War with the Swan people

He learned that the stranger was a Swan man. He belonged to the Swan people, who often stole women from the Indians. They lived in a high cold country a long distance off. Between their country and the Indian country the sky intervened; but at intervals it would rise for a short time, and then fall again on the water. At these times people could pass through from one country to the other. The man stated that there was snow in his country already, and that the winter had set in. The husband asked him how he did on the way going home. He answered, “I anchor my canoe with a stone every night, and go on in the morning.” The husband then asked him to give him something that would satisfy him for the loss of his wife, and he gave him an arrow. Then the stranger departed, never expecting that people could possibly follow him.

The husband now gathered all his own friends, his wife’s brothers and all her friends, to make up a large war-party. They made many canoes, many snowshoes, many moccasins, and many arrows and spears. They started on the track of the Swan man over the lake. At night they lashed all their canoes together and anchored them. After many days they arrived at a place where there seemed to be a hole in the sky. The sky was rising and falling at short intervals at this place. They watched a chance when the sky rose above the water, and rushed through. The sky came down and hit the last man. They thought this bad luck: so they gave this man a canoe, and sent him back.

It was summer in their own country, but on the other side of the sky it was already winter. At last they saw smoke on the shore, and came to an old camp. The people had lately left this camp, excepting two old women and a girl. [Some informants say that the women were very old and blind, and therefore not able to travel with the people.] They had gone off on their early winter hunt in the interior. The war-party hid near the camp. One old woman said to the other, “Put a stick on the fire.” She got up and pulled a log along to put it on the fire. One of the war-party, concealed in the bushes near the fire, took hold of the opposite end of the stick. He pushed it and pulled it, causing the old woman (who held on) to go backwards and forwards. The other woman laughed, saying, “Why does she go back and forth in that way?” The woman holding the log made a sign to her to keep quiet, and not to laugh. Then she whispered, “Maybe there is some one here. You know there was a woman stolen by our people lately.”

The war-party now cached their canoes, put on their snowshoes, and followed the people’s tracks. They intended to kill the old women on their return. The Swan people were still travelling every day, the men hunting, and the women dragging the toboggans and making the camps. The captive woman had not slept with her new husband yet. She always lingered behind, dragging her toboggan; and when she cut brush for the camp, she always did so back on the trail. An old woman also followed behind, being unable to drag her toboggan as fast as the others.

The husband who had lost his wife was chief of the war-party. After a number of days they caught up with the Swan people, and the chief went ahead to reconnoitre. He saw his wife cutting brush, and he stopped. She came back along the trail, and saw him. She was glad, and about to rush towards him; but he said to her, “Don’t come near me, only speak! We are famished. Can you get food for us?” The old woman was not far away, and she had much meat in her toboggan. The captive woman went to her, and told her how her axe had broken, and that she wanted some sinew to tie the stone to the handle again. The old woman said, “Go to my toboggan and take out some sinew.” She went there, and took out meat and replaced it with brush. She then hauled the meat back to the war-party. Again she hauled back brush to camp, and told the old woman her axe had broken again. The old woman told her to take some more sinew, and she took meat and carried it to the war-party. The chief (her former husband) said to her, “Tonight put fresh meat on the men’s snowshoes and on their arrow-points (and spear-points?), so that it will freeze on, and they cannot use them. In the morning a strong wind will blow, and then we shall come. Keep your husband [some people say “two husbands”] awake by playing and fooling with him until he is tired. He will then sleep soundly.”

Her new husband was chief of the Swan people. When nearly daybreak, the woman built a fire, and one man started out to hunt. Then a strong cold north wind began to blow, and nothing could be seen outside the camp except the driving snow. The war-party crept up in the storm, and the woman ran out and joined them. They attacked and killed all the people. The only one who escaped was the man who had gone hunting.

When they returned to the camp near where they had cached their canoes, they found that the two old women and the girl had changed into mice. They set out on their return journey on the lake, and came to the place where sky and water met. They found that the sky had frozen to the water, and that they were barred by what seemed a wall of ice. All the shamans and the animals tried to make a passage through, but without result. The Lynx jumped at the ice wall, trying to make a hole with his nose, and drove it back into his face. This is why he has now such a short blunt nose. At last Weasel made a hole and passed through; the next animal, a little bigger, enlarged the hole and went through; and thus they enlarged the hole, a bigger animal passing through each time. At last the moose went through, and then they took the canoes through. The party then travelled back the way they had come, and reached home in safety.

Now the Mice women in Swan land travelled into the interior to find their people. The girl with the old women was sister to the man who had gone hunting and thus escaped death. They found his tracks and followed him; but he always kept ahead of them, and camped alone. They could not overtake him. The old women had a dog that could speak like a person. This dog always went forward to the hunter’s camp, and brought back meat for the women and the girl. Thus they continued journeying until they reached a large camp of Swan people who were their friends. The hunter would not camp with them, however, because his sister (the Mouse girl) was pregnant, and he was ashamed. He had never had connection with her, so he was much ashamed when people said he was the father of his sister’s child. He became so much ashamed that he committed suicide. (Here follows the child story, which I did not record.)

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