n, and left the
_tso-a-vwits_ in it, and she, imprisoned there, rolled about and hid
in the rocks. When _Kwi'-na_ came near he shouted, "Where are you, old
_tso-a-vwits_? where are you, old _tso-a-vwits_?" She repeated his
words in mockery.

Ever since that day witches have lived in snake skins, and hide among
the rocks, and take great delight in repeating the words of passers by.

The white man, who has lost the history of these ancient people, calls
these mocking cries of witches domiciliated in snake skins "echoes," but
the Indians know the voices of the old hags.

This is the origin of the echo.

_THE SO'-KUS WAI'-UN-AeTS._

_Tum-pwi-nai'-ro-gwi-nump_, he who had a stone shirt, killed
_Si-kor'_, (the crane,) and stole his wife, and seeing that she had
a child, and thinking it would be an incumbrance to them on their
travels, he ordered her to kill it. But the mother, loving the babe, hid
it under her dress, and carried it away to its grandmother. And Stone
Shirt carried his captured bride to his own land.

In a few years the child grew to be a fine lad, under the care of his
grandmother, and was her companion wherever she went.

One day they were digging flag roots, on the margin of the river, and
putting them in a heap on the bank. When they had been at work a little
while, the boy perceived that the roots came up with greater ease than
was customary, and he asked the old woman the cause of this, but she did
not know; and, as they continued their work, still the reeds came up
with less effort, at which their wonder increased, until the grandmother
said, "Surely, some strange thing is about to transpire." Then the boy
went to the heap where they had been placing the roots, and found that
some one had taken them away, and he ran back, exclaiming, "Grandmother,
did you take the roots away?" And she answered, "No, my child; perhaps
some ghost has taken them off; let us dig no more; come away."

But the boy was not satisfied, as he greatly desired to know what all
this meant; so he searched about for a time, and at length found a man
sitting under a tree, whom he taunted with being a thief, and threw mud
and stones at him, until he broke the stranger's leg, who answered not
the boy, nor resented the injuries he received, but remained silent and
sorrowful and, when his leg was broken, he tied it up in sticks, and
bathed it in the river, and sat down again under the tree, and beckoned