STORIES 487

extending from her mouth, which she inserted into the ear of one sleeper
after another. The watcher was saved by her ceremonial uncleanness,
that ever-potent protection against supernatural beings. No one stirred.
Then the old woman went out. For four days the girl remained in her
corner, and during that time no human being entered the house, from
which she concluded that Snutgufxd/s had murdered everyone in the vil-
lage. The old woman herself returned at intervals but the girl said
nothing to her.

On the fourth day the girl’s brothers returned home, while the old
woman happened to be absent. Their sister told them they had made a
great mistake in bringing Snufgu?xd/s into the house, for she had killed all
its occupants, and probably other households as well. One of the brothers
stayed with his sister while the other three went to investigate. It was as
the girl had feared; there were only corpses in the houses. She told her
brothers that the old woman usually returned at dusk, so before that time
the four lay down, feigning sleep, but fully determined to remain awake.
Only the eldest, a shaman, carried out his resolve, the other three were
soon snoring. When the old woman came in, the eldest youth had drawn
his marmot-skin blanket over his face, but through a hole in it he watched
the hag’s snout materialize and stretch across towards the ear of one of
his brothers. He jumped up with a shout, and severed the protruding
proboscis with his knife. The four determined to slay the murderess.
All night two of them guarded her, and at the first sign of dawn they cut
off her head, her arms, and her legs, to cast them with her body into a
hole made in the glowing ashes of their fire. Then the five fled up the
river valley.

On the fourth day they saw Snutquixdls pursuing them; she had come
to life in spite of their efforts to destroy her. Hurriedly they crossed the
tiver, and the eldest brother waited to watch for their enemy. When she
Was in mid-stream he reversed his marmot-skin coat, and immediately ice
formed on the river which surrounded the old woman. They heard her
calling after them, asking them to cut away the ice from about her face;
they paid no heed, but continued their flight until night overtook them.
The four brothers climbed a tree to be safe from Snutguixdls, while their
sister, protected by her uncleanness, remained below. At daybreak they
continued their flight, kept going all day, and again climbed a tree to pass

‘the night. All this time they thought they were upon their own well-_
travelled, well-known road, but instead it was the trail to Song” they
Were following, and soon they saw a magnificent house with a man inside
ofit. The house was Nusmdt-a and the man Azguntim, but they did not
know this.

He invited them to enter. The five wanderers told him of their mis-

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