The Salish People: Volume I. Charles Hill-Tout
and when the grizzly mother got home they were well on their way.
The first sight that met her eyes as she entered the house was the roast body of her youngest son, the hot steam from which made her mouth water. “Ah!” said she, “my son is a good boy; he has done what I told him, I see; and now I shall have the pleasure of eating the body of my rival’s child. But I wonder where my own children are,” she went on, as she looked round the house in search of her sons. “Ah! there they are in bed, I see; they are doubtless tired from their exertion in the water and have fallen asleep. I won’t disturb them till I have eaten my supper.” And without approaching the bed, whereon lay three small logs, placed there by the eldest of the black-bear boys for the purpose of misleading her, she fell to, all unconscious of what she was eating, and devoured the carcase of her own child.
Now it had happened that her last child was born just about the same time as the black-bear mother gave birth to her third son, and in order to distinguish hers from the black bear’s she had made three incisions on the claws of her son’s fore-paws. She had nearly eaten the whole body when the little talker-bird (not identified) alighted on the roof of the house and began to whistle and talk. Said he: “Oh, you shocking, unnatural mother! why are you eating the body of your own child? How can you be so wicked?” “Be off with your babble!” answered the bear, with her mouth full of meat. “What do you know about the matter? You talk too much.” But the bird whistled and chattered on, and continued to upbraid her for eating her own child. “It is not my child,” said the grizzly. “There are my three children in bed yonder.” “Are you sure?” replied the bird; “look at the claws in your hand.” The grizzly did so, and perceived in a moment the three familiar marks which she had made on her youngest son’s nails. Springing up, she rushed to the bed, and, snatching off the blanket, discovered that what she had taken for the forms of her children were only three rotten logs. Raging with fury, she rushed about in search of the other children, realising that she had been outwitted by the son of the murdered black bear. Presently discovering their trail, she hastened after them, vowing vengeance as she went.
In the meantime, the three boys had been making the best of their way through the forest. Presently the youngest said to his brothers:4 “The old grizzly will be after us, and must soon overtake us. Now, if you will do as I tell you, all will be well. I want you to be quick and find me some wasps, some ants, and some dry wood-dust.” His brothers did as he requested, and had barely accomplished their task when the old grizzly was seen rushing after them. They both became much alarmed, and thought their last hour was come; but their little brother told them they must all climb a tree, and take the wasps and the ants and the wood-dust with them. This they quickly did, managing to get among the branches just as their enemy reached the foot of the tree. Being unable to climb, she had to resort to cunning. Dissembling she began to mildly scold them, telling them their father had sent her after to bring them home; that they were naughty boys, and that if they didn’t come back with her their father would beat her with a big stick and be very angry. The little one whispered to his eldest brother, bidding him tell her to open her eyes and her mouth and her ears as wide as she could, and look upwards. Thinking it best to humour them, she complied. “Now sit down and open your arms wide, and I will drop my brothers down to you,” said the eldest again at his little brother’s suggestion. Again the grizzly complied; and as she sat thus, with her breast and face all exposed, expecting to receive the brothers as they fell, she received the wasps and ants and dust instead; and what with the stinging of the wasps, and the biting of the ants, and the dust in her eyes and ears and mouth, she was fain to leave the boys and attend to herself. While she was rolling and scratching and tearing herself in her agony and pain, the boys slipped down from the tree and made off as quickly as they could. It was a long time before the wretched grizzly was able to see again; for, in addition to the dust which had filled her eyes, the wasps had stung her so badly about the face that her swollen cheeks and eyelids quite obstructed her sight. But as soon as she was able to see her way again, she started in pursuit once more, vowing a terrible revenge when she should catch them.
As the boys were hurrying along, they came to the dwelling of an old man who went by the name of Groundhog. He was sitting in his doorway as they passed, and having knowledge of their distress he accosted them kindly. “Hullo, children!” said he, “keep your spirits up. I’ll help you, and hinder the old grizzly when she comes by. You run on to the river, and my brother the ferryman there will put you over the river before the grizzly can overtake you. I have sent word to him by the talking-bird that you are coming, and will want to cross in a hurry.” The boys thanked the old man and ran on towards the river. By this time, however, the angry grizzly was after them again, and they had not gone far beyond Groundhog’s when she arrived at his house. As she was dashing past, the little old man popped his head out of his door, which was fashioned by two large stones, after the manner of a spring trap, which he could open and shut from within, and called out to the grizzly to stop a moment. She made to rush past him; but he laughed so exasperatingly at her woeful plight, and mocked and abused her so roundly, that he at length provoked her to turn aside for the purpose of punishing him. The little man waited till she was quite close, scoffing at her the while; and when she sought to seize him he suddenly popped down his hole, pulling his door close after him with a sudden click that nearly took the old grizzly’s nose off. Seeing that he was safe from her reach, she started off again after the boys, but had not gone a dozen yards when Groundhog opened his door and popped his head out again, and jeered and taunted and mocked her worse than before. Though loth to delay, so biting and exasperating were the words he flung at her that she half-turned to make for him once more. “Come on, come on, you old cannibal, you murderess and child-eater, come on! I’m not afraid of you, and I’ll tell you what I think of you!” There was no enduring such language as this from a groundhog; so she turned aside again and rushed at the little old fellow, who waited until she was nearly upon him, and then, with a scoffing laugh, scuttled down his hole, closing the door as before.
This delay, which good-natured Groundhog had caused the grizzly, enabled the boys to get to the river, jump into the waiting boat, and be ferried over before their enemy got to the bank. As the boys jumped out of the boat, the ferryman, who was known by the same name as his brother, told them not to trouble themselves about the grizzly any more, she would never trouble them again; that he was going to punish and make an end of her for her great wickedness. The three boys went on their way much relieved, wondering how the little ferryman was going to outwit and punish the great grizzly-woman. Earlier in the day, before the boys arrived, on learning from the talking-bird what a wicked woman the grizzly was, and that she was pursuing the boys and would desire to cross the river in his boat, he went to his food-cellar, and taking all his store of food, he carried it to the river’s bank. Calling all the fish in the river to him, he threw them the food, promising to give them a daily supper ever after if they would help him that day. They consented to do so, and asked what he wished them to do. He told them that later in the day he would have to ferry the grizzly-woman across, and that he would make her sit in a hole, which he would make for the purpose in the bottom of his canoe, and that as she sat there they were to all come and bite a piece out of her, the little trout first, and then the bigger ones, and then the salmon trout, and then the salmon themselves, and last of all the big sturgeon. They readily promised to do as he wished, the more so as the grizzly’s carcase was to be theirs afterwards. The boys had barely landed when the grizzly appeared on the opposite bank, and shouted for the ferryman to come and put her over. He was busily engaged in making the hole in his boat’s bottom, and cried out that he could not come over for a little while as he had to mend a hole in his boat that one of the boys he had just landed had made as he was jumping out of it. “Oh! never mind the hole,” shouted the impatient grizzly; “I am in a great hurry to cross. I cannot wait.” “But I could never bring you over with my boat in this condition,” answered Groundhog, as he knocked the last piece out of the hole. “I must really mend it first.” “I cannot be delayed in this manner,” called out the grizzly; “my business will not admit of delay. Come across at once; I will risk the passage.” The groundhog, having made the hole, no longer had any reason for delay; so after making the grizzly promise to do exactly what he told her, he sat in the far end of his canoe so that the fore part, which had the hole in it, rose completely out of the water, and enabled him to cross without letting the water in. When he reached the other side he pointed out