24. The Dead Wife

24. THE DEAD WIFE

A man and his wife were going along a trail when the man picked some berries of the button-snake root and threw them gently at his wife who was ahead of him. They passed through her body and she died. Then the woman's relatives took her and buried her, and her husband with her, although he was alive.

When night came she went to a dance. The next night she was gone again. She came back covered with sweat. Then she said to her husband, "You have nothing to do here but lie still and be sad. Get on my back." So he got on her back, she jumped up and put him down outside, going through the earth with him. And when

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he reached his house and the people saw him, they said, "He has broken through the earth." They set out for the place and when they got there looked all about but nothing was disturbed.