Tradition of the Comox.
(Dictated by Qâ'sElas, a Mâ'dilbê woman; recorded by George Hunt.)
The ancestors of the Comox were living at a place called Pentlatch. The prince of the chief had for his wife the princess of another chief, a chief of the Ê'êqsE?n. The woman had four brothers, and the name of the woman was Nä'dExwomat, and Nä'dExwomat had a young man for her lover. The man, husband of the woman, was always jealous of the young man on account of his wife. In vain the woman asked her husband to accompany her, getting cedar-bark in the woods. Her husband just sent her to go by herself.
At once the woman got ready and as soon as she was ready, she started. Her husband watched her and her lover. As soon as the woman had been out some time, her husband went also to search for his wife's lover, but he never found him, and therefore he discovered that he had gone with his wife; and so the man came back, returned to his house, and lay down on his back.
In the evening, however, his wife came home. His wife just put down the great amount of cedar-bark that she carried on her back in front of the house, and came in. As soon as she sat down in the house, she began
The man had not been silent long when he spoke again, and said to his wife, "Let us wash ourselves with hemlock-branches in the woods." Thus he said. At once the woman agreed to go, and the couple arose at once and went out of their house to a pond behind the village. As soon as they arrived there, the man spoke to his wife, and said, "O mistress! let us go to a pond farther back." Thus he said. At once they started again, and they arrived at another pond. Then the man spoke again to his wife, and said again, "O mistress! let us go to a pond farther back." Thus he said. The woman started at once, for she did not guess the thoughts of her husband. They started again; and they had not been walking long before they arrived at another pond; and the man spoke again, and said, "O mistress! let us go to a pond farther back, so that we may really purify ourselves." Thus he said. Immediately the woman just passed the pond, and they did not walk long before they arrived at another pond. Its name is Tsâ'wilaxu. Immediately the man sent his wife to break off hemlock-branches, and the woman at once tried to break off the lower branches of a hemlock-tree. Her husband requested her to climb higher up the tree and to break off the hemlock-branches (there). Then the woman climbed on, and tried to break (branches). As soon as the woman began to break the branches of Immediately the youngest one spoke, and said, "O brothers! listen to what I hear! It sounds just like our elder sister." Thus he said. Then they kept quiet, and
Then the eldest brother gave his youngest brother a knife, and said, "Oh, my dear! go and sit down on the ground behind the house of our former brother-in-law, and pretend to look for lice on your apron; and as soon as you are seen by some of the younger sisters of our former brother-in-law, and as soon as you are called in, enter the house and pretend that you are not well, and that you are just able to walk, and hide this knife to cut the throat of our former brother-in-law when he sleeps." Thus he said. As soon as they had finished, they came out of the woods. At once the youngest brother went behind the house of their former brother-in-law and sat down on the ground. He had not been sitting there long, looking for lice on his apron, when the younger brother of his brother-in-law came out. The child went back into the house at once and told his elder brother, and said, "O master! go and look at your wife. She is sitting there behind the house, looking for lice on her apron." Thus he said. Immediately he was sent to call her. The child went back out of the house at once to call the man who pretended to be a woman. Immediately the woman arose and followed the child, and she went straight to the place
