NELSON] THE STRANGE BOY 491 



farther side, while just under him was sitting an old man making 

 arrows. As the young man lay on the roof, the man on the inside 

 cried out, without even raising his head, &quot;Why do you lie there on the 

 outside? Come in.&quot; Surprised at being noticed by the old man with 

 out the latter even looking up, he arose and went in. When he entered 

 the house the man greeted him and asked why he was going to the 

 north in search of a wife. Continued the old man, &quot;There are many 

 dangers there and you had better turn back. I am your father s 

 brother and mean well by you. Beyond here people are very bad, and 

 if you go on you may never return.&quot; 



The young man was very much surprised to be told the object of his 

 journey, when he had not revealed it even to his parents. After taking 

 some food he slept until morning, then he prepared to go on his way. 

 The old man gave him a small black object, filled with a yellow sub 

 stance like the yolk of an egg, saying, as he did so, &quot;Perhaps you 

 will have little to eat on your way, and this will give you strength.&quot; 

 The traveler swallowed it at once and found it very strong to the taste, 

 so that it made him draw a deep breath, saying, as he did so, &quot;Ah, I 

 feel strong.&quot; Then he took up his spear and went on. Just before 

 night he came to another solitary hut, and, as before, looked in, seeing 

 a fire burning and an old woman sitting on one side and an old man 

 making arrows just below him. Again the old man called out without 

 raising his head, and asked him why he did not come in and not stay 

 outside. He again was surprised by being told the object of his journey, 

 and was warned against going farther. The young man gave no atten 

 tion to this, but ate and slept as before. When he was ready to set out 

 in the morning the old man saw he could not stay him, so gave him a 

 small, clear, white object, telling the traveler that he would not get 

 much to eat on the road, and it would help him. The young man at 

 once swallowed this, but did not find it as strong as the object he had 

 swallowed the day before. He was then told by the old man that if he 

 heard anything on the way that frightened, him he must do the first 

 thing that came into his mind. 



&quot;I will have no one to weep for me if anything should happen,&quot; said 

 the traveler, and he journeyed on, spear in hand. Toward the middle 

 of the day he came to a large pond lying near the seashore, so he 

 turned off to go around it on the inland side. When he had passed 

 part of the way around the lake he heard a frightful roar like a clap of 

 thunder, but so loud that it made him dizzy, and for a moment he lost 

 all sense of his surroundings. He hurried forward, but every few 

 moments the terrible noise was repeated, each time making him reel 

 and feel giddy and even on the point of fainting, but he kept on. The 

 noise increased in loudness and seemed to come nearer at every roar, 

 until it sounded on one side close to him. Looking in the direction 

 whence it came, he saw a large basket made of woven willow roots 

 floating toward him in the air, and from it came the fearful noise. 



