HEwS] FICTION 119 



The next time the elder brother ran to the door and knocked hur- 

 riedly, calling out, " Give me a couple of arrows; there is a bear out 

 here," the woman sat by ' the fire, but did not move. Again he 

 called, " Hurry I Give me the arrows — the bear will be gone." The 

 woman did not stir, but sat quietly by the fire.* After a while the 

 older brother went into his part of the lodge. A\lien the younger 

 brother came home the woman told him what had happened. While 

 they were whispering the elder brother called out : " Well, brother, 

 you are whispering to some one. Who is it? Have you a woman 

 here ? " " Oh," answered the younger, " I am counting over my 

 game." All was silent now for a time. The younger brother then 

 began whispering cautiously to the woman, saying, " My brother and 

 I will have a life-and-death struggle in the morning, and you must 

 help me ; but it will be very difficult for you to do so, for he will make 

 himself just like me in form and voice, but you must strike him if 

 you can." The woman tied to his hair a small squash shell so as to 

 be able to distinguish him from his elder brother. The latter again 

 called out, "You have a woman; you are whispering to her." The 

 younger brother denied it no longer. 



In the morning the brothers went out to fight with clubs and 

 knives. After breaking their weapons they clenched and rolled on 

 the ground ; sometimes one was under and sometimes the other. The 

 elder was exactly like the younger and repeated his words. Wlien- 

 ever the younger cried, " Strike him ! " the elder cried out almost at 

 the same time, " Strike him ! " The woman was in agony, for she 

 was unable to tell which to strike. At last she caught sight of the 

 squash shell, and then she struck a heavy blow and finished the elder 

 bi-other. 



They gathered a great pile of wood and, laying the body on the 

 pile, set fire to the wood and burned up the flesh. When the flesh 

 was consumed they scattered the burnt bones. Then the younger 

 bi'other placed the woman in the core of a cat-tail flag, which he put 

 on the point of his arrow and shot far away to the west. Running 

 through the heart of the upper log of the lodge, he sprang after the 

 woman and, coming to the ground, ran with great speed and soon 

 found where the arrow had struck. The cat-tail flag had burst open 

 and the woman was gone. He soon overtook her and they traveled 

 on together. He told her she must make all speed, for the ghost of 

 his brother would follow them. 



The next morning they heard the whooping of some one in pur- 

 suit. The younger brother said, " My brother has come to life again 

 and is following; he will destroy us if he can overtake us." There- 

 upon he turned the woman into a half-decayed stump and, taking 

 off his moccasins and telling them to run on ahead,^^ he secreted him- 

 self a short distance away. " Go quickly through swamps and 



