STORIES 491

After a considerable period she heard the sound of axe strokes and, con-
tinuing her course, found that this was made by a middle-aged man with
a huge head who was working at a salmon-weir. He was Tmiax, the
water-scoured tree-stump with branching white roots such as is found in
all rivers, but the girl did not know this. Stump saw her.

“Will you be my wife?” he asked.

“All right,” she answered.

“Then come home with me.”

The girl fearlessly accompanied Stump to his house, within which she
saw sitting in a corner an old, old woman who had lost the use of her legs.
As Stump was building a fire the old woman whispered to the newcomer:

“Don’t eat any food that he gives you, or you will become helpless
like me. I was once his wife. When he offers you food, accept it, but
slip it down under your blanket into this pouch, and chew the sinew that
fastens your blanket as if you were masticating.”

As she said this the old woman handed the girl a small skin pouch.

Meanwhile Stump had prepared a meal. He gave his new wife, as a
delicacy, some smoked meat of spring salmon which had spawned. She
pretended to eat, but in reality slipped it down into her pouch as the old
woman had directed.

Then Stump said, “The lice in my hair must be numerous as J am
itching and uncomfortable. I want to scratch all the time. Please delouse
me.”

“All right,”’ said the girl. ““You lead the way toa suitable place for the
operation and I will follow.”

Stump went outside.

As his wife was following, the crone whispered to her:

“Take my bone knife.” The girl took it and the old woman continued:
“What he calls lice are really toads which infest his hair. Use the knife
to pierce them,. then throw each far away, and as you do so close your
teeth noisily as if you had bitten it.”

Stump was waiting near the door. His wife carried out the old
woman’s instructions; she pierced toad after toad, and as she threw each
away she clacked her teeth. Once he became suspicious that she was
not eating his “‘lice’’ and asked:

“What is that noise?’

“Oh, that is just squirrels dropping cones from the tree-tops,”’ she
answered, though of course it was made by the bodies of the toads striking
the ground.

When the operation was completed, Stump, saying he must work at
his salmon-weir, gathered up his tools and went off. This seemed to the
girl a chance to escape and she rushed off again up the river-bed.

Li oe