Long ago there was an old woman called
Grizzly Bear. She had neither husband nor children,
and lived all alone in a lodge on the hillside.
As the days went by, she became very
lonely, and so she made up her mind to find a daughter
for herself. She took some pitch and fashioned
a girl out of it. Then she put this figure out
beside the river, and it began to move and speak.
“You are my daughter now,”
Grizzly Bear said to the girl, “and you shall
live with me in my lodge. Every day you may bathe
in the river, but, when you have finished, you must
come at once into the shade of the lodge, instead
of drying yourself in the sunshine.”
The girl promised to do this and for
three days she obeyed her mother’s commands,
but on the fourth day she thought she would see what
would happen to her, if she sat on the bank in the
sunshine. So, when she had finished bathing,
she seated herself on a stone by the river. The
sun was very hot, and in a few minutes the young girl
had melted and disappeared.
When Grizzly Bear learned what had
happened, she felt very sorrowful, but she was still
determined to find another daughter for herself.
This time she took some clay and fashioned
a girl from it. When the girl moved and spoke,
she told her she might bathe in the river every day
and might seat herself in the sunshine to dry, but
she must not rub herself while in the water.
This command the girl obeyed for three days.
On the fourth day, she thought she would see what
would happen to her if she rubbed herself while she
was in the water. So, when she went in to bathe,
she began to rub herself and at once broke into pieces
and melted away.
When Grizzly Bear saw what had happened,
she again was very sorrowful, and this time she made
up her mind to make a daughter who could not destroy
herself. So, taking a block of wood, she fashioned
a girl from it. When the wood came to life,
Grizzly Bear told her that she might bathe every day
in the river and bask in the sun if she liked.
The daughter did this for three days,
and on the fourth, as she was standing by the riverside,
she saw a large trout leap out the water.
“What a beautiful trout,”
said the girl to herself. “How I wish I
had it.”
Three times the trout leaped out of
the water, and the fourth time it landed on the shore
by her feet. At once it changed into a handsome,
young man.
“Come with me,” he said
to the girl. “I have a beautiful home beneath
the water. Come with me and be my wife, and you
shall live happy all the rest of your days.”
The girl said she would go.
Then he told her to get on his back and to shut her
eyes as he leaped into the water. She must keep
them shut until he told her to look. She promised
to obey him, but, scarcely were they beneath the water,
when she opened her eyes to see where they were.
At once she found herself alone on the bank of the
river.
The next day the same thing happened.
She opened her eyes before they had reached the underwater
world, and again she found herself alone on the bank.
This happened once more on the third day, but on the
fourth she succeeded in keeping her eyes closed until
her husband told her to open them.
She found herself in a beautiful country,
much like the one she had come from. There were
homes and gardens and children here, and she knew
she would be very happy.
As the years went by, two children
were born, a boy and a girl. One day they came
to their mother and told her that the other children
had taunted them with having no grandmother.
“Yes, you have a grandmother,”
she replied. “She lives in a lodge near
the river. You may go above the water to-day
and visit her home, but you must make sure first that
she is digging roots on the hillside, for she must
not see you.”
The children promised and went at
once above the water. They saw the lodge, and
an old woman digging roots. Very quietly, they
made their way to the home of their grandmother.
They found some food on the table and helped themselves.
Then they went back to tell their mother all they
had seen.
Three days they did this, but Grizzly
Bear had missed the food each day, and knew that no
one but grandchildren would enter her lodge this way
and take her food. So, the fourth day, she commanded
an old stump to look like an old woman digging roots,
and to move as the children passed. Going back
to her lodge, she prepared some powerful medicine,
and then hid herself behind some deerskins.
In a little while the children entered
and began to eat the food. The old woman quickly
sprang out and threw the medicine over them.
The boy was completed covered with it, while only
a few drops fell on the girl. At once the boy
changed into his proper form, and was a handsome young
Indian; while the girl was changed into a little black
dog.
Grizzly Bear told the boy that she
was his grandmother, and that he must live with her
now, but she did not tell him that the dog was his
sister. She only said, “You must take great
care of this little dog, and never beat or ill use
it.”
The boy promised, and every day he
would go forth with his bow and arrows to shoot birds,
while the little dog ran beside him. One day
he was shooting red-headed woodpeckers. Three
times he had killed a bird, and the little dog ran
ahead and ate it before he could reach her. The
boy became very angry at this, and, when she did it
for the fourth time, he struck her a hard blow with
his arrow.
At once the dog cried, “Why
are you treating me thus, and I am your sister?”
As soon as she had said this, she ran away.
The boy followed, but before he could catch it, the
dog had turned into a chickadee and had flown away.
The sorrowing boy returned to his grandmother, and
told her everything that had happened.
“Why did you not tell me that
the dog was my sister?” he asked.
“If I had told you,” she
replied, “you would have been more sorrowful
than you are now.” Then she added, “Listen
to me, my grandson; when you are shooting, if an arrow
should lodge in a tree where it is too high for you
to reach, do not climb to get it.”
The boy promised to remember this
command, and three times when an arrow pierced a tree
above his reach, he gave it up as lost, but the fourth
time he forgot the command. Seeing his arrow
only a few inches above his head in the bark of the
tree, he began to climb for it. Just as his
hand touched it, the arrow moved farther up.
He climbed higher and, as he reached it, again it
moved up. This went on until the arrow and the
boy were out of sight in the clouds.
Neither the boy nor his sister was
ever seen again, and Grizzly Bear, who had been watching
from the ground, was left there all alone. And
there she still stands, looking just like the stump
of an old tree, but the Indians know who it is, and
as they pass by, they place an offering on the withered
stump.