The boys hid themselves when they saw the man descending. When he got down he called out: “Little wife, where are you hiding? Ah, you want to have a game with me.” He threw himself, as he spoke, upon the bed, and began feeling for something under the blanket. Not finding what he sought, he went on: “Oh, you are funny today! Now where can you be hiding?” and he felt all over and under the blanket. “I wonder where she is,” said he, as he shook the blanket out and found nothing in it. “She must be hiding from me somewhere, and I shall find her presently.” And with that he went to put some wood on the fire. As he did so his eye fell upon the charred outlines of the piece of wood which Funny-boy had thrown on the fire, and whose familiar form in the ashes he recognised at a glance. He no sooner saw it than he cried out in great distress, and seemed overcome with grief. “O dear wife, you are burned to ashes! How could you have fallen into the fire? Oh! what shall I do for a wife now?” And he sobbed aloud in his grief. The boys at once perceived that the piece of wood that they had burned was the man’s wife. “Didn’t I tell you,” whispered Benign-face to his brother, “not to burn that piece of wood? Now see what distress you have caused this poor man. I must go and comfort him.” With that he came out from his hiding place and addressed the man. Said he: “Was that block of wood really your wife? You must not cry any more over such a wife as that. You can get a better wife than a block of wood surely. Why don’t you take a woman for your wife?” The man stared in amazement at him for a moment, then replied that he knew of no women, had indeed never seen any people in that part of the country. The block of wood was all the wife he had ever had, and now she was burned, and he was all alone; and he began to cry again. “Stop crying,” said the boy, “and I will find you a wife. Have you a stone chisel in the house?” “Yes,” replied the man, “Give it to me,” said the boy. “Now stay here with my brothers till I return, and I will bring you a better wife than your block of wood.” Saying which he climbed the notched pole and passed out through the smoke-hole. When he got outside he went to the forest and cut down a cottonwood tree. From this he cut and peeled a log about six feet long and stepping over it three times said aloud: “One, two, three. Log, get up and be a woman!” And the piece of cottonwood stood upright and became a beautiful white woman with white hair and face and body, white as the wood of the cottonwood tree. Then he cut down an alderwood tree and did the same thing as before, and the log of alderwood became a beautiful red woman with red hair and face and body, red as the wood of the alder tree when the bark has been stripped from it a little while. Taking these two women with him he returned to the keekwilee house and, bidding them wait outside till they were called, he climbed down through the smoke-hole again. Returning the man’s chisel, he said: “Now I have brought you two proper wives. It is wrong for a man to make a wife of a piece of wood; you must not do so any more.” With that he called out to the two women to descend. When they were come down, he took the white woman’s hand and put it in the hand of the man and said to the one: “This is your husband,” and to the other: “This is your wife.” He then did the same with the red woman; and with a parting admonition to the man, he and his brothers climbed through the smoke-hole and left him and his newly-acquired wives to themselves.7
Some time after this, as he travelled through the country with his brothers, Benign-face heard of a very powerful one-legged wizard who speared men’s shadows as they passed, thus killing and afterwards eating them. “Come, brothers,” said Benign-face, “I will try my powers against this wicked cannibal. I think I can outwit him, and put an end to his evil practices.” After they had travelled some days they came to the place where the cannibal waylaid and pierced the shadows of his victims. It was his custom to stand in the water at a certain place where the road ran close to the water, with a little magic copper-headed spear in his hand, as if he were spearing fish; and when the shadow of the passer-by fell on the water, he would thrust the spear through it, and the person above would immediately fall down dead. He would then take the body home to his wife, who would skin and cook it, and they would afterwards feast together upon it. Thus had they been living for many years, when Benign-face heard of them, and determined to put a stop to their wickedness. Bidding his brothers stay on the top of the hill overlooking the river and await his return, he took a knife and made his way down to the river, a little above where the cannibal-wizard waited for his victims to pass. When he reached the river, he changed himself into a beautifully-marked little trout and, carrying the knife in his mouth, swam down the stream to where the wizard stood on his one leg in the water. When he came opposite him, he began jumping and frisking about in the water just under his nose. He soon caught the wizard’s attention, and induced him, by his beautiful colours and by his movements, to take a interest in him, and presently to spear him. This was the last thing the wizard should have done, for he might not use his magic spear for aught but piercing men’s shadows if he would preserve its medicine intact. As soon as the spear struck Benign-face he quickly cut the cord that held the spear-head to the shaft, which latter the wizard still retained in his hand by a thong. When the wizard perceived that the magic point was gone, he was greatly agitated, and sought for stones and sticks with which to kill the fish and get back his precious spear-point again. But the more violent his exertions, the muddier the water got, and the less his chance of striking Benign-face, who, taking advantage of the muddy state of the water, hastened back upstream again to his starting-place. Benign-face now resumed his own form and, plucking the magic spear-point from his body, threw it far out into the river so that it might never be found and put to evil purposes again.
He then rejoined his brothers and told them what he had done, and that they must now go and visit the wizard’s house and complete the punishment he had in store for him. When they came to the bank above the spot where the wizard had lost and was still hunting for his spear-point, Benign-face put his foot on the edge of the bank and sent a mass of gravel and mud down into the river, to force the wizard to give over his search and go home. The latter just leapt up on the opposite bank on his one leg, and presently returned to his search again. Benign-face then caused another large portion of the bank to slide down into the river. This so frightened the wizard this time that he gave over the search and ran home as fast as he could. There is a mud-slide on the river, about five or six miles below Spence’s Bridge, which the old Indians point out as that caused by Sqaktktquaclt on this occasion. The boys presently came to the cannibal’s keekwilee house and, seeing the smoke ascending from the smoke-hole, judged that he was at home, and descended. They found the wizard’s wife at work upon a human skin; but the wizard himself was lying on his bed with his blanket drawn over his face, which he did not remove as the boys entered. They sat down round the fire; and presently, as had been agreed upon beforehand, Funny-boy began to talk about the good dinner they had had off a trout they had found in the river that morning. The wizard still kept his head under the blanket, taking no notice of anybody or anything; but when the other brother chimed in and said; “Yes, it was a beautiful fish to look at, but still more beautiful to taste; and the man that speared it and lost that fine copper spear-head must have been very vexed at his ill luck, I should think.” The wizard threw the blanket off his head, and said: “What is that I heard you remark about a fish with a copper spear-head in it?” Benign-face now joined in the conversation, and told the wizard that they had found a fine trout that morning floating down the river with a copper spear-head in it. “That was my fish and my spear-head,” said the wizard. “I was out spearing this morning and lost it. I set great value on that spear-head, and want it back again.” “But,” replied Benign-face, “how could this spear belong to you? You do not spear fish, I think. These are not fish bones or fish heads I see around your house; nor is that a fish skin your wife is now at work upon. Tell us now truly, what do you use your copper spear for?” The old wizard, thinking he would get the spear-point back the sooner, told them the true use he put it to, which no sooner had Benign-face heard than he answered: “I knew it all before, and it was I who carried off your spear-point this morning. I was the fish that enticed you to spear it; but now that you have convicted yourself, I will see that you spear and devour no more people.” And speaking thus, he took the wizard by the hair on the top of his head and shook him, transforming him at the same time into a blue jay. And because he held the wizard by the hair on the top of his head as he shook him, all blue jays have now in consequence a top-knot or bunch of feathers standing out from their heads. The cannibal’s wife he changed into a mountain-grouse, and thus were both punished for their evil deeds.
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