STORIES 515

Next spring Sxdket declined to accompany most of the able-bodied
men of his village to the ocean to gather herring, but lazily stayed at
home with the old people. One day, when passing from one village to
another, he saw a herd of caribou close at hand; for months he had been
held up to ridicule as a hunter, and he felt that here might be an oppor-
tunity to vindicate himself. He was armed only with a small knife but,
after creeping as near as possible, he suddenly sprang up with a yell
which was enough to stampede the herd into a dense thicket. Swdéke/t was
in close pursuit and soon overtook a buck which had become caught by
its horns in a thorny bush. Without hesitation, the hunter leapt on to
the animal’s back, preparatory to cutting its throat. But the sudden
burden so terrified the caribou that it reared and jumped, redoubling its
efforts to escape, and finally freed itself before its rider had been able to
do more than cling precariously to its back. Blind with fear and utterly
confused, the animal plunged into another bush where its antlers were
caught more firmly than before, and Snéke?t, after several efforts, was able
to cut its wind-pipe. The caribou fell to the ground and the jubilant
hunter despatched it.

Sndéket alone could not carry back all the meat, so he hurried home
for assistance, taking with him only one antler as proof of his kill. When
he told the inmates of his own house what he had done, and invited them
to carry home the meat, they jeered at him for telling such a preposterous
tale. Sndke/f warned them that if they declined to help he would go
elsewhere, and they would lose their share of the meat, but they only
laughed the more. True to his word, he went next door, and when his
fellows heard him repeating the same story, they began to wonder whe-
ther, after all, it might have been the truth. One man picked up the
antler which Sxdékeft had thrown down in disgust at their suspicions and
found fresh blood on its base. So they hastily went next door and offered
to accompany him. Finally, the occupants of the two houses went
together and packed home the meat of the caribou. In this way Sndke?
redeemed his reputation to a certain extent.

AN ANCIENT HUNTING STORY

One November, not many years after the settlement of the earth, a
Nusgalst chief, Sénuximédxots, set out with four companions to hunt
mountain goats. It was the rutting season, and the five were fortunate
enough to come upon a number of the animals on a narrow ledge. Each
singled out a female goat and shot an arrow; the sudden pain caused the
victims to jump wildly, and fall from the narrow ledge. The males blindly
leapt after them to be pounded to death on the rocks below. There was