448 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

powers, she had not noticed the weight. A feast ensued, and next day all
set out with the girl to the szumug’s house, following the rope as guide.
They were astounded at the wealth they secured, but when they tried to
release the old woman by cutting the roots, milk gushed out and she died.

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS KIDNAPPED
(Second Version)

Once upon a time, not long after the people had come to this earth,
a small girl, about ten years of age, cried and cried incessantly. Her
mother grew tired and at length made no effort to comfort the child, but
callously went about her work, at last going to bed with the other mem-
bers of the household. Soon a female smug came to the outside wall of
the house, applied her mouth to a knot-hole, and said to the little girl, in
the voice of her father’s mother:

“Come with me and I will give you some delicious mountain goat
grease, and flesh from the stomach of a spring salmon.”

The little girl stopped crying, and prepared to go to her grandmother’s
house. The smmg blew on the knot-hole so that it enlarged sufficiently
for the little one to pass through, and as soon as she had done so the
monster seized her and thrust her into her basket.

“A smug has got me!” the terrified child shrieked.

This roused the household. The young men took brands from the fire
and set out in pursuit of the kidnapper, guided by the crying of the girl
in the basket. The smug travelled fast, sometimes diving under the
earth in her efforts to out-distance the pursuers. For along time the men
were able to follow, but at length had to give up the chase, baffled. The
mother was heart-broken, blaming herself for the child’s loss, because
sninig have good ears and make a practice of stealing those whom from
afar they hear crying.

The smug carried the little girl to her home, a cave in the precipitous
wall of a canyon, approached by a single tree-trunk as bridge, put her
inside and then went off hunting. As the child stood weeping bitterly,
she saw in the corner an old woman who was fastened to the ground by
roots which had grown from her rectum. This poor creature told the girl
that the smug had captured her years before and had gained complete
power over her because she had eaten some of the human flesh her captor
gave her. Looking around, the child saw corpses hanging on one side of
the cave, goat meat on the other. The old woman bade the girl eat some
of the latter, for it was good. She would then be able to tell the snug on
her return that she had eaten, and could thus escape making a meal of
human flesh. She further added that the smug had forgotten her gloves,