WILD HUNTING COMPANIONS 187 



totally different kind; and after listening a 

 moment the queen spoke, telling that her spirit 

 had arrived, had overcome the other spirit, and 

 was chasing him. In another moment one of 

 her girls called out that the little pigs were 

 dead. The queen put out her hand and touched 

 them; they were quite cold. The defeated spirit 

 was hiding in them! But as she felt them they 

 began to grow warm and come to life. Her 

 familiar had followed the evil ghost into his 

 hiding-place in the pigs, had chased him out, and 

 slew him as he fled to the water. There was 

 no further interruption to the building of the 

 bridge. 



The touch about the defeated spirit hiding in 

 the pet pigs, which thereupon grew cold, and 

 being chased out by his antagonist was thor- 

 oughly Polynesian. It was most interesting to 

 see the cultivated man of the world suddenly go 

 back to superstitions that marked the child- 

 hood of the race; and then he told tales of the 

 shark god, and of many other gods, and of 

 devils and magicians. 



However, there is no lack of similar beliefs 

 among our own people. Long ago I knew an old 

 market gunner of eastern Long Island who shot 

 ducks and bay -birds for a living. There was a 

 deserted farmhouse on the edge of the marsh. 



