SWAN-TON] TLINGTT MYTHS AND TEXTS 193 



strinj:;, until no one was left in that town except a woman and her 

 daughter. These two lived at one end and refused to touch the others. 



The mother of this girl was very fond of making spruce-root baskets, 

 and, when she went after roots, the girl always accompanied her. 

 When her mother cut off the ends of the roots out in the forest her 

 daughter would chew them because they were sweet, and swallow the 

 juice, after which she would spit them out and take more. Finally 

 she got so used to chewing them that she would chew up fine the 

 roots themselves and swallow them. 



Now, after this had gone on for some time, the girl saw that she 

 was growing large, and presently she gave birth to a boy baby. 

 While this child was still ver}'' small she bathed him in cold water to 

 make him strong, and he grew ver}^ fast. 



When he was partially grown he one day saw the quill which had car- 

 ried away the people, picked it up and pulled on it very hard. Then 

 he noticed that someone was pulling it up. This invisible person 

 tried to pull him up also, but he was very strong and ran out roots 

 into the ground in every direction so that he could not be moved. All 

 that he could see was the quill. He tried hard to fnitl a line fastened 

 to it, but there was nothing visible except the quill pulling up and 

 down. He determined to hold on, however, to see what would 

 happen, and at last he felt something break and the quill come away 

 in his hands. 



While Roots continued sitting in the same j)lace a l:)oy came to him 

 saying, "Where is that quill of mine? Give it to me." Then Roots 

 answered, "Well! where are my village people? Give them to me." 

 "Give me the quill first," said the boy. "Xo, give me back my 

 village people first, antl I will give you the quill." Then he begged 

 very hard for his village people, and the boy begged very hard for the 

 quill, until at last Roots heard the noise of people coming. At 

 that he handed back the quill and the boy vanished. 



The ]:)eople did not come that day, however, and Roots was uneasy, 

 feeling that he had been very foolish to give the quill back before his 

 friends had returned. Next morning early, however, he heard a great 

 noise as of people moving about, and he jumped out of bed to look. 

 The houses throughout the village were filled with their former 

 occupants, who had come back during the night. All were very glad 

 to get back after their long absence, for where they had been they 

 seemed to have suffered. All complained of the mean master that 

 they had had, but they could not tell whether they had been made 

 slaves or not. All were very good to Roots for having restored them. 



Afterward Roots, the full form of whose name is Root-ends 



(XAt cugii'Lkli), was known everywhere, and all of the strong people 



would go to his village to test him. Among them went a strong rock, 



called ltd, who felt that he was very powerful. When they began to 



49438— Bull. 39—00 13 



