Part 22

“Ho!” he exclaimed, “De‘o´niot has feasted on my woman and thrown her skirt to me as a reminder.” Then calling to his uncle he asked, “Oh uncle, how did you discover my woman?”

“Because I knew that it was not your breathing but a breath much faster that I heard over the partition,” was the reply.

The next day another woman came with a proposal of marriage. At first refusing her, and then accepting her on the condition that she would quietly remain in his room and heed not the entreaties of De‘o´niot, he married her, but when he returned from his hunting, she, like the first, had formed the repast of his uncle, who as before flung her dress over the partition. In like manner another wife came and was eaten.

Finally a married woman came weeping through the woods and begged De‘o´niot to protect her.

“Protect you!” the man-eater roared, “O ho! I would be more apt to eat you. That is my business,—eating people!”

“Oh protect me!” pleaded the woman, “for my husband is a ferocious giant and is now pursuing me!”

“So truly if that is the case you had better go into my nephew’s room where I cannot reach you and stay there while I watch for that man of yours.”

Presently in the distance De‘o´niot saw a giant striding through the underbrush.

“Ho, ho!” he exclaimed to himself, “That woman is the first one I ever saw and liked, so I am truly glad to do her a service in destroying her man-giant.”

With a whoop the giant pounced upon De‘o´niot. “Where is my wife?” he bellowed.

De‘o´niot did not answer but grasped the giant’s throat and after a frightful struggle twisted his neck.

“I am greatly obliged to you,” he called to the woman. “Such an amount of flesh will keep me from hunger for many days.”

When the nephew returned he found the new wife awaiting him and after some questioning he accepted her.

“That is right!” called the uncle over the partition, “don’t worry, she is a good woman. I will not eat her.”

“Wife,” he said, “I believe that we must depart from these regions for I fear that my uncle will become so hungry that he will forget his love for us.”

Soon afterward the uncle from his chamber shouted:

“Oh my children, do not leave. You fear my appetite but I promise you that I will never harm you.”

The nephew (however), would not believe these promises, but thought his uncle only shaming. In order to discuss the matter further he awoke his wife in the middle of the night and in whispers talked with her, how best to escape.

“Boy, you are going away tomorrow!” exclaimed a voice from over the partition.

“No, no, uncle,” answered the nephew. “Go to sleep and do not dream such things.”

“Ah, you cannot deceive De‘o´niot,” replied the uncle. “I know you are going away tomorrow and when you go, go west, for you have relatives there. If ever danger threatens call my name and I will be on hand to save you. Distance does not stop my promise. Call me anywhere and I will come.”

At dawn the next day the couple drank from the spring that filled a basin on one side of the room and ran out of the other. Then, packing up a bundle of food, they turned their backs on the morning and journeyed to the west.

At nightfall they saw in the distance a stream of water that reflected the light of the moon in a most peculiar way, and coming up to it they found that its strange gleam resulted from its frozen surface. The creek did not appear wide and the couple decided that it could be jumped easily. Running back a short distance each dashed forward and attempted to leap across, but great was their surprise and chagrin when they landed on the ice in the middle of the stream, and greater was their dismay when they began to slide forward. The creek ran down a steep incline and with great rapidity the two slipped downward over its surface into the uncertain light. In a moment, however, they saw that they were headed directly for a great lodge into which the stream flowed. In desperation they clutched at the ice and endeavored to hold back but vain was their effort, and in a few moments they had plunged into the lodge and into the midst of a dozen howling warriors armed with war clubs.

Surrounding them, the warriors began to brandish their clubs. Death seemed certain. The couple trembled and believed that death has surely come. Suddenly the wife started boldly up and shouted:

“De‘o´niot, hagesa!” she cried.

The warriors fell back with cries of dismay at the sound of the magical name.

In the distance came a signal call, then came a song. It was the battle song of De‘o´niot. The warriors huddled in the corners of the lodge quaking with fear. The words of the song became distinct as De‘o´niot drew nearer.

