31. Eagle-Woman

31. EAGLE-WOMAN.

There was a woman living in Takimiya. (She was an) Eagle. When somebody came there, she would marry him. Thus she would say to her husband: "We two will go there. There is lots of fun." And she would take him to a small lake. The lake appeared to (be full of) soft pitch. Her husband would be sitting on her back, and the woman would fly (jump) there. Whenever she came there, she would turn over, and her load would fall (into the lake). And the husband would, get stuck there. He could not get out from there. He could not swim. He would just seem to be stuck in the pitch. And he p. 185 would die there. For a long time she had been doing it that way.

So one day a man was dreaming. Such was his dream: "She is simply killing the men, she is not marrying them." So the man went there, and thus spoke to her: "I shall marry you." Eagle-Woman said thus to him: "Good!" So the next day they two went to the place where she had been throwing the men. So the man was thinking thus: "No matter what she does, I will keep on clinging to her." Now, indeed, he saw the lake. The Eagle turned over. The man kept on clinging there. Three times the Eagle did thus. And she became tired. And again she flew (jumped) (to the place whence) they two came. When they two came back, her husband said to her thus: "You are my wife. Come, let us two go!"

So they got ready, and they two went. And he also took along his younger brother, (so that) he might steer the canoe. The man stood in the bow, and the woman was in the middle. Then they were going over the ocean. And the man made waves. At each wave they went through, water filled up the canoe. And they did this for quite a long time. The woman seemed to get cold. And she bumped her nose and her head against the canoe. Now, they were there a long time. The woman was very cold. She nearly died from (with) cold. Then the two went back. When they landed [ashore], the woman also went ashore, sat down in the sand, and warmed herself there. Thus her husband said to her: "You shall be nothing. You shall be an eagle. The last people shall see you. Whenever something comes ashore, you shall eat it." Then he left his wife, (and) they two did not live (together).