TPRNEB.] FOLKLORE. 333 



deer. " So everything was got ready for an early start and they all re- 

 tired to bed. When they awakened in the morning, one of the wife's 

 brothers said to another : "Look at onr otter brother; he has a white 

 month." The otter turned to his wife and said to her : "Did I not 

 tell you that your brothers would make a fool of me?" The otter then 

 took his two otter children in his arms, and told his wife that she 

 would have to make her living as best she could, as he would not live 

 with her any more, that he was going away to leave her. He darted 

 oft' to the lake, and disappeared under the ice, and was never seen 

 again. 



The devil punishing a liar. — A bear (mackwh) had two young cubs 

 which she did not want to let know that summer had come, but kept 

 them in the den and would not let them go out. The young ones con- 

 tinually inquired if the summer had come, and repeated the question 

 every time the mother returned from the outside. She invariably an- 

 swered, "No." Some days after she fell asleep, when she had returned 

 from one of her trips, and while sleeping her mouth opened wide. The 

 young ones said to each other: " Surely the summer is come, for there 

 are green leaves in our mother's mouth." The mother had told her 

 children how beautiful was the summer time, how green the trees, how 

 juicy the plants, and how sweet the berries; so the cubs, impaticTit, 

 while longing for summer that they might enjoy what was outside of 

 their den, knew by the leaves in their mother's mouth that she had de- 

 ceived them. The older cub told the younger that they would slip out 

 at the top of the den and go out while their mother was yet sleeping. 

 They crept out and found the weather so fine and the surroundings so 

 pleasant that they wandered some distance off by the time she wakened 

 from her sleep. She ran out and called loudly for her children, seem- 

 ingly surprised, iind exclaimed: " My sous, the summer has come; the 

 summer has come." The cubs hid when they heard their mother's 

 voice. She called to them until nightfall. The older cub said to his 

 brother: "I wish the devil (A-qan') would hear her and kill her for 

 telling us the summer had not come, and keeping us in the house so 

 long when it was already pleasant outside." 



The mother bear soon screamed to her sons: "The devil has heard 

 me and is killing me." 



The cubs heard the devil killing their mother with a stone, pounditig 

 her on the head. 



They became frightened and ran away. 



A icolverene destroys his sister. — A wolverene having wandered far, 

 for several days without food, suddenly came upon a bear. The former, 

 feeling very hungry, conceived the i)hin of destroying his larger prey 

 by stratagem. The wolverene cautiously approached the bear and ex- 

 claimed: "Is that you, sister?" The bear turned around and saw the 

 wolverene, but in a low tone, which the wolverene did not liear, said to 

 herself: "I did not know that J had a brother," so ran quickly away. 