The couple looked out and saw the man-eater sliding down the incline holding in his arms a kettle, a bowl and a spoon.

“I will stay here with my meat,” he shouted as he burst into the lodge. “You had better go on to the village. Your parents and people are there. Now leave me here and go on.”

The two gladly hurried from the house and toward morning came to a village when both found friends and relatives.

After the nephew and his wife had lived in their new home for a year, one by one the children of the settlement began mysteriously to disappear.

“My uncle surely must be in this vicinity,” reflected the nephew, “I will go on a hunt for him.”

So the nephew started out and after a time of journeying saw De‘o´niot leaning over the bank of a creek groaning in agony.

“Oh uncle!” exclaimed the nephew, “what troubles you?”

“Oh nephew,” came the groaning reply, “I have eaten many children and am very sick. My belly is hurt with pain as if by claws clutching inside.”

“Cheer up uncle, I can cure you. Only obey my instructions.”

The nephew made a soup of fish bones and skins and fed it to his uncle. He continued this treatment for three days, until De‘o´niot had disgorged. By this time he was ravenous and begged for food and new clothing, for his old rags were very foul. The nephew bade him strip and plunge in the water and bathe himself. Then, after giving him some new clothing he fed him on a little corn pudding, gradually increasing the allowance at each meal and each time moving the camp nearer the village.

“You must now learn to cook, uncle,” said the nephew, “then you will forget your unnatural appetite. God made men above all creatures, uncle, and gave them great skill. Men are not made to devour one another, or for beasts to devour, but beasts are food for men. So now, promise never to touch the meat of mankind again.”

“Aye, never more will I eat of human flesh or the raw flesh of any creature but only fruits and roots and cooked meat!”

So the nephew brought him into the village and introduced him as his uncle from afar. And the uncle grew so fond of this nephew’s wife’s cooking that he married a woman to have a cook for himself.

36. A YOUTH’S DOUBLE ABUSES HIS SISTER.

There was a lodge in the forest where very few people ever came, and there dwelt a young man and his sister. The youth was unlike other persons for one half of his head had hair of a reddish cast, while the other side was black.

He used to leave his sister in the lodge and go away on long hunting trips. On one occasion the young woman, his sister, saw, so she thought, her brother coming down the path to the lodge. “I thought you just went away to hunt,” said the sister. “Oh, I thought I would come back,” said he.

Then he sat down on the bed with the sister and embraced her and acted as a lover. The sister reproached him and said that she was very angry. But again he endeavored to fondle her in a familiar way, but again was repulsed. This time he went away.

The next day the brother returned and found his sister very angry. She would scarcely speak to him, though hitherto she had talked a great deal.

“My sister,” said he. “I am at loss to know why you treat me thus. It is not your custom.”

“Oh you ought to know that you have abused me,” said the girl.

“I never abused you. What are you talking about?” he said.

“Oh you know that you embraced me in an improper way yesterday,” said the sister.

“I was not here yesterday,” asserted the youth. “I believe that my friend who resembles me in every respect has been here.”

“You have given a poor excuse,” replied his sister. “I hope your actions will not continue.”

Soon the brother went away again, stating that he would be absent three days. In a short time the sister saw, as she thought, a figure looking like her brother skulking in the underbrush. His shirt and leggings were the same as her brother’s and his hair was the same. So then she knew that her brother had returned for mischief. Soon he entered the lodge and embraced her, and this time in anger she tore his cheeks with her nails and sent him away.

In three days the brother returned with a deer, but his sister would not speak to him. Said he, “My sister, I perceive that you are angry at me. Has my friend been here?”

It was some time before the sister replied, and then she wept, saying, “My brother, you have abused me and I scratched your face. I perceive that it is still torn by my finger nails.”

“Oh, my face,” laughed the brother. “My face was torn by thorns as I hunted deer. If you scratched my friend that is the reason I am scratched. Whatever happens to either one of us happens to the other.” But the sister would not believe this.

Again the brother went on a hunting trip, and again the familiar figure returned. This time the sister tore his hunting shirt from the throat down to the waist line. Moreover she threw a ladle of hot bear grease on the shirt. This caused his quick departure.

