M15. Tied to a tree.. 42.43.
A man ties a girl or young woman to the top of a tree or puts her on the top of her head like a stake. They're trying to save her.
Bellacula, Quakiutl, Nootka, Makah, Chalkomel, Lillouet, Quileout, Upper Chehalis.
NW Coast. Bellacula [husband beats his wife; she asks for permission to return to her parents; he climbs a tree with her, sharpens the top, puts her on a stake; her brother in the boat hears her screams; takes it off, her sister is already died; he puts on her clothes, comes to her husband; her husband's sister says that his daughter-in-law has men's arms and legs; at night, an imaginary wife cuts off her husband's head; his relatives kill the avenger and all his men; cf. motive J1]: McIlwraith 1948 (2): 451-452; quakiutl [jealous husband tells his wife to climb hemlock for branches; ties to the top, cuts off the lower branches; the woman's four brothers hear her screams; the youngest he manages to get in, but the sister has already died in the heat; the brothers put her clothes and scalp on the younger one; he comes to her husband disguised as his wife; the husband's younger brother says that the daughter-in-law has a man's hand; at night, the brother of the murdered cuts off her husband's head, takes it away]: Boas 1895 (lekviltok) [husband tells him to climb for resin], No. 1:129-130; 1910, No. 30:401-413; chickpea [husband ties his wife to the top of a tree, cuts off branches, leaves; brothers women hear her screams but cannot climb the tree; drops of her sweat turn into strawberries; her younger brother unties her, but already dead; takes her form, comes to her husband; her husband's mother suspects that the wife is not a woman; at night, the victim's brother cuts off her husband's head, brings it to his father and brothers]: Sapir, Swadesh 1939, No. 18:77-81; makah [starts like a noodle; nine brothers; husband is a Woodpecker; the brothers revive the sister; leave the Woodpecker on the island; the whale brings him home; the brothers cut the whale, the Woodpecker kills them with their eyes; the whale parts gather, the whale sails away; the woodpecker revives the dead when his slave Quati says they were nice to him]: Densmore 1939:199-204.
The coast is the Plateau. Halkomel (lower reaches of the Fraser River) [Magpie (Boas has a mistakenly "Swallow") sails in a boat, telling Swan sitting on the shore that his wife is dead and now he is going to the forest for the summer; in fact Magpie's wife tore her bast, met her lover, Magpie put it on the top of the cedar, peeled off the bark from the trunk, so she can't go down; the Swan hears the woman screams; his people take it off, she dies turns into blueberries; Qäls converter turns Magpie into a swallow]: Boas 1895, No. 1:21-22; lillouette [wife takes Lynx as lover; husband tells her to climb a tree, puts her on a spicy one the top of the head is like a stake; the woman's brothers ask animal people for help; only the Snail climbs the slippery trunk, but the woman is already dead; one of the brothers puts on her clothes and wig, goes to bed; at night slits her husband's throat]: Teit 1912b, No. 33:339-340; quileout: Andrade 1931, No. 22 [someone leaves a girl on top of a tree; the youngest of her three brothers is the first to hear her screams; her tears turn into red berries; older brothers can't climb the tree, the younger one climbs; asks his sister how to lower her; As you like, even if the vulva is visible; he lowers it; she steps as if she had just been deflorized]: 59-61; Farrand 1902, No. 12 [the girl marries an old man against her will, refuses to sleep with him; he tells her to climb the cedar to tear the bark, ties it to the top of her head , rips off the trunk, making it slippery; her youngest brother (Woodpecker) hears her screams; her tears turn into red berries, Blue Jay eats them; Bear and Squirrel can't, Woodpecker climbs the cedar, lowers her sister; invites her husband to collect shells on a rock in the sea; leaves him, he drowns]: 121-122; upper chehalis [the girl promises to marry only the one who will defeat her in the fight; wins Wolf, Puma, Bear, Owl, Hawk; Xwaips ("mountain eagle") turns a cedar branch into a dwarf, suggests that he fight instead, for the fifth time the dwarf throws the girl to the ground; S. sprinkles on the dwarf ash to make it seem like he hasn't gone anywhere for a long time; the dwarf tells the girl that S. defeated her; she goes to bed with S., but knows that he didn't fight; every day the wife brings hazel grouse, goose, or something else a bird, says that it was a hawk caught for her; S. suspects that his wife has a lover; makes wings for himself, flies as a bird, sees his wife with a hunter; he shoots a bird 5 times, S. hits arrows; hunter: so I'm going to die; S. was waiting for the hunter, hit him with a club, cut off his head, hung it over his wife's bed; blood is dripping; in the morning S. took his wife to her parents, killed him on the way, tied him to the top of the cedar, making a trunk smooth and slippery; her blood became strawberries; her relatives came to eat berries, she started screaming that it was her blood; no one could climb the trunk, Blue Jay brags that she would climb but falls; only a little bird climbs, lowers her body; the woman has 5 brothers, the eldest is dressed as a woman - not like; the same others; only the youngest looks like a sister; comes to Sh., he believes that his wife has come to life; 4 at night, the imaginary wife does not allow herself to be hugged; on the fifth, S. fell asleep himself, the young man cut off his head and put it back; Blue Jay suspects something from the very beginning; after 5 days he decides to see - his owner dead]: Adamson 1934, #54:112-116.