Its flesh was to be their food. Then its body was gone entirely, | and the people here had been forgotten, where | it was being carved. There was no water there. Some one said: "Is that | in the water there its backbone?" When it was all done, they talked | among themselves. "What shall belong to these || people, because we killed it on their own land?" Then | they picked up the blood and scattered it. They | said: "This will belong to these people. | These people will be few. They will | not be many. They will not increase but they will always remain; || even if many make war against them, they can not be exterminated." | Now it is finished. The end. |
[No. 51. Told by Felix Andrew (recorded by Robert T. Aitken)]
51. The Giant[1]
There was a town. One day | two men, brothers, went out hunting. The two brothers were going along. The elder one | saw a bighorn sheep and shot it. He carried it down. Then toward | sunset he became hungry. He thought: "I'll make a fire || and roast a piece of meat. When I have finished eating, I will hang up the meat and dry it." | Then he threw a piece of the bighorn-sheep meat into the fire. When it was cooked, he ate it. I It was without taste. He thought: "I'll cut a piece of my own body and I'll roast it in the fire." | Then he cut a piece off of himself and threw it into the fire. When it was done, | he ate it. It tasted good. He cut off another piece and threw it into the fire and ate it. || After two days he had eaten himself entirely. Only his bones were left. | Then his younger brother went home, and the following morning he thought: "I will go and | look for my elder brother." He started and went along to the place where they had been hunting. | He arrived there and heard a sound. He stood still | and listened. There was a hill. He heard the sound || from that direction. He arrived there and went up. A little ways off | there was a fire. He went there, and he heard his elder brother making that noise. He was | saying: "Oh, I love my brother, and it will take me two days to eat him!" | Then he arrived there. The elder brother saw him and ran after him. | He struck him with his intestines, and threw him down with them and killed him. ||
Those at home said they ought to look for the brothers. | The elder one's wife started looking for them. The woman | went along. She heard a sound somewhere. She went there, and she saw him from a little ways off | sitting down. He was saying: "Oh, I love | my son! It will take me two days to eat him." The woman went along behind a hill. || Something told her: "Stick sharp stones on your clothing. He will strike you with his intestines, and the stones will cut them. Then he will not be able to catch you." Then she stuck | stones on her clothing. She went nearer. He struck her, | and his intestines
- ↑ See p. 272.
