ICEBERG LAKE
Immense bergs are continually dropping into it from the live glacier in background
Some of us—all excepting our two old men and the women—have been riding over the different trails here, viewing the glaciers and other places of interest, especially Iceberg Lake, where we saw a mass of ice as large as a house part from the glacier, splash down into the deep lake, and disappear, and after a time come up from the depths to the surface and create another commotion of the waters. It was a grand sight!
Tail-Feathers-Coming-over-the-Hill says that the lake with the unpronounceable white man’s name—McDermott—should be called Jealous Women’s Lake; that away back in the days of his youth, when the Kootenai Indians occasionally came to camp and hunt with the Blackfeet, he had a youthful friend of the mountain tribe who told him the following story:—
THE JEALOUS WOMEN
“In those days a young Kootenai, good of heart, a great hunter, and very brave, married twin sisters so alike that except for one thing they could not be told apart: one was a slow, the other a very fast, talker.
“In time the fast talker, named Marmot, became jealous of her sister, Camas, complaining all the time that she had to do the most of the lodge work, and that she was sure Camas said bad things about her to their man. Camas denied all this. ‘I have never tried to place myself first with our man,’ she said. ‘We are twins; I love you dearly; our man’s heart is so big that it holds us both in equal love. Now, be sensible! Cast out your bad thoughts for they are all wrong.’
“But Marmot persisted in believing that she was neglected; that her sister had all their man’s affection; and she finally went to him with her complaint. He laughed. ‘I love you just as much as I do your sister,’ he said. ‘Now, just think back and show me when and in what way I have shown that she is first with me!’
“Marmot sat down and thought. She thought a long time; remained silent. The man was very patient with her; he waited for her answer, but it did not come. At last he said: ‘Well, you have thought a long time. Have you found one thing in which I gave her preference?’
“‘No, I haven’t, but all the same I believe that you love her best,’ Marmot answered; and got up and went about her work.
“The man shook his head, made no answer to that, and took up his weapons and went hunting down the river. At the time he was camped right here at this lake.