43. The Story of Part Summer

In olden times there was a very happy people in the village of G·its!ᴇmgā’lôn. They lived in a very pretty town of three rows up the G·its!ᴇmgā’lôn River. I called it the Three-Row Land, for the village was built in three rows. They built their houses on top of the hill, the second row under the first, and the third row under the second one, The town was on the bank of a river, a very good river, and the village was not far from a very large lake. They went there very often in the summer for picking berries of all kinds, which were growing along the sides of the lake, which was their hunting-ground, Sometimes the people would live there in summer for drying berries for winter use, and in winter the hunters would live there. Therefore they built their little huts on the shore of the large lake. Many families had several huts for use in the proper season.

There was a great chief in this village who had five children— four boys and one girl whom he loved very much. In those days the people of each tribe were in the habit of going for one or two days to catch salmon to be given to the chief, who was to use them in the winter; and in the winter the people would often go to the chief’s house, and the chieftainess would feed them. So the people caught salmon for their chief, and the women worked for their chieftainess. They would go some days and pick berries for her. The chief and his wife did not work for themselves. The people worked for them. The chief also had many slaves, male and female, and he had many wives—many chiefs had as many as twenty, some ten, and others four—and these slaves and wives would work for the people, but the head wife did not work like the others.

The four sons of the chief were very expert hunters, and the youngest one had two beautiful hunting-dogs. They were very useful dogs. One was called Red, the other Spots; and the girl liked the dogs very much. Her name was Part Summer. She was very dear to her brothers, for she was the only girl among them.

One day the women of the village started out picking berries for the chieftainess, and the young princess wanted to go with them, So they started from their camp on the shore of the large lake; and when they came to the berrying-ground, they soon filled their bags with berries. The bag of the princess was not quite full yet, when she slipped, stepping on the dung of a black bear. She became angry, and said, “Oh, this big dung stuck on my foot! How nasty it is Thus said the princess. All her companions gathered around her and filled her basket with berries. Her basket was not as large as those of the others. Then they started for their camp; and as they went along, the carrying-strap of the princess’s basket tore, and all her berries were scattered on the ground. Her companions came and filled her basket again. They went on some distance, and again her carrying-strap tore. Then some of the women went away home. The berries were scattered on the ground and were mixed with dirt, but a few companions staid with her and gathered the berries. They went on, but again her carrying-strap broke; and her companions said to her, “Let the bags go! We have plenty of bags full of berries for you. You do not need those for yourself, Let us go on instead of gathering those berries, before night comes, lest the wild beasts devour us and we perish.”

The princess, however, answered, “No, I will not leave my berries. Go right on if you want to.” When all the young women had left her in the woods, and she was alone there picking up her berries, behold! two young men came to her, and asked her, “What is the matter?” She told them that her carrying-strap tore several times. They asked her what had become of her companions, and she replied, “They would not wait any longer.” Then these two men asked her to let them carry her basket, and she consented. They took the basket of berries, and went on until they arrived at a village that was unknown to her.

She was standing outside a large house. Then the father of the young men asked them, “Did she not come on with you, my sons?” They replied, “She is standing outside.”—’‘Bring her in!” So two girls went out to get her, and took her into the house, and she was made to sit on one side of the fire.

As soon as she was seated, a Mouse Woman came to her side, and asked her, “Don’t you know who has brought you here’ The princess replied, “No.” “The Black Bear brought you here, for you were angry when you slipped on the bear dung while you were picking berries.- Therefore they brought you here. Now take good care. They will give you something to eat, but do not eat the first salmon that they offer you. It is the stomach of a human body.”

Now the Bear people took good dried salmon and roasted it, put it into a dish, and placed it before the princess, but she did not eat of it. They took it back and ate it themselves. Then they took real salmon and roasted it. His the Mouse Woman had said was real salmon, so she ate of it.

The Mouse Woman had told her also that they would offer berries mixed with crabapples, and that she was to refuse this. She said, “Don’t taste of it! That is decomposed flesh of a body, and the crabapples are the eyes of the dead person: but the second dish of berries mixed with crabapples will be good.” So she ate of this, and continued to do so.

She became the wife of one of the sons of the Black-Bear chief. She staid there a long time, until the fall. Every morning the male Bears went for salmon, which they caught in the brooks, and the female Bears went into the woods to pick berries, and in the evening they would all come home. Some of the male Bears would not come home with the rest, and some one said, “My companion’s fishing-line is broken.” Then a very old Bear would say, “Oh, perhaps he used the common bushes, and therefore it was broken. Cranberry bushes are the best for making fishing-lines.” After he had been away for two or three days, he would come back home downcast. His was because some person had killed a Black Bear near a brook.

