42 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



"Then the Wolf people went to dig up the tree. They 

 left as a guard over the Ancient of Opossums a one-eyed 

 wolf, who sat there watching him. Then the Ancient of 

 Opossums in order to play a trick on his guard said, 'Untie 

 me and bring a stick from the dead tree and kill me by 

 hitting me, and be very brave over me as I recline; do so 

 to me and I shall lie dead.' When he had said this, sure 

 enough the one-eyed wolf untied him and was thinking of 

 breaking off the fatal stick when the Ancient of Opossums 

 entered a hole in the ground and thus escaped. 



"On the return of the Wolf people just at this time they 

 dug into the ground. While they were digging their foe 

 came in sight at another place. He had painted himself 

 red before he approached them. 'Why are you all acting 

 thus?' said he. At length they replied, 'We are doing so 

 because the Ancient of Opossums killed some of us and 

 entered a hole here.' 'I will enter,' said the Ancient of 

 Opossums, 'and after catching him I will bring him out and 

 you all must kill him.' Then he entered the hole. 



"In a little while he emerged bearing a hoe on his 

 shoulder and with his body painted yellow all over. 'What 

 are you all doing?' said he, as if he were a stranger. 'We 

 are doing so because the Ancient of Opossums killed some 

 of us and entered this hole,' replied the Wolf people. 'I will 

 go in and catch him, and when I bring him out you all must 

 kill him,' said the Ancient of Opossums. Again did he 

 enter the hole. When he thought, 'I have gone a very long 

 distance,' he began to call out, 'I am he ! I am the one who 

 did it !' But while he thought that he had gone far into the 

 hole, he was in error; for his bushy tail stuck out of the 

 hole in full sight of the Wolf people, who seized it immedi- 

 ately and it slipped off the skin. Therefore the tails of 

 opossums since that day have been nothing but bone." 



A Tale Similar to Aesop's 



Although obtained directly from the Biloxi, Dr. Swan- 

 ton, in his translation of the legend of "The Brant and 

 the Otter," calls attention to the similarity of it to Aesop's 



