Atondido Stories
is my girl? I have lost my wife. I have lost my girl. Oh, oh, oh."
And when the people heard him calling they thought they
would play a trick on him. So they said, "She is here, she is here."
But when he entered their houses, the woman they showed him
was not his wife, and he went away sorrowful. And the people
all laughed at his confusion, and said, "Owl-man is getting
queerer each day. He is far gone in his head." Owl-man went
from house to house, but he could not find his wife. Then he
went to the trees and searched among the branches. He pulled
the trees up by the roots, thinking she might be hiding under-
neath. And he looked into the salmon-traps in the rivers, and
kicked them to pieces in his frenzy. But nowhere was his wife to
be found.
Then he went to the girl's house, where she was hiding, and
he yelled, "Oh, oh, oh, give me my wife. Give me my girl. I know
she is here. Oh, oh, oh." But the girl's foster-mother would not
give her up. Then he began to tear down the house over their
heads, for the old man of the house was away and there was no
one else strong enough to stop Owl-man in his rage. When the
woman saw her house in danger of falling about her ears, she
cried, "Stop; your wife is here." And she brought forth the girl
from her hiding-place. When Owl-man saw her, his rage left him
and he was happy again.
But just then the old man of magic power came home. He
had heard the hub-bub from a distance. When he came in and
saw the great holes in the roof and the side of his house where
Owl-man had torn away the logs, he was very angry and he said
to himself, "I will punish both Owl-man and the girl for this
night's work." And he hit upon a plan. He said to Owl-man, "We
must give you a hot bath to melt the gum and take it from your
hair, for it will do you no good, and it will take all the hair off
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