148 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [btu. ANN. 32 



The wily old uncle waited a while, and then assuming tiiat his 

 nephew was fast asleep, he decided to begin getting his own evening 

 meal. Going to his bed and carefully searching among the skins with 

 which it was covered, he drew forth a small kettle and a very small 

 bundle. Then placing the kettle on the bench near the fire and 

 opening the bundle, he took out of it some substance, a small quan- 

 tity of which he scraped into the kettle. After putting water into 

 the kettle he hung it over the fire. When the water began to boil 

 the old man, taking a wand from its wrappings of skin, began to 

 strike gently on the kettle while he sang the words, " Now, my kettle. 

 I want you to grow in size." Obedient to the words of the song, the 

 kettle began to increase in size and its contents grew in bulk. Re- 

 peating the words and continuing to tap gently on the kettle, the 

 old man watched it becoming larger and larger. He kept up the 

 singing until he decided that the kettle would hold enough of the 

 mush which he was making to satisfy his hunger; then he stopped 

 singing and tapping on the kettle. Cai'efully replacing the rod, or 

 wand, in its skin wrapping, he removed the kettle from the fire and 

 sat down to eat. After finishing his supper he carefully washed his 

 kettle; then he shook it until it decreased to the size it was when he 

 took it from the hiding place under the bed, to which place he now 

 returned the rod, the bundle, and the kettle. 



The nephew, who was still feigning sleep, was watching his uncle 

 through a hole in the bed covering. He decided to take breakfast 

 with his uncle in the morning, and in order to do this he resolved 

 to arise much earlier than usual, "\\1ien he arose, however, the 3^outh 

 found that his imcle had finished breakfast and was preparing some- 

 thing for him to eat. 



After the uncle had gone out to hunt the youth brought into the 

 lodge a large quantity of bark to make a good fire. About midday 

 he said to himself: "I am going to be very kind and good. My 

 uncle will be tii'ed when he returns, so I shall have his supj^er all 

 ready for him. I think that I can prepare it just as he does." For 

 a long time he searched in his uncle's bed for the bundle; at last 

 he found it. On opening it he discovered that it contained a small 

 fragment of a chestnut. Beside the bundle he found the kettle, 

 which was very small. These were the only articles he found under 

 his uncle's bed. He wondered and wondered at what he had dis- 

 covered, for he could not understand how it Mas that with this bit 

 of chestnut and the tiny kettle his uncle could make enough mush 

 to feed him. Finally he decided on his course of action, saying to 

 himself: "Well, I must do this exactly as my uncle did. This chest- 

 nut must be enough for one move meal." 



Kindling a good fire, the youth carefully scraped all the chestnut 

 into the kettle; and then he poured water into the kettle and set it 



