116 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [etii axn. S2 



outside. This piiice was not far from that of the nephew. The old 

 man called the deer, but they ran away. Then he said to the girls, 

 " You are not mystically pure enough to come near those deer, for 

 they are very subtle." 



The girls spent the night with the old man. His bed had but few 

 skins, and one of the girls asked him, " Why do you not have a better 

 bed?" "Oh, my mother is washing the turkey-feather blanket in 

 the creek," he declared. 



During the night some person came to the door and said, " Old 

 man, you are wanted at the lodge of your nephew." The old man 

 paid no heed to the summons. lie was again summoned by the words, 

 " Come ! your nephew wants you." Then he declared that he sup- 

 posed that the people had become frightened at something and 

 wanted him to call a council ; so he started off. After he had gone the 

 girls said, "Let us go over and see what is happening." When they 

 arrived at the lodge they heard lofid peals of laughter, and so they 

 peeped through crevices in tlie bark walls; they saw the old man 

 dancing and before the fire a number of mice roasting on spits. As 

 the old man passed them in his dance he would grasp one and eat it 

 hot and burning, and everybody would laugh. 



The girls ran back to the lodge of the old man and placed rotten 

 logs full of ants in their bed in order to deceive him into thinking 

 that they were lying there asleep. Then, taking their basket, which 

 still contained some bread, they went outside the lodge to watch. 

 When the old man returned they peered into the lodge to see what 

 he would do. They saw him quietly creep into the bed between the 

 two logs. Soon he began to be bitten by the ants. Thereupon he 

 turned over, saying, "Do not be jealous of your sister"; but as the 

 biting continued, he repeated his injunction. Finally, the ants made 

 it so uncomfortable for him that he sprang out of bed. and then 

 realizing that he had been lying between logs of wood full of ants. 

 he bitterly upbraided his mother, although she knew nothing of the 

 matter. 



The girls then went to the lodge of the nephew, who willingly 

 took them for his wives. 



It was not long after this that the old man informed the people 

 that they must close up the smoke-holes of their lodges, for a great 

 pestilence was coming among them. So they did this. Then the 

 old man, after sharpening a beech rod, carried it wherever he went. 

 He made a great noise, saying: "Blue beech is coming. Blue beech 

 is coming." vVhen he arrived at his nephew's lodge he cast the 

 beech rod down the smoke-hole, and it entered the breast of his 

 nephew and killed him. 



The next morning, when the people heard of the death of their 

 chief, everyone began to weep for him. By the death of the nephew 



