390 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



When their father noticed what they had done, he made a noise 

 like thunder, and came and helped them brush off from themselves 

 the flies, gnats, fleas, and lice." 



6— THE SONS OF GHANA.-DI AND THE LITTLE PERSON*'* 



Ghana :di had forbidden his two sons to go to a certain cliff be- 

 cause it was dangerous there. They did not obey, however, and went 

 there. 



They found a Little Person, very handsome, sitting in the middle 

 of a cave there. As soon as the two boys came in, he got up and 

 said, "Would one of you two carry me about? Let me sit upon his 

 back." 



The youngest of the two was willing, and stooped to let the Little 

 Person sit upon his shoulders. The Little Person got on and said, 

 "Now! Carry me all about." 



The boy walked all about with him, and the Little Person liked 

 this very much. But the boy got tired of carrying him about, and 

 the boys could not get the Little Person to come down. The boy 

 felt that the back of his neck and the front of the Little Person were 

 growing together. 



The boy thought: "I will climb a tree, and fall down, and act as 

 if I were dead. Then he will get off." 



He climbed a tree, and fell off it, and pretended to be dead. As 

 he did not get up again, the Little Person dismounted and said, 

 "Now, that is a pity that he should be dead! He carried me all 

 about so nicely, and I liked it so well!" 



The Little Person started back toward his cave. 



When he had been gone for some time, the boy "came to life" 

 again, and with his brother ran for home. 



But the Little Person had seen them, and ran after them. 



Their father was a great wizard, and knew all that had happened. 

 He went to meet the boys, and the eldest told him of their trouble. 



"That's what I told you!" their father said. "I warned you not 

 to go to that place." 



And when the Little Person came near, the father cut him all to 

 pieces, and as there was a pond nearby, he threw the pieces into it. 



" While the lacunae in this story are somewhat damaging, it Is clear that what Olbrechts heard but failed 

 to make sufficient notes upon was a retelUng of the releasing of insects by Ghana:di to torment his sons as 

 a punishment for their permitting the animals to escape from the cave In which he had confined them (cf. 

 Mooney, 1900, p. 244). 



•2 Among the Oklahoma Cherokee we have yet to encounter the imputation of malice to a Little Person. 

 The North Carolina attitude toward Little People is discussed in Wltthoft and Hadlock (1946, passim), 

 the Oklahoma attitude in the Wahnenauhi Manuscript (Kilpatrlck, ed„ 1966), and Kllpatrick and BZll- 

 patrick (1964, pp. 79-95). 



