Page:Myths of the Iroquois.djvu/60

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MYTHS OF THE IROQUOIS.


him up well with a swan stuffed. " Now,^ said he, "when you tiike this outside it will be ou your head, but it will soon come back to life, and when that hapi>ens you must run in a circle and return, and you will see that many deer and bears will follow your track." So off he went. When he returned he 8ai<l that so many bears and so many deer came out every time as he crossed the track »nd he shot them, and took the best out and sent them home to show them to the old man. And all the time the swan was alive and beautiful.

The old man exclaimed at his luck as he told his tale. " You have done well," said his uncle. " We must save all the meat. Now, hold yourself ready to go to-morrow. I warn you there are dangers in your path. There is a stream that you must cross. There stands a man and he will try to kill yon. He will call out to you that' be has a couple of wild cats and will say, 'My friend, come, help me kill these.' Pay no attention; go right on along, or you will bcrin danger and never get to the town." The nephew promised to obey, and his uncle brought out a curious thing, made of colored string and elk hair of deep red, about a foot long. ^'I shall keep this by me," said he, "and so long as you are doing well it will hang as it is; but if you are in danger it will come down itself almost to tlie ground, and if it does i-each the ground you will die." '*I will be careful," said the young man, and so he started with his directions, following his uncle's advice. He had almost re-ached his destination whon he heard a noise, and there in his path stood a man while he watched two animals going up a tree, and he tried in vain to make them come dowa. As the young man approached him he said, " Please help me, if you can; butkill one of the^e animals; itwillbeagooil thing. Do tielp me." So he begged, and the young man thought it could do no harm, so he took out his arrow and said, '* Don't be in a hurry." Then the old man handed him the arrows and asked him, "Where are you going!" and he told him; and the stranger said, "Stoi> all night with me; that is a long way you are going; go on to morrow."

Now the uncle at home was watching the signal. He saw it go down almost to the ground, and he cried out in his alarm, "Oh! oh! my nephew is in danger, he will get into trouble with that old man." But the young man listened to the persuasions of the tempter and agreed to remain with him all night, and the old man made up a fire and began to tell stories as they sat beside it till the youth fell asleep. Before they sat down he had gathered together some sharp prickly bark, pre- tending it gave a good light, and as the young man slept he said to himself, "Now, I can fix him." So he t-ook some of the sharp-pointed bark and placed it on him; so he writhed in agony. Then he took oft" the young man's handsome clothes and dressed him ui) instead in his own old rags, dirty and rotten. "I shall keep these things," said he; "they are mine," and forthwith he started oft* to the chiefs house where the beautiful women were, and he had the young man's pipe and his siK)tted deer skin, and the handsome bag made out of it, with little birds to