Returning in due time the brother brought in his game and threw it down. Again the sister was angry and finally accused him. Pointing to his grease-smeared torn shirt she said that this was evidence enough.

“Oh my sister,” explained the brother. “I tore my shirt on a broken limb as I climbed a tree after a raccoon. In making soup from bear meat I spilled it on my shirt.” Still the sister refused to believe him.

“Oh my sister,” said the brother, in distressed tones. “I am greatly saddened to think you will not believe me. My friend looks exactly as I do, and whatever happens to him happens to me. I shall now be compelled to find my friend and bring him to you and when I do I shall be compelled to kill him before you for his evil designs upon you. If you would believe me nothing evil would befall us, but I now think I myself shall die.”

The sister said nothing for she would not believe her brother.

The brother now began to pile up dried meat and to repair the lodge. He then went out into the forest without his bow and arrows, and in a short time returned with another man exactly resembling him, and whose clothing was spotted and torn in a similar way. Leading him to the lodge fire he began to scold him in an angry manner. “You have betrayed me and abused my sister,” he said. “Now is the time for you to die.” Taking out an arrow from a quiver he cast it into the heart of his double and killed him. The sister saw her assailant fall to the floor, and then looked up as she heard her brother give a war cry and fall as dead with blood streaming from a wound in his chest over his heart.

37. MURDERED DOUBLE SPEAKS THROUGH FIRE.

(SECOND PART OF A YOUTH’S DOUBLE.)

After lying as dead for a time the youth’s inherent magic began to bring about a restoration of life. Soon he sat up and looked at his sister. Then he spoke.

“Oh my sister,” he said. “The mother of my friend will shortly come for him, believing him married to you. We must dispose of my friend’s body and when the woman comes we must act as if we were husband and wife.”

The youth now removed the stones of the fireplace and dug a deep hole beneath. In this he buried the body of his slain friend, smoothed the earth and restored the ring of stones. He now rekindled the fire, and all trace of the murder was wiped away.

After a while footsteps were heard and the door was flung back. A witch woman looked into the lodge, and seeing someone that resembled her son standing closely to a young woman, the witch said, “I now perceive that I have a daughter-in-law.”

Thereupon the fire began to flicker and a voice came clearly from it, saying, “My friend has killed me, my friend has killed me.”

“Wu‘!” exclaimed the witch mother, “What words is your fire speaking?”

“Oh, my mother, pay no attention to the fire,” said the youth. “The fire thus speaks because I scrape the blood from my arrows into it.” So saying he scraped an arrow into the fire and it spoke as before, “My friend has killed me.”

The witch was disturbed and requested her pretended son to return to his maternal lodge bringing his wife with him. The youth now told his sister that the simulation of married life must be above suspicion, and then together all three went to the lodge of the witch.

As they sat down the pet owl of the lodge began to hoot. “The stranger has taken to wife his younger sister.” The old woman looked up and asked what the meaning of this omen might be, whereupon the youth answered, “It is because you have not fed the owl. I now give it meat.” The owl was then satisfied and continued to speak its accustomed notes.

That night the youth slept with his sister. As he entered the sleeping apartment the owl screamed as before, “It is not this one; this one takes to wife his younger sister.”

The youth called out, “Give no heed to this owl, he is hungry,” and he flung it more meat. Nevertheless the witch woman was suspicious and resolved to watch the couple.

During the night she spied through the curtain covering the bed, but the boy and his sister were simulating sleep, though arranged in an affectionate attitude. The old witch then placed her hand in the bed and under the covers, touching the couple, and she was then satisfied that the two were married.

Early in the morning the youth whispered to his sister that they must make their escape or the witch would discover the truth and kill them. Together the two went out of the lodge and the youth taking out his medicine pouch thrust his hand into it and took out a small dog which he tapped with a red rod. The dog grew in size with every tap until it was large enough to carry a human being. Placing his sister on the dog, the youth said, “Go forward and let nothing turn you aside. The dog will carry you to the lodge where is our refuge.”

