Tis-sa´-ack and her husband traveled from a far-off country,
and entered the Valley footsore and weary. She walked ahead,
carrying a great conical burden-basket, which was supported by a
band across her forehead, and was filled with many things. He
followed after, carrying a rude staff in his hand and a roll of
woven skin blankets over his shoulder. They had come across the
mountains and were very thirsty, and they hurried to reach the
Valley, where they knew there was water. The woman was still far
in advance when she reached the Lake Ah-wei´-yah [Mirror Lake],
and she dipped up the water in her basket and drank long and
deep. She was so thirsty that she even drank up all the water in
the lake and drained it dry before her husband arrived. And
because the lake was dry there came a terrible drouth in the
Valley, and the soil was dried up and nothing grew.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Fiske_
A BURDEN BEARER.
The women are the principal burden bearers and all loads are
carried in large baskets, supported by a band across the
forehead.]
And the husband was much displeased because the woman had drunk
up all the water and left none for him, and he became so angry
that he forgot the customs of his people and beat the woman with
his staff. She ran away from him, but he followed her and beat
her yet more. And she wept, and in her anger she turned and
reviled her husband, and threw her basket at him. And while they
were in this attitude, one facing the other, they were turned
into stone for their wickedness, and there they still retain. The
upturned basket lies beside the husband, where the woman threw
it, and the woman's face is tear stained with long dark lines
trailing down.
Half-Dome is the woman Tis-sa´-ack and North Dome is her
husband, while beside the latter is a smaller dome which is still
called Basket Dome to this day.