Told by John York.
Two families were camping out some years ago. One old man had a good
boy who was hunting all the time, getting all kinds of game and always
having plenty to eat. The other family had a daughter, and one time the
two young people got married. The girl’s mother did not like this
because the young man had good luck always. This old woman was a witch
and she could do anything she liked. One time this bad old woman went
out just a little way in the bush and put a bone on the road (trail),
so to let this young man step on the bone and get hurt. When this young
man came home in the evening he happened to step on the bone and got
hurt, which laid him up nearly all winter, and they all got hard times.
While this young man was in the camp before he got better, they got so
poor that they had to go to some other place. The husband of the old
witch went out alone to a little lake some miles away to see if there
were any fish there. He cut a hole in the ice and let down his decoy.
He did not take a spear with him. He saw some big fish and then went
home and told his people that he saw a lot of fish. They all decided to
move near the lake and that family went. Only the sick man did not like
to go till he got better. He was just about getting better when the
other family went away. He went out hunting and got some game for
himself, wife, father and mother. They lived there till on towards
spring when the ice went away. The other campers never came back to see
them. One day his wife said, “I would like to go and see my mother.”
“Well,” he said, “you can go and see her.” She went out and found the
lake and saw the camp, but she could not see anybody, or no signs, or
no smoke in the camp. She went near and spoke. After a while some one
tried to speak inside the camp and said, “We have eaten a fish of some
kind and I am sure it was a big snake; we have all got to be snakes.”
The young wife looked in and saw that her mother (the witch) was all
snake except her head, and the rest of the family were the same way.
She went home and told what she had seen but the rest did not go to see
them for a long time. One day they went down to see what the others
looked like. They looked in the camp but there was nobody home, then
they went down to the lake and saw the others sunning themselves the
same as other snakes. The two families all became big serpents.