_Shuswap_
Beaver and Porcupine lived together. They used to eat together, but
their food was different and Porcupine was always eating Beaver’s
food. He would leave his own food and eat Beaver’s.
One day Beaver said, “Hereafter we shall eat apart.” So he took his
own food and went some distance away, leaving Porcupine to eat his
own. But even so, Porcupine left his own food, and came around to
Beaver, and ate his.
One day Beaver said to Porcupine, “Tomorrow we will travel into the
mountains where there is much food.” They packed their blankets and
boxes and all their things and traveled into the mountains, where
they camped. The next morning Beaver said, “There is much food here
in the mountains. I am going hunting.”
When Beaver had gone some distance, he stopped and called to
Porcupine far, far away:
“Hereafter you shall be a common porcupine. You shall always live in
the mountains. You shall never again live with Beaver nor eat his
food. Neither shall you ever live in a good country.”
That is why porcupines live in the mountains, while beavers live in
low, flat lands, where there is plenty of water. Because when Beaver
left Porcupine, he traveled on to a flat country, with many lakes
and streams.