The dog ran forward but after a long tedious journey the sister dismounted to rest, and seeing a pretty bird fluttering just before her, began to chase it. It finally flew out of sight and when she returned to find the dog it had disappeared. She then remembered her brother’s warning and stumbled forward hoping to find relief.

Meanwhile the brother ran on to the refuge but when he reached the lodge he found that his sister had not come. Some one was coming, however, for he heard footsteps. He looked and saw the witch approaching. “Where is she?” cried the witch, “Where is my daughter-in-law?” The youth was perplexed, but answered, “She is coming, you must have passed them.”

“I cannot rest,” said the witch, “for your pet owls continually say, ‘It is another and she is his sister.’”

The youth now perceived that he must escape the witch and so he asked her where she was going. “To your lodge,” she called as she sped onward over the trail.

The youth hurried forward over a shorter trail and reached the lodge before the witch. “Where is my daughter-in-law?” yelled the old woman as she entered the lodge.

“She has returned to the other lodge,” answered the youth.

“It is another one,” sang the fireplace, and then added, “My friend has killed me and taken his younger sister to wife.”

“I must meet my wife,” said the youth as he hurried away. He knew that he must now make his escape.

The witch was now thoroughly suspicious and dug into the fireplace. Soon she discovered her son and saw that indeed he had been killed. Burying him in another place she ran to her own lodge and took her witch charms, invoking them to give her power. To make herself mighty she drank the oil of hickory nuts. To test her power she smote a hickory tree but her blows only loosened all the bark. Drinking more oil she struck the tree again, reducing it to splinters. Now feeling confident she transformed herself into a Niă’´gwahē and started in pursuit of the youth, crying, “You cannot escape me.”

When the youth found himself closely pressed he threw out a handful of pigeon feathers ordering them to become a monster flock of pigeons and to make the ground beneath them impassable. Immediately pigeons flew thickly in the air and covered the ground with an impassable slime in which the witch wallowed until exhausted, when she swooned. When she recovered the youth was far away and only a few pigeon feathers could be seen on the ground.

Again she caught sight of him and cried out as is the custom for the Niă’´gwahĕ beast, “You cannot escape me.” This time the youth cast a white stone in the path and commanded that it become an impassable cliff that stretched from ocean to ocean. Against this the witch batted her head until she swooned. Awakening she saw only a small quartz pebble and in anger arose again in pursuit, crying as she caught up to him, “You cannot escape me.”

The youth was now sorely pressed but in running along the trail he saw an old man. “I am your uncle,” said the old man. “Run onward to your mother’s lodge, and meanwhile I will protect you.” The youth ran on and the old uncle caused a vast field of sharpened posts to spring up, making a terrible barrier to the onrushing Niă’´gwahĕ.

The youth passed another old man who called out to him, “I am your uncle. Run onward to your mother’s lodge, and meanwhile I will protect you.” This was reassuring, for just then the witch came into view and cried, “You cannot escape me.” Then the witch monster ran directly into a net-like entanglement and with wild rage floundered about until it had freed itself.

Meanwhile the youth was speeding forward. Soon he saw a handsome lodge before him and into this he ran. There he found his sister and the dog, an older woman, a younger woman and another youth.

“Protect me,” cried the pursued youth looking at the inmates of the lodge. “Niă’´gwahē pursues me.”

“I am your mother, my son,” said the oldest woman. “I will save you from trouble.”

Taking up a pot of boiling bear’s oil she waited until the witch beast had thrust its head into the lodge when she threw the oil full in the creature’s face. It gave a great snort and fell down dead.

The mother came up to the youth, saying, “Here is your older brother and older sister. Your younger sister and your dog came here and found me. We are all now safe and are reunited, so now all is well and I am thankful.”

