62 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Thus spoke the crow to the man; to the woman it said: 

 " Take a stick, sharpen the end, and dig kamas root, the 

 wild carrot, and other eatable roots in the ground; get the 

 wild potato out of the swamp; then you will be poor no 

 longer; and give up the daughter to me; I shall take care 

 of her." 



Then the mother inquired of the crow: "How can you 

 take care of my child?" The crow answered, "I shall lay 

 her down on my wing." "But she might fall down," said 

 the mother. " She cannot possibly fall," said the crow, " but 

 let us see, let us try." The crow put the child on its wings; 

 high up it went into the sky; down again it flew, wavered 

 and beat its wings, but the child did not fall. Then the 

 mother consented and delivered the child to the crow, which 

 flew off. 



The couple did as the crow had told them ; their food be- 

 came abundant; they got rich and remained in their lodge 

 one year. In the meanwhile the crow had picked up a small 

 pebble and threw it into the fire near which the little girl 

 was playing. Suddenly the pebble burst to pieces and struck 

 the girl on her bell^y. Thus she became pregnant, and two 

 months after was delivered of a son. She was but one year 

 old when she bore the child. In five days the child talked, 

 in ten days it walked around, in fifteen days it started out 

 hunting birds, in twenty days it killed a pheasant, in twenty- 

 five a young deer, in thirty a large deer, in thirty-five a 

 young elk, in forty a large elk. Then the boy said to his 

 grandmother, "I want to drink water." She replied, "There 

 is no water." He said, "Wherefore is there no water?" She 

 answered, "There never has been airy water since people 

 were created." The boy said, " It is bad that there is no 

 water, for soon a new people will come, and water will be 

 welcome to them. How did you do when you wanted to 

 drink?" The grandmother said, " From the trees we peeled 

 off the bark and sucked or lapped up the sap or moisture." 

 The boy said, "It is not good to do so; I am going to look 

 out for water. Do you see the sun standing in the sky?" 



