14. The Wicked Mother-in-law

14. THE WICKED MOTHER-IN-LAW (8)

An old woman lived with her two daughters. They used to go in swimming in the creek. One wore a red dress and one a blue dress, which they removed while they were bathing. A young man reached the place, took the dresses, and, climbing up to the top of a bent willow, sat there. After the girls had been in the water for a while they came out and looked for their dresses, but they were not there. While they were hunting about one saw something red in the water and said, "Our dresses have been blown into the water." Diving, they hunted about and tried to find them in the water but could not. Then they looked up and saw the youth who had taken them sitting with them in the tree. "Give me my dress," one said, but he kept refusing them. After they hand asked him repeatedly the man said, "By what kinship term will you call me?" "Our grandfather," one said. "No!" he answered. "Our brother." "No!" "Our uncle." "Nothing like that," he answered. "Our husband." "Yes," he answered, and he came down and gave them their dresses, and they went home,

But when they got home, their mother, who was a bad old woman, wanted very much to kill him. So, while he was staying there, she

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said, "I want something." He went outhunting and brought it in. She said she wanted something else, which he also brought. "I want you to repair the house for me," she said. "I have bark cord ready," he answered. He set out. When he arrived at the place a horned snake tried to wrap itself around him, but he cut it all to pieces. Then he brought more bark cord and finished the house.

Then she spoke again, saying, "Let us race." "No indeed," he answered. "Let us wrestle," she said. "No indeed." After she had urged him for some time, he said, "Now at last I am angry," and he threw her down so hard that she was hurt. Letting her lie there, he went away.