FOOTNOTES:
[45] Told by Two-Hawks.
45. THE WIFE WHO MARRIED AN ELK.[46]
There was a man who went hunting with his wife. They were alone. Whenever the man was out hunting the woman would stay at the lodge and take care of all the things that the man had brought in, and she would also jerk meat. There she stayed, while her husband went out day after day. One time when her husband was gone a man came to see her, but she did not know who he was. One day five men came, and the fifth one she liked best. He was fine-looking, and young. This fifth man asked her to go home with him. She liked him so much that she did not feel like refusing him, so she went with him.
When the husband returned he found that his wife was gone. He looked all around until at last he found their tracks. He ran along, following the tracks. The poor man was getting tired, but the more he thought of his wife the more he felt like following her, for he thought a great deal of her. He caught up with her, and to his great surprise he saw his wife walking beside an animal. The man ran and shot at the animal, but could not kill it. This animal was an Elk. Not far away was a lake, toward which the Elk and the woman were headed. The Elk and the woman went right into this lake. The man shot at the animal, but the arrows did not seem to harm the Elk. When the man came to the lake he remained there. He would think of going away, but when he thought of his wife he would stay. He cried and cried. He neither ate nor drank.
At last the woman came out from the lake, for she felt sorry for her husband. She said: “You must go home, and whenever you start upon the war-path come to this place before you go and I will see you, and I will do anything to get out of this place so that I can tell you where to go, and if I can go with you I will do so.” So the man went home, and when he got there, the people asked him what had become of his wife. He told the people what had happened to her. After many days, the man thought he would go on the war-path. He invited several young men, and they went out. When they were near the lake, the man told his companions to stay at a distance from the lake, while he went on by himself. The man had a dress for the woman. When he got to the lake she told him to go west; that in a few days he would find three tipis; that there were three men living in the tipis, and that he should kill them; and that he would capture all their ponies. The woman then disappeared. The man threw the dress into the lake and went back. The man then led the war-party to the west. In a few days they found the three tipis. They attacked them and killed the people in them. Their ponies they captured, so that it all came true, as the woman had said. Then they went home and had a great time dancing the scalp-dance.
The next time the man went on the war-path he took several young men with him, and he again visited the lake. This time the woman came out, and said: “My husband, I can never leave this lake any more. You must go to the west, and there you will find the enemy. In the fight you will see a woman who looks like me. Go to this woman and catch her. She will become your wife and be good to you.” In a few days they found the enemy’s camp. They attacked the village, and they fought. While they were fighting, this man saw the woman who looked just like his wife. He stopped fighting and went after the woman. He captured her and took her home with him.
The man never went to the lake any more, but was happy with his new wife, for she looked very much like the woman who had gone into the lake with the Elk.