^^7ra] FICTION 153 



those of a rabbit. These he followed to a large hollow tree, in which 

 indeed he found a bear, which he Idlled. Carrying it home, he 

 skinned and dressed it. From its skin he made himself a robe and 

 a pair of moccasins. 



Again about midnight the young man heard some person ap- 

 proaching on snowshoes, for the snow was deep. Soon a man's voice 

 from outside his lodge said to him : " I sent you help last night. 

 Tonight I have come to tell you that your wife will be here to- 

 morrow about midday. She believes that you are dead from hunger 

 and exposure and she has run away from her father's camp to come 

 to look for you. As soon as she has rested, send her on the following 

 day for her father and his people. Instruct her to tell her father 

 that you are alive and well. Let her say to him, ' My husband has 

 meat enough for all.' They will be glad to come back to you, for 

 they have no meat and are hungry. They have been punished enough 

 for abandoning you." Then the stranger departed. 



The next day about noontide the wife came and she was welcomed by 

 her husband. After resting that night the young man in the morning 

 sent her for her father. The night she was absent the stranger again 

 came to the lodge and said to the young man : " Your father-in-law 

 will be very glad to Icnow that you have meat sufficient for yourself 

 and for his people, and he will be very willing to come to you. 

 A^'Tien he has arrived here he will exhibit his fetishes, and ostensibly 

 to repay you he will give you your choice. Among them is one which 

 you must select ; this is wrapped in bearskin. It is the claw which I 

 lost when your father-in-law caught me in a trap. You must not 

 pay heed to your father-in-law's statement that it is not of much 

 account. He will insist that you take some other which he will rep- 

 resent as of much greater potency than this. But take my advice 

 and choose this one." Then the stranger departed. 



The next morning toward midday the chief and all his people 

 returned to the lodge of the chief's son-in-law, who welcomed them 

 and offered them what he had in the way of food. 



In a few days the chief unfolded all his fetishes, informing his 

 son-in-law that he could take his choice. On his reaching over and 

 taking the one wrapped in bearskin, his father-in-law said, " Oh, 

 son-in-law ! that is of no account ; here is a better one." But the young 

 man, remembering the advice of his midnight visitor, replied, "No; 

 I will keep this one," so he retained the one wrapped in bearsldn. 



Some time afterward the young man went into the forest to meet 

 the strange man who had befriended him and to whom the claw, or 

 finger, belonged. He had not gone far when he saw what appeared 

 to be a lodge standing in the middle of a clearing. On going to this 

 lodge he found a man in it who received from him the claw or 

 finger. Thanking him for its return, the man said : " I shall always 



