352 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 29 



The woman at Nass who fled from her husband 



[Told by Jimmy Sterling of the StAstas] 



A married woman consorted with a man. She grew to be very 

 much in love with him. Her child wa.s rather a large boy. When he 

 (her lover) went to visit her she said to him: "I will let myself fall 

 sick, and I will let myself die. I will tell them to place me on a tree 

 top. On the night when they place me there go quickly and get me. 

 When you get ready to come up for me get some wet, rotten wood, out 

 of which the water will run and which will just fit the box." 



After she had gone with him for a while she let herself fall sick. 

 She then gave her husband directions: " When I die place me on the 

 top of a tree. I do not want to be on the ground." As soon as she 

 died they put her into the box and put a strong cord around it. They 

 then put her between the two tops of a tree. 



He who was in love with her went at once to her in the night. As 

 soon as he had found some wet wood he untied the ropes which were 

 around her and let her out. He then put the wet, rotten wood in her 

 place. She had told him to do this in order that the water might drip 

 out of the wood and they might think that it was the grease from her 

 bod}^ 



He then told the woman where to wait for him the next day. And 

 he let her go before him. On the next day he went after her. He 

 told his friends that he was going to get furs. 



They at once set out to go far inland; and, after they had traveled 

 about for a while, he built a house for them far inland, and they began 

 to live there. 



Her husband constantly came weeping with her child to the place 

 where she had been placed on high. By and by [what he supposed 

 was] the grease from her body began to run down. That was the 

 liquid running out of the rotten wood. The man who went for furs 

 disappeared moreover. His friends thought that a grizzly bear had 

 killed him. 



Where they stayed, far inland, there was plenty of all kinds of 

 animals, which he killed for them. They had plenty of all kinds of 

 ■berries and salmon. And they wore hides sewed together. They 

 became like Wood Indians.^ 



Moreover, they began there to sing songs. The woman danced the 

 whole time. She also made up new words. During all that time she 

 taught her husband. She made up new words in order that when 

 she went back they should not know her. After they had sta3'ed 

 there many years they went away. They carried on their backs sldns 



