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Every night he would change into human form and lie with the girl, and
in the morning, before it was light, would turn back again into his dog
shape: so no one knew anything about it. After a time she became pregnant;
and when her parents found it out and knew that the dog was the cause they
were greatly ashamed, and calling the people together they tore
down the house, put out all the fires, and moved away from the place,
leaving the girl to die.
But Crow had pity on her, and, taking some coals, she placed them between
two clam-shells, and told the girl secretly that after a time she would
hear a crackling, and to go to the spot and she would find fire. So the
girl was left alone, for the people had all gone a long way across the
water. She sat still for a long time, listening for the crackling, and
when she finally heard it she went to the place and found the fire as Crow
had said.
Not long after this she gave birth to five dog pups, but as her father had
killed the dog, her lover, she had to look after them by herself, and the
only way she could live and care for them was to gather clams and other
shellfish on the beach. There were four male pups and one female, and with
the care their mother gave them, they grew very fast.
Soon she noticed
that whenever she went out, she heard a noise of singing and dancing,
which seemed to come from the house, and she wondered greatly. Four times
she heard the noise and wondered, and when, on going out again, she heard
it for the fifth time, she took her clam-digger and stuck it in the sand,
and put her clothes on it to make it look as if she were busy gathering
clams. Then she stole back by a roundabout way, and creeping close to the
house peeped in through a crack to see what the noise might be.
There she
saw four boys dancing and singing, and a little girl watching the place
where the mother was supposed to be digging clams. The mother waited a
moment and watched, and then coming in she caught them in human form, and
scolded them, saying that they ought to have had that form in the first
place, for on their account she had been brought to shame before the
people. At this the children sat down and were ashamed.
And the mother
tore down the dog blankets which were hanging about, and threw them into
the fire.
So they remained in human form after this; and as soon as they were old
enough she made little bows and arrows for the boys, and taught them how
to shoot birds, beginning with the wren, and working up to the largest.
Then she taught them to make large bows and arrows, and how to shoot fur
animals, and then larger game, up to the elk.
And she made them bathe
every day to try to get tamanous for catching whales, and after that they
hunted the hair-seal to make floats of its skin.
And the mother made harpoons for them of Elk-bone, and lines of twisted
sinews and cedar, and at the end of the line she fastened the sealskin
floats. And when everything was ready, the boys went out whaling and were
very successful, and brought in so many whales that the whole beach stank
with them.
Now, Crow noticed one day, from far across the water, a great smoke rising
from where the old village had stood, and that night she came over
secretly to see what it all meant. And before she neared the beach, she
smelled the dead whales, and when she came up she saw the carcasses lying
all about, and there were so many that some of them had not yet been cut
up.
When she reached the house, she found the children grown up; and they
welcomed her and gave her food, all she could eat, but gave her nothing to
take back, telling her to come over again if she wanted more.
When Crow started back, the girl told her that when she reached home, she
was to weep so that the people would believe they were dead. But Crow, on
getting home, instead of doing as she was told, described how the beach
was covered with sea gulls feeding on the whales that had been killed by
the boys.
Now, Crow had brought with her secretly a piece of whale-meat for her
children, and after putting out the light she fed it to them; and one of
them ate so fast that she choked, and coughed a piece of the meat out on
the ground.
And some of the people saw it, and then believed what Crow had told them,
as they had not done before. Then the people talked it all over, and
decided to go back; and they loaded their canoes and moved to the old
village. And the boys became the chiefs of the village, and always kept
the people supplied with whales.
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