38. THE VAMPIRE CORPSE.[39]

An old man had a house far back in the woods, a long ways from any village. It stood in the midst of a good hunting ground. The old man always welcomed any hunting party and provided them with all the utensils necessary for curing their meats and tanning their pelts. It seemed however, that the place was haunted by an evil spirit that delighted to inflict those who tarried there with very bad dreams, and sometimes it killed them by sucking out their blood like a weasel.

One time, so it is said, a man and his wife and child went to this hunting ground and went to the lodge of Taiiani Gowa, the old man of the solitudes, to ask for shelter. Now when he called there was no answer and so he entered and found Taiiani Gowa dead in a bark coffin. This coffin had been prepared long before and Taiiani Gowa having a premonition of coming death had crawled in his box and died; so the man said.

Now it was nightfall and the man lay down beside his wife and baby to pass the night. Toward the hour of midnight the woman was awakened by a sound of gnawing,—cautiously she looked about and sliding out her hand on the floor felt a warm pool of blood. Quickly she realized what had occurred. The old man was dead but his evil spirit was making him conform to its vampire appetite. It was chewing off the face of her husband. But she did not scream, instead she said carefully, “Husband, our child wishes water, you are too sleepy to care for her while I go for some, so I will take her with me, give her a drink and soon return.” With these words she arose and went out carrying a bowl with her. She ran to the spring, dropped the bowl and then ran toward home as fast as her strength gave her ability for running. “Unless I hasten,” she thought, “the tcĭs´gä will overtake and devour me. I heard him go back to his coffin, but his hunger will soon return and he will come for us, and finding us missing, will pursue us. Oh my baby, we must hurry!”

An echo of a loud cry sounded through the silent forest and the woman caught the words, “She has deceived me!” Then she knew that the tcĭs´gä had started on her track. She heard him at the spring, so she used all her speed to escape him, but presently she heard a growling close behind her and heard him exclaim, “Ah you cannot escape me!” Unloosening her skirt she flung it on a swinging branch and hurrying on, hear the tcĭs´gä crying, “Ah now I have you!” Then he tore the garment into shreds and found out his mistake. So then he ran screaming on. When he had neared her again she threw her blanket upon a log and ran on. The tcĭs´gä stopped and whooped because he was very angry. Then he chewed up the blanket but finding no blood rushed on after his victim, only to be delayed again and again by the same trick. After a time she had stripped herself and her baby of all their clothing and she was nearly exhausted, with the tcĭs´gä close upon her; then she heard the sound of drumming across a little valley and crying “Gowe^n‘” she ran on. The sentinel outside the long house heard her cry and gathering a number of warriors about him, ran at full speed toward the cry of distress. Each warrior bore a flaming torch the lights of which confused the pursuing tcĭs´gä and gave hope to the woman. Throwing their robes about her the warriors carried her to the long house where after reviving her from her faint, they heard her story. Then said the chief, “If her story is true we must keep the lights burning and dance till morning for the tcĭs´gä may return and kill us all; on the morrow we will send a party to examine the lodge of Taiiani Gowa and find out what the trouble is.” So the dance continued all night and in the morning a party headed by the chief went to the lodge of Taiiani Gowa and found the dead man in his coffin and the husband with his face chewed clean to the skull. Then the chief stepped to the side of the coffin and said, “We have come to make a great ceremony. We will bind up your box and then have our ceremony.” The warriors bound up the coffin with their strongest ropes and piled it high with brush and logs. Then a torch was applied and the coffin was surrounded by flames. The old man could not escape although he threatened terrible results for he could not pass outside of the flames. So his head burst and a white rabbit ran forth into the underbrush, eluding all the arrows of the warriors and escaping. Then did the people prove that Tiaiiani Gowa was a wizard and discover the form of his evil spirit. Likewise they knew why his guests became sick. He was a bad spirit.

VIII. TALES OF TALKING ANIMALS

39. THE MAN WHO EXHALED FIRE—HIS DOGS AND THE WOLVES.[40]

Now this is great.

A man had a dog and was always kind to it and the dog loved the man. Now this man would smoke tobacco after he had eaten his evening meal. Smoke issued from his mouth and sparks of fire flew from his pipe. The dog noticed this.