Once Old Man was fording a river, when the current carried him down stream, and he lost his weapons.  He was very hungry, so he took the first wood he could find, and made a bow and arrows, and a handle for his knife and spear.  When he had finished them, he started up a mountain.  Pretty soon he saw a bear digging roots, and he thought he would have some fun, so he hid behind a log and called out, “No-tail animal, what are you doing?” The bear looked up, but, seeing no one, kept on digging.

Then Old Man called out again, “Hi! you dirt-eater!” and then he dodged back out of sight.  Then the bear sat up again, and this time he saw Old Man and ran after him.

Old Man began shooting arrows at him, but the points only stuck in the skin, for the shafts were rotten and snapped off.  Then he threw his spear, but that too was rotten, and broke.  He tried to stab the bear, but his knife handle was also rotten and broke, so he turned and ran; and the bear pursued him.  As he ran, he looked about for some weapon, but there was none, not even a rock.  He called out to the animals to help him, but none came.  His breath was almost gone, and the bear was very close to him, when he saw a bull’s horn lying on the ground.  He picked it up, placed it on his head, and, turning around, bellowed so loudly that the bear was scared and ran away.

THE ELK

Old Man was very hungry.  He had been a long time without food, and was thinking how he could get something to eat, when he saw a band of elk on a ridge.  So he went up to them and said, “Oh, my brothers, I am lonesome because I have no one to follow me.”

“Go on, Old Man,” said the elk, “we will follow you.”  Old Man led them about a long time, and when it was dark, he came near a high-cut bank.  He ran around to one side where there was a slope, and he went down and then stood right under the steep bluff, and called out, “Come on, that is a nice jump, you will laugh.”

So the elk jumped off, all but one cow, and were killed.

“Come on,” said Old Man, “they have all jumped but you, it is nice.”

“Take pity on me,” replied the cow.  “My child is about to be born, and I am very heavy.  I am afraid to jump.”

“Go on, then,” answered Old Man; “go and live; then there will be plenty of elk again some day.”

Now Old Man built a fire and cooked some ribs, and then he skinned all the elk, cut up the meat to dry, and hung the tongues up on a pole.

Next day he went off, and did not come back until night, when he was very hungry again.  “I’ll roast some ribs,” he said, “and a tongue, and I’ll stuff a marrow gut and cook that.  I guess that will be enough for to-night.”  But when he got to the place, the meat was all gone.  The wolves had eaten it.  “I was smart to hang up those tongues,” he said, “or I would not have had anything to eat.”  But the tongues were all hollow.  The mice had eaten the meat out, leaving only the skin.  So Old Man starved again.