Some female Black Bear would do the same. When the rest came home in the evening, some one would say, “My companion’s carrying-strap tore; and after she had been away several days in the woods, she came home slowly.

Now, it was late in the fall before the animals went into their dens. Then the Black Bear chief invited his whole tribe in; and when all the people were in the house, he asked each family of his people, and said, “In what den will you lie down this winter?” Then one male Bear would answer, “We shall lie down in the den of So-and-So,” and he mentioned the place where the den was. And after he had asked every family for their dens, then he turned to his eldest son, Who was married to Part Summer. The Bear chief said, “Now I will ask you, my daughter-in-law, and my elder son shall answer me, “In what den are you going to lie down this winter?” Then his son replied, “We shall lie down in the den of Mountain Beautiful.” Then the princess said, “Oh, it is very easy for my younger brother’s dogs. Red and Spots!’ Therefore her husband asked, “What do you say to the den of Mountain Side ”—“Oh, it is easy for the dogs Red and Spots!” He mentioned all the dens he knew in every place: and the woman always said that it was easy for her younger brother’s dogs, Red and Spots.

Therefore the chief said again to his daughter-in-law, “Do you want the difficult den Both Sides Rock Slide or Both Sides Drum?” His the princess accepted. She said, ‘That is the den that I wanted. It is difficult to get at.”

Her father-in-law questioned her, and said, “Flow many brothers have you, daughter/” She replied quickly, “I have four brothers.” The chief asked, “Are they hunters?” The princess replied, “Yes, they are. AH of them are very expert hunters; therefore ] I do not like to choose an easy den to lie in this winter with my husband, lest they should kill us easily.”

The chief said, “Now I will ask you just one more question. How many mats has your eldest brother?’” The princess replied, “My eldest. brother’s mats are sixty.” Then sixty Black Bears hung their heads, and the tears ran down their noses. “Sixty mats’? meant that her eldest brother had lain sixty times twenty days by himself, using one cedar-bark mat, and that he had taken a bath every second day, that is, ten baths in each twenty days; and after each two days’ bath he had taken away the mat and put it aside, and had taken a new mat for the other twenty days.[1]

So Chief Black Bear asked the young princess how many mats her eldest brother had; and these sixty Black Bears hung their heads, for they knew that they would soon be slain by the eldest brother of the princess. Therefore they hung their heads and cried.

The Black Bear chief asked her further, “How many mats has your second brother?”—“My second brother has forty mats.” Then the forty Black Bears hung their heads, and the tears ran down their noses. Again the chief asked, ** “How many mats has your third brother?” The princess replied, “My third brother has twenty mats.” Then twenty Bears hung their heads, and the water ran down their noses.

Again the chief asked, “How many mats has your youngest brother, princess ”—“My youngest brother has five mats.” Then five Black Bears hung their heads, and water ran down their noses: and the princess’s husband also hung his head, and the tears ran down his nose.

After the chief had questioned them, he said to all his people, “Tomorrow you shall go all over the country and gather wild carrots for your own use in your dens for the winter.” Then the old Bear said, “We shall he down under old fallen trees:” and the chief said to his people, °.As soon as you hear the thunder rolling, then each shall go to his own den, lest danger come upon you.”

On the following morning all the Bear people went out; and soon the thunder was heard rolling, and each Bear family went to its own den.:

Now the eldest brother was prepared to go hunting. He had been away for a month in the mountains, and had succeeded in killing sixty black bears. He went home, and the second brother was ready to go hunting. He staid in the mountains for a month, and then went home, having killed forty black bears. When the third brother was ready to go, he left home, and staid in the mountains a month, and then went home, having killed twenty black bears. Then he came home.

Now the youngest brother was ready, and went with his two dogs, Red and Spots. He went on and on, and did not find anything. He went farther on. Many days had passed and he had not killed anything. So he stood at the foot of a mountain, erying, and thinking of his sister that was lost the preceding summer.

While he was crying, his two dogs raised their noses and went up a mountain with a rock-slide on each side. Soon they came up to a

place where a few trees were. The young man heard the dogs barking up there. Then he stopped crying, and looked up to the place where his two dogs were barking. Then he saw them run about barking and wagging their tails. Therefore the young man tried to climb the mountain. He put on his snowshoes, which hunters use when they climb mountains, put the points of mountain-goat horns under his snowshoes, four horn-points on each side. Thus the young man was trying to reach the place where his dogs were barking, and he was using his own staff.

