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 a little way, she called all the dogs to her and threw down the bones to the dogs, crying out, “Look out, Kut-o-yis’, the dogs are eating you,” and when she said that, Kut-o-yis’ arose from the pile of bones.

Again he went into the lodge, and when the man-eater saw him he cried out, “How, how, how! the fat young man has survived!” and he seemed surprised.  Again he took his knife and cut the throat of Kut-o-yis’ and threw him into the kettle.  Again when the meat was cooked he ate it, and when the little girl asked for the bones again he gave them to her.  She took them out and threw them to the dogs, crying, “Kut-o-yis’, the dogs are eating you,” and again Kut-o-yis’ arose from the bones.

When the man-eater had cooked him four times Kut-o-yis’ again went into the lodge, and seizing the man-eater, he threw him into the boiling kettle, and his wives and all his children, and boiled them to death.

The man-eater was the seventh and last of the bad things to be destroyed by Kut-o-yis’.

THE DOG AND THE ROOT DIGGER

This happened long ago.

In those days the people were hungry.  No buffalo could be found, no antelope were seen on the prairie.  Grass grew in the trails where the elk and the deer used to travel.  There was not even a rabbit in the brush.  Then the people prayed, “Oh, Napi, help us now or we must die.  The buffalo and the deer are gone.  It is useless to kindle the morning fires; our arrows are useless to us; our knives remain in their sheaths.”

Then Napi set out to find where the game was, and with him went a young man, the son of a chief.  For many days they travelled over the prairies.  They could see no game; roots and berries were their only food.  One day they climbed to the crest of a high ridge, and as they looked off over the country they saw far away by a stream a lonely lodge.