III. ABSTRACTS AND COMPARATIVE NOTES 
The folk tales of the Kutenai show intimate relations to the tales 
of the tribes of the plateaus, as well as to those of the plains east of 
the mountains. A considerable number of tales are common to the 
Kutenai and the neighboring Salish tribes, particularly the Okanagon. 
There are also a considerable number of identical tales found among 
the Kutenai and the Blackfeet. 
It seems that the series of Transformer tales centering around 
Nalimu’qtse and Ya.uk"e’;ka‘m are peculiar to the Kutenai, although 
the tale of the origin of arrows is also known to the Okanagon. These 
tales are quite distinct from the Transformer tales of the Shuswap 
and Thompson Indians, and also from the tales of Old One as found 
among the Blackfoot. In 1891 I was told that when human beings 
were first created, they arose before they were quite finished, and 
danced until they fell down dead. Then human beings were created 
who became the ancestors of the Indians. 
So far as the incomplete material allows us to judge, one of the 
most characteristic traits of Kutenai folk tales is the systematic 
development of animal society. Frog is the old grandmother of 
Muskrat, the Chipmunks, and Doe. ler brother, Gal is hostile to 
her grandchildren. The fish K’k!om is the grandfather of Doe, 
but his relationship to Frog is not stated. The Chipmunks are the 
wives of Fisher. Chicken Hawk’s wife is Grouse. Coyote’s wife is 
Dog. Their children are Misqolo’wum and Q!ota’ptsek!. Coyotes’ 
brothers are Moose and Kingfisher. The only animal that is married 
to various people is Doe, but it is not certain whether the same Doe 
is meant every time. She is the wife of White Stone. Their child is 
Ya.uk"e’;ka‘m. Ya.uk"e’;ka‘m’s brother is the father of Duck. 
The Doe is also married to Wolf, and at another place to Lynx. Lynx 
and Doe have two sons, who are Sun and Moon. The other animals 
do not seem to be related to this group, but live in the same village, 
and are either friends or enemies. 
It is one of the characteristic traits of Kutenai and Gua 
mythology that the tales are welded together into connected groups. 
This tendency is not as marked as it is among the Navaho and prob- 
ably also the Ute tribes, but it sets off the Kutenai tales clearly from 
the disconnected tales of the Shuswap and Thompson Indians. _ 
In our series one group of tales centers around the creation of the 
sun. The first part of the story relates to the origin of the brothers 
who finally become sun and moon. Rabbit finds his sister Doe, 
whom he hides in the tent of his grandmother Frog. Lynx marries 
the Doe, and their children are two boys. The couple are deserted; 
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