XIII. Pine Marten's Quest for Moon's Daughter

Yana Texts, by Edward Sapir, [1910], at sacred-texts.com

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XIII. PINE MARTEN'S QUEST FOR MOON'S DAUGHTER. ³⁵⁰

Moon lived in the west. Lion, Wolf, and others lived far up toward Fall river in a big sweat-house. Lion went first to Moon's house for his daughter, went in. Moon put brains in the fire, and there was a strong smoke, so that Lion could not breathe. The two women said, "You must die. There are many dead outside. My father does not want me to have a husband." Moon gave Lion a pipe to smoke. He took but two whiffs and was killed. Moon threw him out. Then Wolf went to sue for Moon's daughter, went in. The same thing occurred to him. Silver Fox went, with the same result. The women cried, told Moon he had killed enough, but he did not mind.

The last one to sue was Pine Marten. He put Weasel in his quiver which he carried with him. When he came in, Pine Marten caused the smoke to go away. Moon gave Pine Marten a strong pipe. Pine Marten smoked it, blew the smoke down into a hole in the ground, and returned the pipe to Moon unaffected. The girls warned Pine Marten. Weasel pulled out a stronger tobacco, but Pine Marten made the smoke go down into the ground as before. Moon gave Pine Marten a stronger tobacco again, but it had no effect. He threw back the pipe and broke it.

Pine Marten went for wood, brought spruce and cedar. He came back and put it all in. "That is the kind of wood one should use for sweating, not brains." The spruce wood popped, the sparks burned Moon half up. Pine Marten danced. Moon cried out to stop it, for he was nearly dead. Pine Marten stopped it, and Moon said, "You ought not to do that." Moon said, "Son-in-law, go swim." So he went, and soon a big water grizzly (hā't‘enna) pulled him in, and tried to kill him. He could not do so, however. Pine Marten stayed one night with him at the bottom of the river, then went back with many presents

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from his nephew. He brought back his hide to Moon and said, "I hung up a salmon outside." Moon saw it and was frightened.

Moon asked him to go for wood, so he went to the north. A big snake with a horn (‘e‘k‘ū'na) came and caught Pine Marten, but Pine Marten told him that he was his uncle. Pine Marten killed him, skinned him, and brought home the skin with the wood. He told his father-in-law to go and look at the wood. He saw the hide and was frightened, did not know what to do.

"Son-in-law, go and hunt up on this mountain, kill deer," so he went to the north. Big Rain (tc‘ilwa'rik!u), Hail (sabilk!ê'yu), and Buzzard (ma‘ts!k‘ili'lla) were jealous of Pine Marten. Moon told Pine Marten to sit down, while the people circled about and drove in the animals. Pine Marten thought they were deer, but they were really grizzly bears. Pine Marten ran, and the grizzly bears ran after him and tore off his buckskin leggings. All day he ran. In the afternoon he heard a voice above, "You are nearly caught. Tell the tree to open, get in, and go through." He did so. The bear came after him but was caught by the tree as it closed. Pine Marten went back, got out the bear, and skinned him. When he returned to Moon's house, he hung up the hide. He told Moon to go out and see the squirrel. Moon did so, saw the bear-hide, and was frightened.

"Son-in-law," called Moon. Drifting Rain and Blue Racer (tcī'wa) were to have a race with Pine Marten. They started, went to the south, ran a long way. Pine Marten gave out. First he killed Big Rain by pulling a log out from under him, next he killed Blue Racer. He carried home the spoils. Moon thought that Pine Marten was dead, but cried when he found what had happened.

"Son-in-law, we will play tomorrow morning." He took deer-sinew rope, and wanted Pine Marten to get on the digger pine while he pulled it down by the rope and let it snap back. Pine Marten jumped off before Moon could snap. Moon thought he had snapped him up to the sky, but he came back. Now Moon was to get up, and he did so. Pine Marten swung the tree a little, and Moon said, "Look out, my son-in-law. Be careful, do not pull too much." Pine Marten thought to himself, "I

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Footnotes

233:350 In a general way this suitor tale corresponds to Curtin's "The Winning of Halai Auna," Creation Myths of Primitive America, pp. 281-294, but there are plenty of differences of detail. Some of the incidents, such as the fight with the water grizzly, recall the Damha'udju story obtained by Curtin and myself (text no. IV).

will fix him." He gave him a big swing and snapped him off into the sky, where he is the moon. Pine Marten looked and saw him. Moon said, "I shall stay here now, he gave me a good place to stay. I shall see what people do." Pine Marten went back to the house. The old woman Frog, asked, "Where is my husband?" Pine Marten said, "He wants you up there." He took them to the same place where he had snapped the old man, and snapped her up also, also the two girls. Then he went home, and told the people that he had fixed things well.