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These boys would go alternately to
each other's houses and make great quantities of arrows which they would
play with until all were broken up.
One time both of the boys made a great quantity of arrows to see which
could have the more. Just back of their village was a hill on the top of
which was a smooth grassy place claimed by the boys as their playground,
and on a certain fine, moonlight night they started thither.
As they were going along the lesser chief's son, who was ahead, said,
"Look here, friend. Look at that moon. Don't you think that the shape of
that moon is the same as that of my mother's labret and that the size is
the same, too_" The other answered, "Don't: You must not talk that way of
the moon."
Then suddenly it became very dark about them and presently the head
chief's son saw a ring about them just like a rainbow. When it disappeared
his companion was gone. He called and called to him but did not get any
answer and did not see him. He thought, "He must have run up the hill to
get away from that rainbow." He looked up and saw the moon in the sky.
Then he climbed the hill, and looked about, but his friend was not there.
Now he thought, "Well! the moon must have gone up with him. That circular
rainbow must have been the moon."
The boy thus left alone sat down and cried, after which he began to try
the bows. He put strings on them one after the other and tried them, but
every one broke. He broke all of his own bows and all of his and his
chum's except one which was made of very hard wood.
He thought, "Now I am going to shoot that star next to the moon." In that
spot was a large and very bright one. He shot an arrow at this star and
sat down to watch, when, sure enough, the star darkened. Now he began
shooting at that star from the big piles of arrows he and his chum had
made, and he was encouraged by seeing that the arrows did not come back.
After he had shot for some time he saw something hanging down very near
him and, when he shot up another arrow, it stuck to this. The next did
likewise, and at last the chain of arrows reached him. He put a last one
on to complete it.
Now the youth felt badly for the loss of his friend and, lying down under
the arrow chain, he went to sleep. After a while he awoke, found himself
sleeping on that hill, remembered the arrows he had shot away, and looked
up. Instead of the arrows there was a long ladder reaching right down to
him. He arose and looked so as to make sure. Then he determined to ascend.
First, however, he took various kinds of bushes and stuck them into the
knot of hair he wore on his head. He climbed up his ladder all day and
camped at nightfall upon it, resuming his journey the following morning.
When he awoke early on the second morning his head felt very heavy. Then
he seized the salmon berry bush that was in his hair, pulled it out, and
found it was loaded with berries.
After he had eaten the berries off, he stuck the branch back into his hair
and felt very much strengthened. About noon of the same day he again felt
hungry, and again his head was heavy, so he pulled out a bush from the
other side of his head and it was loaded with blue huckleberries. It was
already summer there in the sky.
That was why he was getting berries. When he resumed his journey next
morning his head did not feel heavy until noon. At that time he pulled out
the bush at the back of his head and found it loaded with red
huckleberries.
By the time he had reached the top the boy was very tired. He looked round
and saw a large lake. Then he gathered some soft brush and some moss and
lay down to sleep. But, while he slept, some person came to him and shook
him saying, "Get up. I am after you." He awoke and looked around but saw
no one. Then he rolled over and pretended to go to sleep again but looked
out through his eyelashes.
By and by he saw a very small but handsome girl coming along. Her skin
clothes were very clean and neat, and her leggings were ornamented with
porcupine quills. Just as she reached out to shake him he said, "I have
seen you already."
Now the girl stood still and said, "I have come after you. My grandmother
has sent me to bring you to her house." So he went with her, and they came
to a very small house in which was an old woman. The old woman said, "What
is it you came way up here after, my grandson_" and the boy answered, "On
account of my playmate who was taken up hither." "Oh!" answered the old
woman, "He is next door, only a short distance away. I can hear him crying
every day. He is in the moon's house."
Then the old woman began to give him food. She would put her hand up to
her mouth, and a salmon or whatever she was going to give would make its
appearance. After the salmon she gave him berries and then meat, for she
knew that he was hungry from his long journey. After that she gave him a
spruce cone, a rose bush, a piece of devil's club, and a small piece of
whetstone to take along.
As the boy was going toward the moon's house with all of these things he
heard his playmate screaming with pain. He had been put up on a high place
near the smoke hole, so, when his rescuer came to it, he climbed on top,
and, reaching down through the smoke hole, pulled him out. He said, "My
friend, come. I am here to help you." Putting the spruce cone down where
the boy had been, he told it to imitate his cries, and he and his chum ran
away.
After a while, however, the cone dropped from the place where it has been
put, and the people discovered that their captive had escaped. Then the
moon started in pursuit. When the head chief's son discovered this, he
threw behind them the devil's club he had received from the old woman, and
a patch of devil's club arose which the moon had so much trouble in
getting through that they gained rapidly on him.
When the moon again approached, the head chief's son threw back the rose
bushes, and such a thicket of roses grew there that the moon was again
delayed. When he approached them once more, they threw back the
grindstone, and it became a high cliff from which the moon kept rolling
back. It is on account of this cliff that people can say things about the
moon nowadays with impunity. When the boys reached the old woman's house
they were very glad to see each other, for before this they had not had
time to speak.
The old woman gave them something to eat, and, when they were through, she
said to the rescuer, "Go and lie down at the place where you lay when you
first came up. Don't think of anything but the playground you used to
have." They went there and lay down, but after some time the boy who had
first been captured thought of the old woman's house and immediately they
found themselves there.
Then the old woman said, "Go back and do not think of me any more. Lie
there and think of nothing but the place where you used to play." They did
so, and, when they awoke, they were lying on their playground at the foot
of the ladder.
As the boys lay in that place they heard a drum beating in the head
chief's house, where a death feast was being held for them, and the head
chief's son said, "Let us go," but the other answered, "No, let us wait
here until that feast is over." Afterward the boys went down and watched
the people come out with their faces all blackened. They stood at a
corner, but, as this dance is always given in the evening, they were not
seen.
Then the head chief's son thought, " I wish my younger brother would come
out," and sure enough, after all of the other people had gone, his younger
brother came out. He called to his brother saying, "Come here. It is I,"
but the child was afraid and ran into the house instead. Then the child
said to his mother, "My brother and his friend are out here."
"Why do you talk like that_" asked his mother. "Don't you know that your
brother died some time ago_" And she became very angry. The child,
however, persisted, saying, "I know his voice, and I know him."
His mother was now very much disturbed, so the boy said, "I am going to go
out and bring in a piece of his shirt." "Go and do so," said his mother.
"Then I will believe you."
When the boy at last brought in a piece of his brother's shirt his mother
was convinced, and they sent word into all of the houses, first of all
into that of the second boy's parents, but they kept both with them so
that his parents could come there and rejoice over him. All of the other
people in that village also came to see them.
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