492 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

But as soon as she had left the house the chamber-vessel called out:

“Stump! Stump! Stump! Come quickly, your wife has run away.”

Stump dashed off and soon caught the girl whom he dragged back to
his house.

“Don’t be such a fool as to try to run away,” he said. “I can get you
wherever you go.”

The girl pretended that she was resigned to her fate so Stump went
back to work. Then the old woman called to her.

“His chamber-vessel always spies for him,” she said, “‘but if you bore
holes around the rim it will become helpless.”

The girl perforated the vessel. Whereupon the old woman gave her
four presents, a whetstone, a comb, a mountain goat bladder filled with
oil, and a bone needle.

“Take these,” she said, ‘“‘and when your husband pursues you throw
one after the other behind you; they will delay him.”

Thus provided for, the girl fled again. The chamber-vessel, seeing
her leave, tried to warn his master but could do no more than cry, “xwo-la!
xwo-la! xwo-la! xwo-lo--!” for the power of speaking had been taken from
it. For along time Stump paid no attention to this senseless calling, but
at last, urged by curiosity, he returned to find the vessel perforated and
his wife gone. At once he set off in pursuit up the river-bed. He could
travel more rapidly than the girl, who soon realized that she was being
followed. Before long he had almost overtaken her, so she threw behind
her the bladder filled with oil; it became a large lake. Stump had to go
around this, and by the time he had done so, his wife was far in advance.
He grimly pressed after her, again gaining rapidly, until once more she
was almost within his clutches. This time she dropped the comb which
grew into a thick forest of small, spiky trees. Stump plunged into this
but his large head was constantly becoming entangled.

“Which way did you go?” he called to his wife.

“Straight through the middle, come along,’”’ she answered him
mockingly.

After considerable delay Stump succeeded in penetrating the forest
and once more set off after the fugitive. He followed her trail relentlessly
until again he was but a short distance behind when she cast the bone
needle on the ground. Instantly there arose between husband and wife
a multitude of small, sharp needles, which pierced Stump’s feet so that
he could only advance slowly, picking his steps with caution. Again he
asked the girl how she had traversed this patch, and as before she said
she had come through the middle. At last Stump reached the end of
this area and again took up the trail of his wife. Once again he gained