead 
woman’s house, and Ta-ku/-ka said to her companions, ‘ Do not disturb 
your friend; she sleeps now and her face is covered so that nothing will 
break the charm; when she awakes she will be very handsome.” After 
this she killed both the other women as she had the first, saying, as she 
laid them on the ground, “ You, too, will be very pretty.” She then 
made three crosses of sticks and placed them upright in the sand where 
the women had danced on the shore the evening before, upon which she 
placed the clothing of the dead women so that a person at a distance 
would think they were standing there. Then she took a red bearskin 
and went back to her hiding place in the rocks. Evening came, and the 
