546 REPORT—1899. 
his wife, was troubled in her mind, knowing that her paretit would never 
spare her husband’s life, but would continue to plot against him till he 
had destroyed him. So when night came, and she had an opportunity of 
conversing with him alone without arousing suspicion, she communicated 
her fears to him concerning his safety under her father’s roof, and coun- 
selled immediate and secret flight to his own village and home. The 
youth assenting to her plan, they set out together that very night, making 
all the haste possible that they might be well advanced upon their journey 
before they were missed. In the morning, when the Shaman roused his 
family as usual, he was surprised to find his daughter and son-in-law 
absent, and as the day advanced, and there was no appearance of them, he 
became convinced that they had fled together from him. Said he to his 
wife, ‘ Now I understand where his assistance came from. Our daughter 
has betrayed me, and now run away with her husband. But they shall 
not escape me thus. I will after them and bring them back.’ And as he 
spoke he sought for their trail, which, as they had made no attempt to 
hide it, trusting to their start, he soon discovered and hastened to follow 
up. With the aid of his Shamanistic powers he was able to travel much 
faster than they; and he had not pursued them long when the runaway 
daughter cried out to her husband: ‘My father is pursuing us and is 
close upon us; I know it by the trembling in my body. Now stay a 
moment, and I will use my medicine.’ Forthwith she transformed her 
husband into a little sugar-tree' where he stood, and herself into another 
close by over against him; and where a moment before two human beings 
had stood there now grew in their place two old and partly decayed 
sugar-trees. The transformation had scarcely been effected when the 
Shaman came up. When he reached the sugar-trees he found the trail 
suddenly stop, and look and search as he would he could find no continua- 
tion of it. Casting his eyes around him, he presently perceived that the 
trail ended at the sugar-trees, so having the power to converse with trees 
he addressed them, and asked if they had seen a young man and 
woman pass that way. The sugar-tree that was his daughter replied that 
no one had passed by that way since they had grown there. ‘How long 
have you been growing here ?’ questioned the Shaman. ‘Oh, we are very 
old,’ said the daughter. ‘Cannot you see how decayed we have become ?’ 
Never suspecting that he was conversing with his daughter, after search- 
ing all round again and finding no clue to follow, he gave up the pursuit 
and turned back homewards again. When he was out of sight the 
daughter resumed her proper form, transforming at the same time her 
husband to his own shape, and both continued on their way as fast as 
they could. The Shaman, on reaching his home, was asked by his wife 
why he had returned alone. He related his experience, telling her that 
the trail was clear and easy till he came to the sugar-trees, and then it 
ceased suddenly, and no trace of the fugitives could be found beyond. 
‘You silly man,’ said the wife, ‘don’t you see that the sugar-trees were 
your daughter and her husband? You know that she possesses the 
“power” as well as you. Hasten back after them, and don’t be fooled by 
her again.’ Perceiving that she must be right, he started after the run- 
1 The ‘ sugar-tree,’ called by the natives gwa'hit, is a species of pine—the white 
pine of the district, as far as I could gather from my informant’s description of it. 
When the tree is first tapped the sap is sweet and not unpalatable, but after a day’s 
exposure to the atmosphere it becomes disagreeable and unpleasant to the taste. 
