130 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS Ieth. ann. sj 



brother shot an arrow at the raccoon, which struck its body. The 

 raccoon ran into a liole in the tree, as the elder brother thought. The 

 old man shouted : " Oh, you must get your arrow ! AVe must find the 

 raccoon; you must take oif your garments, lest you should spoil 

 them. You need not be afraid. I shall not touch them, for I shall 

 go up the tree, too." So the j'oung man removed his robe, leggings, 

 moccasins, and pouch and laid them at the foot of the tree, which 

 he climbed, the old man following him closely. When they reached 

 the hole in the tree the young man peered into it, and, thinking he 

 saw right at hand the arrow sticking in the raccoon, he reached to pull 

 it out; but the old man pushed him into the hole in the tree, and 

 down he went through the hollow in the trunk to the bottom. There 

 was there no raccoon, only an illusion. 



Now, the old man, quickly descending to the ground, donned the 

 panther-skin robe, the leggings, and the moccasins, and he also took 

 the pouch with the pipe. At once he began to grow younger in 

 looks; he felt j'ounger, too, and the cap began to roar. Taking the 

 bow and arrows, he started off westward toward the lodge of the 

 chief. 



The poor Turkey Brother began to weep and to scream for his 

 lost brother whose clothes were stolen. He flew upon a tree and sat 

 there weeping. 



On recovering his senses the elder brother thought : " Now I am 

 certainly in trouble. My dear uncle warned me not to listen to this 

 old man. How can I ever get out of this place '^ There is no way 

 of climbing out of this den, for the opening is smooth on every side." 

 Under his feet he felt the bones of other unfortunate people who had 

 been thrown in there before by the wicked old man, and he smelt the 

 odor from them. He remained all night in the hollow of the tree. 

 Toward morning he remembered that in his boyhood he had had a 

 dream, in which a large spider appeared to him, saying, " When you 

 get into trouble I will help you." He therefore cried out, " Oh, 

 great Spider, come to me and help me now ! " At that moment a 

 great Spider began to make a web in the tree, and soon it had made 

 a large ladder woven of thick strands. " Now climb," said the great 

 Spider. But the young man had not gone up more than halfway 

 when the web ladder broke. " Oh," said he to the great Spider, 

 " you are not able to help me at this time." 



Then he remembered that he had had another dream, in which an 

 enormous blacksnake had appeared to him and had promised to help 

 him whenever he was in trouble. Thei-efore he cried out, "Oh! 

 Blacksnake, come to me and help m* now." Straightway there came 

 a great Blacksnake on the tree, which slipped its tail down into the 

 hollow in the trunk until the young man was able to seize it; then 