(Hunters’ staffs are seven or eight feet long, and have a horn at one end. They use these when they walk over sliding snow, so that they will not slip.)

He climbed; and it was very hard to go on quickly, for the snow was slippery.

The dogs were still barking, but the young man could not go on any farther. He was always sliding back, for the snow was very soft. Alas! he stood there not halfway from the foot of the slippery snow, his face directed to the place where his dogs were barking. He was thinking that he could not get up there. Then he wanted to turn back.

At this time his sister looked down at him. She stretched out her hand, took some snow, pressed it, and it rolled down. The young man saw the small ball of rolled snow coming down. It struck the front end of his snowshoe. The young man took it up and looked at it. Behold! there were the impressions of four fingers of some person in the snow. Then he tried again to climb up, and finally he reached his two dogs, who were still barking. They had their ears down and were wagging their tails.

He came to the opening of a den; and when the dogs came to the place where the young man was, the princess recognized her brother’s dogs, Red and Spots, and the princess called them by their names Red and Spots; and therefore the dogs wagged their tails, and their ears drooped, for they knew her also. Still the dogs saw the Black Bear seated with her, and therefore they barked. Now the man came up, and he also saw his sister in the Bear’s den. Then the princess called him in, and she said, “Wait, brother, until I give birth.” She gave birth to two children, and handed them to her brother, who was standing outside the den. So he took them and put them inside his hunter’s garment. Then the princess came out of her den, and said to her brother, “Now, my dear, do not kill your brother-in-law with knife, spear, or arrow. hist make a smudge in front of the den.”

Then the young man said to his sister, “I will kill him;” but the princess said, “No, not so, my brother! Kill him, only do not use your spear if you kill him, that you may not die.” Therefore the young man made a fire at the mouth of his brother-in-law’s den, and the den was full of smoke. Soon they heard his brother-in-law groan in the den, and then they heard the groans cease. Now he put out the smudge, for he knew that the Bear was dead.

The young man went in and drew him out; and while the body was lying at the mouth of the den, the princess sang a song. After she had sung, she said to her brother, “Now, my dear, cut him up!” The young man just put his knife at the Bear’s chest, and she sang again the Bear’s mourning-song.

Before the young man had reached the place where the den was, the Bear had taught the princess to sing this song as soon as he should die, and to sing it again when he was being cut up; and when they dried his skin, and when they roasted his heart, another song was to be sung; and when the skin had been dried, they put red ocher over it from the head to the tail, and they also put red ocher across it under the arms.

The Bear had also said to his wife, the princess, “They shall put my skin by the side of a fire to dry it; and when you hear a creaking noise, you shall know that I feel chilly and shall add fuel to the fire.” Thus the Bear had told her.,

Now, after the young man had cut up the bear, he rolled it down the mountain, and slid down the snow as did his sister and the two cubs. They went right home. The young man was very glad to have succeeded in rescuing his beloved sister.

When they arrived at their home, the people of the three-row town assembled to see the princess and her two cubs, and the people who saw her coming home shouted for joy and gladness. Her father gave a great feast and named his grandchildren.

The children soon grew up. They were both boys. Every morning they played outside and in the houses; and when they saw little clouds arising in the hills, they would say, “There is the smoke of our Bear grandfather!’ and then the hunters would go and kill bears.

Many times they saw the smoke. One day they played in their grandfather’s house, running about and knocking each other down; and they ran around behind the people who were sitting around the fire; and her grandfather loved them very much. Another day they would get up again in their bed and run about in the house, knocking each other over. When they were playing together, one of them fell against their grandmother’s back, and the old woman fell back and fainted; and all the people in the house jumped up and worked over the old woman to revive her. She came back to life, but she felt distressed, and groaned, and said, “Oh, these little slaves have hurt me! We don’t even know where they come from.”

Then the children were much ashamed at what their grandmother had said to them. They wept bitterly, and the mother also was ashamed and wept. The children went to their mother and asked her to leave the village, saying that they wanted to go to see their father’s people. Their mother said to them, * Don’t come back any more, but stay with your father among the Bear people, and bring food to me from time to time, and give animals to your younger uncle.” So they went on their way, sorrowful. Their mother was very sad, and their grandfather missed them much. That is the end