When the husband came back he saw by the tracks that a man had visited the camp and had gone away with his wife. He went back to the settlement and told them that the woman with whom he had gone to hunt had gone off, leaving human tracks on one side and on the other side like a deer.
The people went in a company to the place where the man had camped and commenced following the tracks that were human on one side and deer-like on the other. While being trailed they ran from those who were following them, who ran after them, chasing them around until the one who had been a woman was worn out. They overtook her and threw on her a ring of turquoise, followed by one of bacinϵ and then one of tcϵłtcϵϵ, and finally one of yołgai. As these rings fell on her she became progressively human in shape. When she had become a human being again, they took her back to the settlement. When it was time for deer to run again, she became a deer once more, and then became a person again.
When thunder was heard, they made a camp and went to hunt little fawns which they were bringing into the camp. This woman who had turned into a deer had little fawns which she had borne for a deer. She went around among the houses where the fawns were being brought in and found her own lying there dead. An Indian had killed them both and had brought them in. When she learned a man had brought in pretty fawns, with yellow around their eyes, she ran there and commenced to cry.
She spoke, saying that the deer they should see along the trail where she went with her children would be herself and that they should pray to her.
[51]. Told by Frank Crockett's father following the preceding story so closely as to make its separation a matter of doubt. A fuller version was obtained from a San Carlos, p. 49, above.
The Gambler who secured the Water-Ceremony.[[52]]
A boy started playing najonc and lost his arrows, his moccasins, his breechcloth, his shirt, his headband, his hair, his eyebrows, and his eyelashes. When he returned home so divested, his mother told him to go away somewhere that she might not see him again.
He started away, utterly naked as he was, and traveled until he came to the edge of the ocean. He jumped into the water but was thrown back.[[53]] He did this three times with the same result and then jumped in under the water. When he looked back through the water it was white. He began to eat all kinds of “worms” as he went along. He ate, also, some of the green growth floating on the water. They came with him to the house made of water. The fly that sat inside his ear gave him information and advice. All the water people and the fog people went with him; Water-old-man was among them and Water-youth with a downy feather on the crown of his head. He was sent down that way with a message.[[54]] They sent him where the black blanket of water is spread down.
“Over there he is running along,” someone said. “Now to you they are starting, Water-youths, to you they are starting. Yonder we are coming, Water-youths are coming,” he said. “They are coming right up the stream.