Now there was a partridge[[46]] woman who had a large family. She had a house under a big log and her house was hidden by plants. A good many people (animals) tried to find the partridge’s house because they wanted to eat her eggs or her children. Now one morning her children were all asleep and she was running about eating worms and seeds. At this time she smelled an enemy so she was alarmed for her children’s safety. Now then she sang a song to awaken them:
Djut-gan-nio, djut-gan-nio! Ho-sho-ga-he shoda-die-s!
Ya-ha-ne sho-da-ges! Ia-ha-ne sho-da-ges!
which meant that the skunk was prowling about and would soon find them if they did not scurry away. After a time they heard their mother’s song and ran into the bushes and she hid them in a safe place.
Now this is the partridge song and it is a good thing to sing it when you see or smell an enemy about a partridge’s house. It is good luck.
IX.
TALES OF GIANTS, PYGMIES AND MONSTER BEARS
52. A TALE OF THE DJOGEON OR PYGMIES.
There was a young man named Snow who lived with his parents along the bank of a river. He played about the door yard every day and sometimes swam in the river. When he was very young he obeyed everything his father told him and refrained from going toward the south, where he had been forbidden to venture.
One morning he took his bow and arrows and began to hunt cedar waxwings. It was spring time and there were many of these birds on the tall trees. Just as he was about to shoot, the birds flew to the south and so kept on flying up the bed of a smaller stream, emptying into the river. As Snow chased the birds he noticed that the walls of the stream grew higher and higher until they were very high and close together at the top. It became very dark and Snow became confused and could not tell where to walk, for the rocks began to get more and more jagged. So he sat down on a large stone, feeling very miserable.
Suddenly he heard a stone strike the ground at his feet. He looked about in the gloom and then heard another strike. The next time the stone struck him on the forehead between the eyes and Snow fell over like a dead person.