Bat And His Wives

Bat was married. He was married to two mallard duck women. He went hunting all the time. He hunted in all the mountains. In the mountains he went west and north. He went down along the creek.

He took a fir limb and lay down facing up. He turned his belly inside out, pulled out his liver, and cut it out. Then he got up. He sewed up his belly and took the liver home. He was going to feed it to his wives. He did this all the time, bringing it home.

Then one of the women, the younger one, said, “This is bad! I don’t want to eat this food any more. It tastes bad.”

The Older one said, “Oh, what’s the matter with you? You always talk too much!”

“Well, let’s go see how many of them are hunting, and what they are killing,” the younger one said.

They left. They went to watch him and he went downstream alone. They followed him.

He went downhill to the north and lay on be back. He turned his belly inside out and took out his liver. They saw that and ran home. They ran, took their clothes, got dressed, and went floating downstream.

The man came home and noticed that the two were missing. He missed them.

He searched everywhere, went upstream and downstream. He went far. But he did not meet anyone anywhere.

Then he saw Gray Squirrel who was climbing, cutting fray pine cones.

Bat asked, “Have you seen my wives?

Gray Squirrel gave no answer. He just kept on cutting pine cones. Bat spoke again: “Have you seen my wives? Have you seen anyone here?

Gray Squirrel became angry. “Get over here under the tree, get close, look up, close your eyes and look up, and I’ll tell you where your wives are!” he said.

“Okay,” said Bate.

He went over and looked up. Gray Squirrel dropped pitch in his eyes. “I’m blind,” called Bat. “Something fell into my eyes. Get me something to take out the pitch!” He felt around, took a pine needle and poked at his eyes. “I can see. I can see a little,” he said. And he left.

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