STORIES 429

“Why are you sitting there, singing to yourself?’ Caribou asked Porcupine.

“J want to cross the river but I am afraid to swim,” replied Porcupine.

“Would you like me to carry you over?” asked Caribou.

“Yes indeed! Thank you very much,” said Porcupine.

Caribou seized him by the forelegs, swung him up on to his back and started to swim the river. But Porcupine was conspiring to murder his helper. In the middle of the stream he began to jump about, uneasily.

“Why are you doing that?” asked Caribou.

“Oh! Oh! Nobody has ever carried me by the forelegs before. I have always been carried by the hind legs.”

“All right!’ said Caribou, genially. ‘We will go back and start again.”

They returned to the bank from which they had started, where the obliging Caribou lifted Porcupine down, and then swung him up on his back again by the hind legs.

“Oh, thank you so much,” Porcupine said. “I will not be afraid any more.”

This position was what Porcupine wanted, as it left his hands free. In mid-stream he began to pull out his quills and stick them into the anus of Caribou, who jumped at the sudden pain.

“What are you doing up there?” he asked.

“Nothing,” replied Porcupine. “It is only my whiskers you feel.”

Before they reached the farther shore, Porcupine had plucked out most of his quills and stuffed them into his mount. The unfortunate Caribou barely reached land before falling dead.

Porcupine, who had no knife to cut up such large game, sat down and began to sing:*!

Kink tatéyén-idutsdai didtbubitaixitsdai Gs-inininini

I have no knife © | touseonmy booty | 4s-inininini.®

Presently Wolverine came up the bank.

“Why are you sitting there singing?” he asked.

“Tt is the first time I have ever killed such a big animal,” Porcupine replied, ‘“‘and I have no knife fit to deal with it.”

“JT have a suitable knife,’’ Wolverine eagerly made offer. “‘Let us share the game.”

“Thank you so much,” said Porcupine. “That will be fine. We can go to my house to eat it.”

“Recorded as song VII D 47b, National Museum of Canada; singer, Jim Pollard. “This is said to be an ejaculation in the porcupine language.