STORIES 455

Then she sat down to the meal with her husband, the routine being
exactly as she had described it to her visitor. After they had finished
eating, Stuux’s wife told him of the day’s happenings, how a woman,
giving her name, had visited the camp and had asked a great many ques-
tions about him, including whether or not he observed ceremonial chas-
tity, and other personal matters.

“What did you tell her?”’ Stuux asked his wife.

“Oh, I answered her truthfully,” she replied.

“You should never have done that!’ Stuix burst out in anger. “It was
none of her business. Don’t you know that you should never discuss a
hunter’s observance of ceremonial chastity? You have behaved very
badly.”

Stuux had reason for his wrath, because no wife should ever discuss
this matter, as in so doing she weakens or destroys her husband’s power.

A few days afterward the evil woman again visited Stuvx’s camp,
carrying concealed beneath her blanket a wooden club used for killing
salmon. Stucx’s wife did not see the approach of her hypocritical friend,
who struck her on the head with the weapon and killed her. The mur-
deress dragged her victim’s body a short distance from the camp; with
her copper knife she removed the skin and drew it over her own body,
endeavouring in every way to make it fit. But the wife of Stucx had been
larger than the bad woman, who tried to remedy the difference in size by
tying the excess in wrinkles around her hips. The greatest difficulty was
about the eyes, where the skin hung in folds which the impostor sewed
neatly to make less noticeable. When all was done the murderess scraped
a hole in the soft ground and buried the body of her victim.

While awaiting the return of Stax the impostor busied herself in
carrying out all the small household occupations, just as she had been
told about them. Towards dusk Stucx came back. He noticed that his
wife looked peculiar and uneasy, but said nothing about it; they sat down
together to the meal but the woman kept her eyes lowered, lest the loose
skin about them might betray her. Stusx wondered at that and also at
her voice, which did not sound normal. At night the masquerader went
first to bed, as a wife always does when her husband is observing cere-
monial chastity. S¢u.x followed shortly. In a few minutes an owl hooted:

“ Stuux’s wife has tied up a fold of skin round her hips.”

Neither man nor woman spoke. Even at that distant period it was
well known that the voice of a dead person passes into an owl, though only
rarely can one communicate with the living. It was, in fact, the slain wife
speaking from above the spot where her body lay. The murderess feared
that Stu.x would put his arm around her waist, but she was saved because
his observance of ceremonial chastity prevented him from doing so.