440 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 196 



could hardly walk, so his three companions decided to leave him. 

 So when they came to an open place in the forest, they gathered 

 together some dry leaves and placed the sick man upon them. They 

 told him that in 4 days they would come back for him, although they 

 did not intend to do this; for they thought that he would be dead 

 before then. 



As the sick man lay there, he heard something in the distance 

 howling like a fox. Again he heard it. Soon he heard the sound of 

 an animal near him. Then the animal walked all over him, from his 

 feet to his head, urinating as it went. Again it did this, and then 

 once more it crept aU over his body, from his feet to his head, and 

 then back again, urinating all the while. 



He saw that it was a skunk.^^ 



Next morning he was well. He went on to where his people lived. 

 They were very surprised to see him come back, for they thought 

 that he had died from the smallpox. 



6.— THE PROPHECY CONCERNING WHITE MEN 



Before the White people came to America, there lived an old man, 

 a very powerful magician. The people asked him, "Can you find out 

 how long the brown people are going to live here?" He said that he 

 could do this. 



They found a piece of old rotten tree trunk, this long (60 cm.), 

 very dry. They set fii-e to one end of it, and it burned slowly toward 

 the other end. It all burned up, except for a small bit of it near the 

 other end. 



They asked the old man what this was a sign of, and he said, "I 

 don't know when, but strangers are going to come, and bad things 

 will happen. The whole of this log is where we live now. As you see, 

 it has nearly all been bm'ned up. Just a few of us will remain in the 

 East. All the others will be driven toward the West like cattle. 

 But those that remain in the East will remain here as long as the 

 grass grows and the springs keep running." 



When they heard that, some of the people said, "If that is going 

 to happen, we might as well start now." But they did not tell their 

 friends. They told their friends that they were going out to himt, 

 and their friends thought that they had merely gone to the woods. 

 But their friends never saw them again. In this way one family 

 after another would leave. 



When they came to the brink of a big river, they could not cross 

 the water. They took cane, made splints of it, and made a canoe, 

 just as we make a basket. In that way they crossed the river. 



" Olbrechts Jotted here ", . . and It spoke to him and said:"; but he failed to record its statement. 



