STORIES 447

closed her fingers with the goat’s horns upon them and kept repeating the
word, “‘saogdtsqéma.”’

“Lookout! Lookout! You will hurt your grandmother,” the animal
cried out in fear.

But the girl continued until the smug fell from the log down into the
chasm. Then the old woman said to her:

“Take that rope from the wall and I will lower you down to the dead
snug. You must cut off the breasts; when you have done it, shake the
rope and I will haul youupagain. But be quick, for the young smug are
out hunting and will shortly return.”

The young girl was lowered down and cut off the flesh as she had been
told todo. When she was drawn up again, she cooked it in grease. Ina
little while the young smimig, who were wolves, came in and stared at the
stranger, but the old woman explained:

“This is the new sister your mother has brought you. She has gone
out again after another one.”

They sat down to the food which had been prepared for them, but as
soon as the eldest brother had tasted it he said:

“Taste it! Taste it! It is like our mother’s breasts.”

They all partook of the food and fell down dead. Following the old
woman’s instructions, the girl threw the carcasses down into the gorge.

Next she was told to fill a box with grease and food. She did so,
making a handle of the rope with which she tied it. Then the old woman
said to her:

“Give me a bundle of mountain goat fur.”

This she began to roll out on her thigh into cord.

“Now,” she said, “When you descend the mountain, take with you
one end of this cord, or else you will never be able to find your way back.
As you go on I will lengthen the cord to keep up with you.”

The girl did this, and reached her home in the evening. She rubbed
herself against the wall of the house, and the mother sent out her youngest
child to ascertain the cause of the noise. The little one quickly returned.

“Tt is my sister who was carried off by the smug,” she called out.

The mother considered this impossible and scolded the child for telling
a lie. She then sent out another of her children but when this one re-
turned with the same story, the mother rushed out and welcomed her
daughter with great rejoicing. They went within and the girl asked her
father to bring in the box she had been carrying. He tried to do so but
could not lift it, even with the help of some of his friends.

“That is funny,” said his daughter. “I carried it with one hand.”

She brought it in without any trouble and took from the one box food
enough to fill half the house. Having obtained the smmg’s carrying