226 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (bi'i.i..27 



weir of siiiull sticks iiiul twigs, and soon it was full of trout. lit' 

 tool< llicin out of tlie weir and the women roasted thciu. Tiieu he 

 wont huiitinu-. and in the afternoon he came back. Ijrinyini;- five por- 

 cupines. Then the sisters were glad. On the following day he went 

 hunting ugain. and l)rought hack a mountain goat. The si.stcrs had 

 made a basket of si)ruce roots in whicii they boiled the meat. On the 

 next day he went hunting again and caught a large l)ear, the fat of 

 which was about as thiciv as a man's hand is wide. On the fourth 

 day lie returned early in the morning, l)ringing a l)ighorn sli(>ep. 

 He tohl tiie si.sters that he had killed ten sheep, and asked them to 

 carry the meat home. The house was now full of meat and tish, 

 because the trap was full everj- morning. 



Soon the woman was with child, and she gave birth to a boy. When 

 the boy was able to walk, his father made snowshoes for him and sent 

 him up the UKjuutaiiis to look for l)ears. The bo\' came back in the 

 evening, but ho had not killed anything. His father asked him, '" Did 

 you not see a bear?" The boy had not seen any. Then his father 

 demanded to see his snowshoes. He examined them and found that 

 lie had made a mistake in making them. He made a new pair and 

 sent the boy off again. Soon he returned, bringing a piece of bear 

 meat. He told liis father that a bear which he had killed was lying 

 on the mountains. Then his father put on his snowshoes and brought 

 the bear home. On the following day the father went out hunting. 

 Sot)n he retunuHl. bringing two mountain goats, and told his son that 

 th(>re was a Hock of goats on the other side of the mountains. The 

 father sent him after them. Then his mother said. "Now we have a 

 name for our son. We will call him Asi-hwi'l. That means Going- 

 across-the-mountains. " 



Before the boy left, the father made a new pair of snowshoes for 

 him, and said to him, " With these snowshoes you can climb mountains, 

 however steep they may be. Whenever you come to a difficult place, 

 put on these snowshoes." Then he took a bag made of cedar bark 

 from under his arm. He opened it and took out two tiny dogs, one 

 of which was spotted, the other one red. He put them on the snow 

 and struck them, saying at the same time, ''Red, red, red," to one, 

 and, "Spotted, spotted, spotted," to the other. At once they became 

 large dogs. Then he struck them again, and they became small again. 

 He told the boy to take the dogs out of the bag whenever he should 

 see any goats, to make them lai'ge, and to command the one to go up 

 the mountains on the right-hand side, and the other to go up on the left- 

 hand side. Tlien they would I'un up. barking, and frighten the goats 

 so that they would fall down. Furthermore, he cut a pole for his son, 

 with a goat horn attached to one end, which he was to use in climbing 

 the mountains. He said, "If you strike the rock with the horn, 



