uew^t] fiction 117 



the old man became the chief. He said that some one must marry 

 the girl wives of the dead chief; so he called all the young men to- 

 gether, but before they could speak their minds the wily jld repro- 

 bate exclaimed, " None of you will do." He had asked each one for an 

 expression of opinion, but would not permit anyone to answer him. 

 Then he closed the conference by saying, " I must marry them my- 

 self." But the girls would not remain and quickly escaped to their 

 own home. 



The old man was an owl, but the nephew was an eagle. 



17. A Great Snake Battle 



In old times some Indians had a great battle with snakes, and this 

 is how it happened. 



A certain man near tha village of the Indians was hunting one 

 day. He found a rattlesnake, which he mercilessly tormented. He 

 tied a piece of bark around its body and passed another piece of 

 bark through the body. Then, fastening the snake to the ground 

 and building a fire, he said, " We shall fight," as a challenge to the 

 snake people. Afterward he burned up the snake and tormented 

 many other snakes in this way. always challenging them to figiit. 



One day a man heard a peculiar noise. As he went near the ap- 

 parent source of the sound, he saw a large number of all kinds of 

 snakes going in one direction. Listening to their words, he heard 

 them saj': "We w'U have a battle with them. Djisdaah ^° has chal- 

 Jenged us." They (the snakes) were going to hold a council. The 

 man overheard them say, " In four days we shall have a battle." 



The man went back to the village and told the people what he 

 had seen and heard. The chief sent a number of men to the place, 

 and as far as they could see in all directions were snakes three or four 

 feet deep, all moving toward their rendezvous. The men ran back 

 ;ind told the chief what they had seen. The chief said: "We can 

 not avoid it; we have got to fight, and so we mu?t get ready." To 

 do this they cut great piles of wood and drove stakes close together 

 in the ground : there were two rows of stakes the whole length of the 

 village, and they stacked up the wood in long piles. On the fourth 

 day the chief told the men to set fire to the wood in several places. 



When the snakes advanced to attack the village they came right 

 on through the fire, apd many of them were burned to death. So 

 many rushed into the fire that they put it out. The live snakes 

 climbed over the dead ones, and in spite of the resistance of the 

 men. who were trying in every way to kill them, they reached the 

 second row of stakes. Here again many were killed, but still the 

 living climbed over the dead above the second row of stakes, and then 

 the battle for life began in deep earnest. The first man they killed 



