81. The Dead Basket-Maker

81. THE DEAD BASKET-MAKER

A woman at Klawak was just finishing a basket when she died. She had not yet cut off the tops. Then her husband took the basket and put it up under the roof over his bed. He thought a great deal of it because it was his wife's last work. Sometimes he would take

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it down, press it against his heart and weep as he held it there. He wept all the time.

After this man had been a widower a long time he married again. One evening, when he was sitting on the bed playing with his new wife, the basket fell right over his head. He tried to pull it off, and his wife laughed, not knowing why it had been up there. When he was unable to pull it away his wife also tried, but it stuck tight around his neck. He became frightened and worked very hard at it. Suddenly the basket said to him, "Yes, pull me off of your head. Why don't you press me against your heart again?" it last if they had not cut the strings the basket would have choked him to death. Then he put it farther back and in the morning threw it into the fire.