42 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. .'^.9 



in the town were gone. Next it came to a woman, and all the women 

 were carried away in the same manner except two. 



These two women now walked along the beach calling for help. 

 They did not know whither their friends had gone. And every da}' 

 they went up into the forest after roots. 



One day, after they had gone up into the woods, one of these 

 women began swallowing root-juice, and it formed a child in her. 

 This was born and proved to be a l>oy. After he had grown a little 

 larger, his mother named him Root-stump (XAt-cugu'Lk!t). This is 

 what helped her. All the men who used to chop canoes away from 

 town had also disappeared. 



The chikl grew very rapidl}^ and repeatedly asked his mother, 

 "Where have all my friends gone?" She said to him, "We do not 

 know. They kept going up into the air." When he was a little 

 larger he began to test himself. lie would go up to a tree, seize a 

 limb, and try to stretch himself. Then roots would run out from 

 him in every direction because his mother had named him to have 

 that sort of strength." 



His mother said to him, "Look out when you go down on the beach 

 to play, because those who do so go up into the air and you will also 

 go up. So look out." Then he ran down to the beach and began 

 playing. All at once the thing came down. He seized it, and imme- 

 diately roots grew out from him into the ground in every direction. 

 So he pulled down the thing that was killing his people, and it broke 

 into small pieces. 



There was another being in the woods who always chopped and 

 made noises to entice people to him in order to kill them. He was in 

 the habit of killing people by asking them to get into his canoe, when 

 he knocked out a thwart so that it closed in upon them. He was the 

 one who had killed the canoe-makers. Root-stump once found this 

 man engaged in making a canoe, and the man asked him to jump inside. 

 Root-stump knew what he was about, however, and jumped out too 

 (juickly. Then Root-stump was so angry that he seized the canoe- 

 maker and beat his brains out. He broke up the canoe and piled it 

 on top of him. 



This boy grew up into a very fine man. He brought in all kinds 

 of things for his mother. If he were hunting mountain sheep and 

 came to a chasm or other similar place, he would cross it by sticking 

 his roots into the ground on the other side. 



This is why they say even at the present time to a woman who 

 works with roots, "Do not swallow the sap. You might have a 

 baby from it." 



a The exact words of the story-teller. 



