39. Origin of the Fern Root and the Ground Hog

39. ORIGIN OF THE FERN ROOT AND THE GROUND HOG ^a

The girls of a certain place were playing house under a cliff back of their village, and each of them took some kind of food there. Among them were two very poor little orphans who had no food to bring, so the elder went home and brought, up the bony part of a dry salmon and the younger a fern root named k!wAlx. Then the older girls took these from them and threw them away, so that they began to cry very hard.

While the girls were crying, the cliff behind them fell over in front and imprisoned them all. . They began to cry from fright. After that they began to rub on the cliff the tallow and salmon they had with them, and the, little birds that had also been imprisoned began to peck it off, so that at length they began to make a hollow in the rock. In course of time the birds pecked a hole entirely through, and, when it was large enough, the girls began to crawl out. Finally all of the girls were taken out except one poor little girl who got stuck half way. The walls had in reality closed in on her, and they continued to do so until they had cut her quite in two. Her head became the fern root (k!wAlx) and her body became a ground hog.

Footnotes

180:a Evidently fragmentary.