CURTix.-l MYTHS 467 



swered : " You would better remain here with me as my husband. We 

 can live very happily if you can manage my grandmother, who is a 

 little old woman, but very troublesome." As the young woman was 

 pleasant and good-looking, the hunter decided to remain with her. 

 When they arrived at the lodge of the young woman the little old 

 woman, her grandmother, was outside. She was about one-half the 

 height of an ordinary person, but very stout. She exclaimed : " Oh! 

 you have brought a husband, have you?" Continuing, she added: 

 " You would better bring him into the lodge to let him rest. You 

 should also give him something to eat." The young woman replied: 

 "It is well; you ask him to come into the lodge." So the grand- 

 mother told them to enter the lodge; following her inside, they 

 sat down. Thereupon the grandmother, getting a club from the 

 farther end of the room, began beating her granddaughter, saying: 

 " Oh ! you like too well to have a husband." She struck her many 

 blows, which the granddaughter endured without making any de- 

 fense. When bedtime came the old woman said to her grand- 

 daughter : " Your husband must sleep with me tonight." There was 

 nothing to be done but to comply with her demand. So the husband 

 went to the old woman's bed. The latter covered harself and the 

 man with a skin, fastening it down on all sides in such manner that 

 it was air-tight, so the man could scarcely breathe. Then the old 

 woman made an attempt to smother the husband; she would have 

 done so had he not had a small false face [fetish] hidden away in 

 his bosom. At once he told this aid to absorb all the odor into itself, 

 and thereupon it did so. W^hen morning came, contrary to the ex- 

 pectation of the grandmother, the husband was alive and well. Th& 

 old woman now for a time left him in peace, and he enjoyed the 

 company of his wife. 



Several days later the old woman said to the nian : " We must 

 go to an island today to hunt." They found that the island was 

 .low and that in the middle of it there was a very deep lake. Having 

 made a landing, they drew their canoe up on the island. The old 

 woman said to the man : " Take your position here on the right," 

 indicating with her finger a spot away from the canoe, " and I will 

 drive the game toward you." The man had gone about halfway 

 toward the place when, hearing a sound in the direction of the canoe, 

 he turned back, only to see the old woman in the canoe paddling 

 away as fast as she could. He called to her to return, but it was of 

 no use. 



The man remained on the island all day long ; there was no escape 

 for him. He noticed the marks of water high up on the trees, which 

 were very tall. He knew well what these marks meant. When night 

 came the water began to rise, and thereupon the hunter climbed the 

 highest tree he could find on the island. The water kept rising, and 



