ON THE ETHNQLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 569 
you will find another piece. If you look out for these and follow the 
course they mark, in ten days you will come to your grandfather’s village.’ 
‘ But how shall I know my grandparents when I get there ?’ queried the 
youth. The mother answered : ‘ You have an uncle who has but one eye ; 
when you find him all will be well.’ She then instructed him in many 
things which only medicine-men know—how to make himself invisible, 
and many other things. In the meantime his father had been busy 
stacking a huge pile of pine-logs in the keekwilee-house. ‘Why is father 
stacking so much wood in the house?’ asked the boy. ‘ Winter is not. 
coming on. Why do you want so much wood now?’ The mother 
answered, ‘ Your father and I have a use for it, my son ; we have a great 
task to perform when you have gone.’ The boy was curious to know 
what this was, vut his mother would say no more. Everything being 
ready, the time now came for the boy to start. His mother made a pile 
of the blankets she had woven, in which she wrapped a large supply of 
their dried meat and fat, and told her son he was to take the blankets and 
meat to his grandparents as a present. The youth put the bundle on his 
shoulders, and though it was bulky and heavy he found no inconvenience 
from it, as his mother had uttered ‘medicine’ words over it, which made 
it light and easy to carry. He now bade them good-bye and set out on 
his long journey. His parents watched him go, and shed many tears as he 
passed into the forest out of their sight. Then taking each other by the 
hand they went back towards the house. ‘Come, brother, our work is 
nearly finished ; let us complete it,’ said the woman. When they entered 
the house they lit a fire at the base of the pile of pine-logs, and, climbing 
upon the top together, they lay down side by side, hand in hand. In a 
few moments the Hames from the pitch enveloped them, and in a short 
while the pile was consumed, and they with it. 
Thus had they planned to wipe out the disgrace which had darkened 
their lives. 
In the meantime the son of the unhappy pair had been making his 
way through the forest as his mother had directed him ; when, coming 
to an eminence and, disregarding his mother’s injunctions not to look 
back after he had once started, he cast his eyes in the direction of his 
home, and was startled and shocked to see flames and smoke coming from 
the roof of the house. Casting down his bundle without a moment’s 
consideration, he ran back upon his trail as fast as his legs could carry 
him ; but he only arrived in time to see the roof fallin. The heat was 
too great for him to go near the ruins ; he could only watch the flames 
consume the last timbers of his home. He wondered what had become 
of his parents, and feared they had been destroyed in the fire. Presently 
he groped his way among the charred remains, and saw enough to con- 
vince him that his parents had perished. He could not understand it all, 
and sat crying all that day and the following night. During the night 
he had a dream which revealed to him many things. He learnt why his 
parents had left their home, and the punishment they had planned for 
themselves, and that they had deliberately burnt themselves to death in 
expiation of his father’s offence. Very sad at heart he turned his back 
next morning upon the ashes of his parents and old home, and once more 
set out on his journey. Finding his pack, he continued his way through 
the forest, following the guiding strips of bead-work, until at last he 
arrived at the village of his grandfather. He now recalled what his 
mother had told him about his one-eyed uncle, and looked about for such 
