~~ 
ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. D008 
Coyote has ever since worn a yellow skin in consequence. After a time 
they get up and follow the trail, and presently come upon a strange 
village, where the people are kind and hospitable. The son now marries 
two wives, the daughter of the eagleand the daughter of theduck. The 
first had red hair and a red face, and the other had light hair and a white 
face. The youth now travels about a good deal; he is also a successful 
hunter. He grows rich and becomes the possessor of many shell beads ! 
(Stlak’), of a species of the dentalide, and fine clothes. A son is born to 
him by his eagle wife. One day he goes out hunting with his father and 
his wives and child. Since he has been married his father, who now 
desires a wife, has envied him very much and cast longing eyes towards 
his daughters-in-law. At night they camp out, and the old man kindles 
a fire of cedar wood. This, after the manner of cedar wood, shot out so 
many sparks that the eagle-wife drew back from the fire to escape the 
sparks which fell upon her dress. The duck-wife, on the contrary, sat on, 
only pulling up her legs. In sitting thus she exposed the lower part of 
her body and legs to her father-in-law, Snikia’/p. From this time he 
schemed to deprive his son of his wives and take them for himself. He 
therefore climbs a tree, and in its topmost branches builds:a bird’s nest, de- 
fecates in it, and transforms the excrement into young eagles. This he did 
on the second day of the hunting, when his son was absent. He had 
remained at the camp for the purpose. When the son returns in the 
evening he hears the cries of the eaglets and looks round to discover the 
nest. Snikia’p now comes forward and says, ‘I discovered an eagle’s nest 
in this tall fir to-day, and by the sound of the birds they must be almost 
ready to tly. If I were you I should climb the tree and get them. Eagle’s 
feathers would look well with your other ornaments.’ Now, as eagle’s 
feathers were a great prize, not easy to get, the youth determined to follow 
his father’s advice and climb the tree and secure the young birds before 
they flew away. The crafty father was not only desirous of securing his 
son’s wives for himself, but also his handsome robes, and so when his son 
would haye climbed the tree as he stood in his clothes he suggested that 
he should first take them off and leave them at the foot of the tree for 
fear of injuring them. The son, suspecting no guile, did so, and climbed the 
tree naked. When the son had climbed a good way up the tree the father 
began to draw and distort his face, screwing up first one eye and then the 
other. Thereupon the tree began to grow up—up it went into the clouds, 
carrying the climber with it. Presently, when the point shot through 
the clouds, they closed upon it like a vice and held it fast. Meanwhile 
the son had reached the nest ; but when he got there, instead of young 
eagles, he finds only human excrement. He now seeks to return, but finds 
his way down the tree barred by the clouds. He cannot get down. He 
now perceives that his father has duped him, and he sits down and cries.” 
Presently he gets up and walks forward. He continues walking all the 
rest of that day till night comes on. He now feels cold, for he has no 
clothes on, but he lies down and covers his body as best he may with his 
long hair. The next day, and for several following days, he walks on till 
he hears a sound of knocking. He now looks about him, and the smell of 
* My informant told me that the natives used to get these shells from the 
Okanagan Lakes, and not from the coast. 
* In the stories of the Indians men are often found to cry. Crying on the part 
of a man seems not to have been regarded as unmanly. 
