54 A GREAT MEDICINE. 
human power. There was but one chance, one 
last frail hope to cling to: falling on their knees, 
both prayed, and, in the agony of despair, be- 
sought the ‘Great Spirit’ to use his power and 
save their child—give it back to them, or change 
it into any form, so that it escape the teeth and 
talons of the dreaded ogress. The prayer was 
heard, and the boy, assuming at once the form of 
a tiny squirrel, deftly slipped from out her grip, 
but not unscathed; the marks inflicted by four 
of her claws remain to this day on its back, as 
evidence of the story’s truthfulness. 
Hence it is that Indian boys seldom kill this 
squirrel, ill-luck befalling all such profane trans- 
gressors, and that ‘medicine-men’ (the doctors 
and conjurors of the tribes) wear its skin as a 
potent and all-powerful charm. 
The ‘Store-keeper,’ bearing on its back the 
marks of the wicked old woman’s finger-nails, 
may be seen by any who choose to visit the 
British Museum, where a specimen I shot is set 
up very near the ‘rock-whistler.’ 
