^VJSJ FICTION 139 



22. Hat'hondas (the Listener)*' 



Once upon a time an uncle and his nephew lived together in the 

 forest. Being \'ery needy, they gathered and cooked for food fungi 

 "which grow on trees. After they had lived some time in this way 

 his uncle said one day to the boy, who had grown nearly to the age 

 of puberty, " To-morrow you must go out yonder into the ravine to 

 listen, and as soon as you hear something you must hurry back to tell 

 me what it is." 



The nephew did as he was ordered. The next morning as soon as 

 he heard the song of a bird he hurried home, rushing almost breath- 

 less into the lodge and crying, " Oh, uncle, I have heard something ! " 

 " Wait a while, nephew," said the uncle. " Wait until I light my 

 pipe and the smoke rises from it." *' 



Soon the smoke arose from the pipe; -then Hat'hondas told what 

 he had heard, imitating the call of a bird. " Oh, nephew ! that is 

 nothing. Go again to-morrow," said the imcle. He went the next 

 day, and heard a bird of some other kind. After rushing to the lodge 

 as before, and after his uncle had lighted the pipe, he told his uncle 

 what he had heard. Each day he heard a new bird and told his 

 uncle what he had heard. After several such fruitless trips to the 

 ravine he heard two women singing, " I am going [am on my way] 

 to marry Dooehdanegen." ^'^ The women were moving through the 

 air coming toward his uncle's lodge. Hat'hondas rushed home almost 

 breathless, crying, " Oh, uncle ! I have heard it." " Well, what is it?" 

 asked the uncle, and straightway he lighted his pipe and the smoke 

 arose from it. " I heard two women singing, ' I am going to marry 

 Dooehdanegen,' and they are coming this way," declared the 

 nephew. " We must make ready to receive them," said the uncle ; 

 " we must put the lodge in order." He therefore smoothed tlie skins 

 on his couch and put his nephew's bed away from his own in the 

 corner near the ashes, telling his nephew to lie there while the women 

 were in the lodge, and to face the other way, and further to keep 

 quiet and not to show his face. The old man then put on his best 

 garments, with two feathers in his cap, and tried to be as nimble and 

 bright as when a young man. He kept sending his nephew out to 

 see how near the women were. ^Vlien at last they reached the lodge 

 the nephew ran in, crying, " Oh, uncle, they are here." " Go to your 

 bed ; lie down, and do not stir," said the uncle. 



The women entered the lodge, bringing a basket of marriage 

 bread. *^ The old man hurried around to make it pleasant for them, 

 but could not interest them, for their minds were elsewhere. They 

 kept looking toward the corner where Hat'hondas was lying. When 

 night came the old man spread out the skins of his couch and told 



