Story of the two towns that stood on opposite sides of Nass river
[Told by Jimmy Sterling of the Stᴀ′stas]
The people of these towns used to visit back and forth. They also gambled together. From one of these several brothers went to hunt beaver at the beaver lakes where they were in the habit of getting them. They counted the days.[1]
When they came there and began to destroy the dam this was carried over by the current, and they floated down in it. They barely saved themselves far below. Now they knew that some regulation had been broken. But still they continued to live where they were. And there, too, they did not kill a single thing. Then they went away. Now they were certain that the wife of one of them was indeed going with some one else.[2]
They camped at night near the town, and just before daylight the eldest went to the town. He went to his wife. Some one lay with his wife, and he cut off his head. Then he awoke his wife, and he put the head above the door. At once he went out.
At once she began to dig a hole for the body, which was left in her bed. Then her child was crying. At that time they asked her why it cried. And she said it cried because it had defecated in bed, and she was wiping it. Right there she buried [the body].
When day came she lay as she used to. Then her husband came in with his younger brother. He acted as if he knew nothing about having killed anyone. It was the son of the town chief on the other side.
When day came the chief’s son was missing. They visited each other across the ice upon the river. They hunted about the town in which he was missing. And they also hunted for him where he had been killed.
Then they let a slave look for him secretly. They sent him after fire. And he took his live coals and went away. When he went out blood dropped upon his feet. And he did not look for the cause. When he came to the middle of the river he let himself fall with his live coals. Then he returned. He reentered the house where he had got the live coals. Again he pushed charcoal into the fire on the side toward the door. And when he went out he looked. He saw the head stuck up on the side toward the door. When he got back he told them he had seen his head.
At once they ran thither. Then they began to fight. And, after the fight had gone on for a while, all the people of the town where the [[342]]person had been unfaithful to her husband were destroyed. They also burned the town.