^^^v?S] FICTION 109 



The women could not walk side by side, but one had to follow the 

 other. The younger one carried the baby. When they saw him back 

 at his own fire, they became quite enraged, and one of them said to 

 him, "A time will come when I shall get at you.'' The hunter re- 

 plied, " You kill human beings, and this is the reason why I do not 

 want you to reach me." One of the women tauntingly replied, "On 

 the other hand, you are not able to kill anybody." Then the hunter 

 said, " You are very angry now, but I am about to show you that I 

 can kill you." Drawing his tomahawk, he struck a huge rock, which 

 crumbled into small stones from the blow. " Well ! " said one of the 

 women, " I do believe that he can kill some persons." Picking up his 

 bow and arrows, the hunter aimed a shot at a tree, which he hit with 

 terrific force. Seeing his skill, one of the women said, " There, he is 

 really a man to be feared," and she showed signs of astonishment at 

 his feats. The younger woman exclaimed, "We have now come into 

 contact with Thunder (i. e., Hinon), it seems." But the elder one 

 said: "Now, I am determined to work m}' will. He is dodging 

 around in an attempt to escape, but I shall do what I intended to do 

 at first." 



AVhile they were talking it grew dark and, night coming on, the 

 hunter could not see them but he could still hear them converse to- 

 gether. The elder woman was angry to think that he had endeavored 

 to avoid them in every way. Having discovered who they were, the 

 hunter was very cautious in his movements and continually on his 

 guard lest they come on him unawares. Finding that, under cover 

 of the darkness, they were recrossing the sti-eam on the footbridge, 

 he went down under the water, where he remained, going up and 

 down in the middle of the stream bed. 



When the elder woman could not find the hunter her anger was 

 wrought up to a high pitch against him. He remained in the water 

 until daylight, however, when coming up out of the stream he 

 started off toward the camp of his fellow hunters. He was a very 

 swift runner and possessed good staying powers on the race course; 

 but when it was nearly midday he heard a voice behind him saying: 

 " Now I have caught up with you. Now you are within my reach." 

 (The other members of this band were sad at the loss of this man, and 

 so they had not gone out to hunt on this particular day.) When the 

 fleeing hunter saw the woman overtaking him he put forth his best 

 efforts to maintain his exhausting pace, but he felt his strength was 

 fast failing him. At every sound of her voice he fell to the ground 

 from the effect of her orenda.-^ He knew by her manner that she was 

 greatly eni'aged at him for attempting to escape from her. ■ 



Seeing that he could not possibly escape her by running he decided 

 to climb a tree. He did this none too soon, for he had just reached a 

 hiding place in the thick upper branches when the elder of the women 



