102 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. Ann. 32 



been killed, the Seneca thou<;ht him a fjreut man. The vA-omen soirpht 

 him as a husband for their danpliters, but, refusing every offer, he 

 married the granddaughter of the old woman who lived in the last 

 lodge on the edge of the village. 



When the Buffaloes were shot the people thought they had killed 

 them, but in reality thej^ had not done so. The Buffaloes left their 

 carcasses behind, which the iieoi)le ate, but their spirits went back to 

 the old man and they were Buffaloes again. ^'"' 



9. A Woman and Her Bear Ixiver 



A man and his wife with two sons — one on the cradle-board yet. 

 and the other three or four years old — lived in the woods. 



After a while the elder boy became puny and sickly. The man was 

 much troubled by this and began to think that his wife was to blame. 

 Every day he set out to hunt, and the woman went to get wood anf! 

 to dig wild potatoes. 



One day the man resolved to watch his wife; so he hid himself near 

 the lodge instead of going to hunt. In a couple of hours the wife 

 came out, gayly dressed, her face washed, and her hair oiled : she 

 walked quidcly to the woods. He followed her stealthilj'. She 

 stopped at a large tree on which she tapped with a stick and said, 

 " I am here again." Presentlj' a noise as of scrambling was heard 

 in the tree, and a great Bear came out of the hollow in the trunk and 

 slipped <]uickly to the foot of the tree. After a while the woman 

 went away, and the Bear again climlied the tree. The man set oft', 

 seeking wild potatoes. Finding a place where there were many good 

 ones, he dug up a large quantit}'. 



The next day he took the woman there and dug up as many as she 

 could carry ; he then sent her home, saying that he would go hunting 

 so that they could have a good supper. The hunter then went 

 straight to the tree in which lived his wife's lover, the Bear, and, 

 tapping twice on it, said, " I am here again." The Bear soon stuck 

 his head out, and the man shot an arrow at him which brought him 

 to the ground. The hunter left the skin of the Bear; he merely 

 opened his body and took out the entrails, which he carried home. 



The woman was glad and said to the little boy, " Your father has 

 brought us a good dinner." She cooked the entrails and the wild 

 potatoes. They all sat down to eat, and the woman ate very heartily; 

 but the man said that he was sick, and did not eat of the entrails. 

 When she had nearly finished eating and her hands were full of fat. 

 her husband said to her, " You seem to like to eat your lover." 

 "What?" she said. "Oh! eat more, eat plenty," he replied. "I 

 shall eat two or three mouthfuls more." she said. As she was doing 

 this, he said again, "You seem to like to eat your husband." She 

 heard him this time and knew what he meant. Jumping up, she ran 

 out and vomited and vomited. Then she ran off into the woods to 



