428 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

Though the Wolves were about two hundred yards distant by this
time, the woman, whose hearing was very acute, heard what Deer said
to his son, and told her companions he had been saying nasty things about
them. So they took their canoe and returned to the place where Fawn
was waiting for his father, who had gone off into the forest for another
load of firewood. The Wolves killed and ate Fawn, leaving only a little
of his fur in the canoe. When Deer came back and found that his son
had been devoured, he was filled with grief and wanted to know who had
committed the murder. So he blew his nose, ejecting some mucus into
the canoe, and asked it who were the criminals. The mucus told him;
whereupon he went home.

A short time afterwards, the Wolves came to visit Deer in his house.
He was very angry when he saw them, but people were always stopping
and he could not refuse hospitality, since they pretended to be casual
passersby. After Wolves had partaken of Deer’s food they asked him
to dance for them, as they had heard of his skill in that line. Deer was
raging at this cool behaviour on the part of his son’s murderers, so plotted
revenge and sat down near the fire to think out the details. Finally he
agreed to dance, but asked one of the spectators to bind mussel-shells on
his wrists. The Wolves beat time and applauded as Deer performed
beautifully before them. Soon he changed his dance to one that sent
them all to sleep, and he at once began to cut the throats of all his guests
with the shells. He had killed three of them when the woman with the
sensitive ears awoke, and cried out at what he was doing.

Deer fled and climbed a tree, which all deer were able to do at that
distant time. In the house there chanced to be an old woman who
taught songs to the novices at ceremonials; she repeated for the remain-
ing Wolf one, which, she said, would cause Deer to fall down from his
refuge. She added that he must not climb over a log or he would forget
it. Wolf learnt the song and hurried of after Deer, but, disregarding the
instructions in his eagerness, he climbed over a fallen trunk and at once
forgot the song. Back he rushed to the house, re-learnt it, and returned,
taking care to go round the end of the prostrate tree. This time he
remembered and, as he sang, first one of Deer’s legs fell down, followed
in a short time by his whole body.

HOW PORCUPINE PROSPERED

Once upon a time, Porcupine was sitting on the bank of a river, singing
to himself. He wished to cross, but was afraid to swim. Presently,
Caribou came up the river bank, swinging along at a tremendous rate
of speed with his long legs.