which I eat."

On the fourth day he brought home with him a branch of uzadi[76] as a
cane, which he placed, with his game, at the door of the lodge. His
wife, as usual, went out to prepare and bring in the meat. While thus
engaged, he heard her laughing to herself, and saying, "This is very
acceptable." The man, in peeping out to see the cause of her joy, saw
her, with astonishment, eating the bark of the poplar cane in the same
manner that beavers gnaw. He then exclaimed, "Ho, ho! Ho, ho! this is
Amik;"[77] and ever afterward he was careful at evening to bring in a
bough of the poplar or the red willow, when she would exclaim, "Oh,
this is very acceptable; this is a change, for one gets tired eating
white fish always (meaning the poplar); but the carp (meaning the red
willow) is a pleasant change."

On the whole, Iena was much pleased with his wife for her neatness and
attention to the things in the lodge, and he lived a contented and
happy man. Being industrious, she made him beautiful bags from the bark
of trees, and dressed the skins of the animals he killed in the most
skilful manner. When spring opened, they found themselves blessed with
two children, one of them resembling the father and the other the
mother. One day the father made a bow and arrows for the child that
resembled him, who was a son, saying, "My son, you will use these
arrows to shoot at the little beavers when they begin to swim about the
rivers." The mother, as soon as she heard this, was highly displeased;
and taking her children, unknown to her husband, left the lodge in the
night. A small river ran near the lodge, which the woman approached
with her children. She built a dam across the stream, erected a lodge
of earth, and lived after the manner of the beavers.

When the hunter awoke, he found himself alone in his lodge, and his
wife and children absent. He immediately made diligent search after
them, and at last discovered their retreat on the river. He approached
the place of their habitation, and throwing himself prostrate on the
top of the lodge, exclaimed, "Shingisshenaun tshee neeboyaun."[78] The
woman allowed the children to go close to their father, but not to
touch him; for, as soon as they came very near, she would draw them
away again, and in this manner she continued to torment him a long
time. The husband lay in this situation until he was almost starved,
when a young female approached him, and thus accosted him: "Look here;
why