27. The Owl Wives

27. THE OWL WIVES

Two men were camped away from home hunting. One day two women, each with a child on her back, came to their camp pretending to be their wives, but an old dog told them that they were really owls (or ghosts?). One believed the woman was really his wife; the other did not. The second man killed a panther and brought it to the camp, but when his wife started to cook it she cut out its heart and swallowed it. The dog said to him, "That is not good. She wants to kill you." When night came all lay down, but this second hunter got an old dead tree and laid it beside his wife. About midnight the wife of the other woke up and killed her husband. She had long finger nails like a panther's. The other man took his gun and ran off to a hollow tree in which he hid while the old dog ran around barking at his wife as she scratched upon the tree with her talons. When day came the dog called his master, who came out and shot his supposed wife so that she died. The other had gone off. After he had gotten

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home the dog said to him, "When you get home we shall get some food to eat but do not eat of it." So the people let the dogs eat first, and after they had had enough all went out into the bushes and died, but the man escaped. (There is more to this story, but this is all my informant remembered.)