424 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



what he examined with — maybe with the brown stone, or with beads 

 (he could use them, if he knew how) . 



Well, he found out that they had gone toward the East. His two 

 little boys had each had a hatchet, and as they had traveled along, 

 they had cut strips of bark off trees that they had passed. He followed 

 these marks, but he could see no footprints. 



The mother had told the children: "Your father will be looking for 

 us. If he finds us, be careful. Act as if you do not recognize him." 



The man followed all the way the traU along which they had gone, 

 and finally found a woman and two children. He did not recognize 

 them, and the woman did not talk to him. But the boys recognized 

 him, and ran to him, calling "Father!" 



The woman scolded them. She said, "Did I not forbid you to call 

 him 'father'?" 



Then the man said to her, "I recognize you, too. You are my wife." 



At that moment the woman changed herself to her original form: 

 she was an elk.^° 



2.— THE MAN WHO MARRIED A BEAVER 



Once the people were having a dance. While they were dancing, 

 there came in two girls. Nobody knew then, nor from what settle- 

 ment they were, but they were very pretty, nice girls. Each had a 

 beautiful ribbon hanging from her back. 



All of the boys were very much attracted to them, and when the 

 girls left, one of the boys followed them to find out where they lived. 

 At the fork of Tuckasegee and Oconaluf tee Rivers at Ela ^^ they disap- 

 peared at the edge of the water. 



The boy went home. He was very lovesick. He told his grand- 

 father about the girls. His grandfather was a great wizard, and he 

 told the boy what to do if he wanted to speak to the girls. 



"Eat nothing all day on the day of the dance," he said, "and if you 

 follow them again, they will not disappear from you." 



So on the day of the next dance, he fasted all day. That night 

 the two girls again came to the dance, and when they left, he followed 

 them. 



When the two girls came to the bank of the river, they stepped 

 into the water. The boy was afraid to do the same thing, but one of 

 the girls turned around and said, "Do not be afraid. This is not 

 water; it is just a trail." 



'0 This story bears a general resemblance to a Koasati tale recorded in S wanton (1929, p. 193), and has a 

 weak afiQnlty to a Choctaw example In Bushnell (1909, p. 32). Its ending has points of similarity to the 

 Oklahoma Cherokee tale of the man who mated with a deer, found in Kilpatrlck and Kilpatrick (1964, 

 pp. 84-91). 



" We assume that Ravensfork, written here in place of Oconaluftee, Is an error. This site is in Swain 

 County, N.O., between Birdtown and what is known as the 3200- Acre Tract, 



