Blackfeet Indian Stories | Page 8

down he kept springing higher and
higher into the air, and the point of his knife cut Wind Sucker's heart
and killed him.
Then Kut-o-yis´, with his knife, cut a hole between Wind Sucker's ribs,
and he and all those who were able to move crawled out through the
hole. He said to those who could still walk that they should go and tell
their people to come here, to get the ones still alive but unable to travel.
To some of these people that he had freed he said, "Where are there any
other people? I want to visit all the people."
"There is a camp to the westward, up the river," they replied; "but you
must not take the left-hand trail going up because on that trail lives a
woman who invites men to wrestle with her and then kills them. Avoid
her."

Now, really, this was what Kut-o-yis´ was looking for. This was what
he was doing in the world, trying to kill off all the bad things. He asked
these people just where this woman lived and how it was best for him
to go so that he should not meet her. He did this because he did not
wish the people to know that he was going where she was.
He started, and after he had travelled some time he saw a woman
standing not far from the trail. She called to him, saying, "Come here,
young man, come here; I want to wrestle with you."
"No," he replied, "I am in a hurry; I cannot stop."
The woman called again, "No, no; do not go on; come now and wrestle
once with me."
After she had called him the fourth time, Kut-o-yis´ went to her.
Now on the ground where this woman wrestled with people she had
placed many sharp, broken flint-stones, partly hiding them by the grass.
The two seized each other and began to wrestle over these sharp stones,
but Kut-o-yis´ looked at the ground and did not step on them. He
watched his chance and gave the woman a quick wrench, and threw her
down on a large sharp flint which cut her in two; and the parts of her
body fell asunder.
Kut-o-yis´ then went on, and after a time came to where a woman had
made a place for sliding downhill. At the far end of it she had fixed a
rope which, when she raised it, would trip people up, and when they
were tripped they fell over a high cliff into a deep water, where a great
fish ate them.
When this woman saw Kut-o-yis´ coming she cried out to him, "Come
over here, young man, and slide with me."
"No," he replied, "I am in a hurry; I cannot wait." She kept calling to
him, and when she had called him the fourth time he went over where
he was to slide with her.
"This sliding," said the woman, "is very good fun."
"Ah, yes," said Kut-o-yis´, "I will look at it."
As he went near the place he looked carefully and saw the hidden rope.
He began to slide, and holding his knife in his hand, when he reached
the rope he cut it just as the woman raised it and pulled on it, and the
woman fell over backward into the water and was eaten up by the big
fish.
From here he went on again, and after a time he came to a big camp. A

man-eater was the chief of this place.
Before Kut-o-yis´ went to the chief's lodge he looked about and saw a
little girl and called her to him and said, "Child, I am going into that
lodge, to let that man-eater kill and eat me. Therefore, be on the watch,
and if you can get hold of one of my bones take it out and call all the
dogs to you, and when they have come to you throw down the bone and
say, 'Kut-o-yis´, the dogs are eating your bones.'"
Then Kut-o-yis´ entered the lodge, and when the man-eater saw him he
called out, "Oki, oki!" (welcome, welcome!) and seemed glad to see
him, for he was a fat young man. The man-eater took a knife and
walked up to Kut-o-yis´ and cut his throat and put him into a great
stone pot to cook. When the meat was cooked he pulled the kettle from
the fire and ate the body, limb by limb, until it was all eaten.
After that the little girl who was watching came into the lodge and said,
"Pity me, man-eater, my mother is hungry and asks you for those
bones." The old man gathered them together and handed them to her,
and she took them out of the lodge. When she had gone