178 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [bth. 4NN.32 



he made the little girl call: " Mother, Mother! some strange boy has 

 come and is playing with me." Instantly the mother Thunder's voice 

 was heard in the west, and presently she stood by the nest. The boy 

 struck hei- on the head with his club, and .she. too, fell dead. Now, 

 thought tlie boy: " This Thunder boy would make a splendid tobacco 

 pouch for my father. I will take him home." So, striking him with 

 his club, he threw him down, and the little girl also. When the boy 

 with the club reached the ground, he said to his brother, " Now, let 

 us go." On getting home, he said, "Oh, father! I have brought 

 you a splendid pouch." "What have you done?" said the father. 

 When he saw the dead Thunder baby he said : " These Thunders have 

 never done any harm. They bring rain and do us good, but now 

 they will destroy us all in revenge for what you have done." " Oh ! 

 they will not hurt us. I have killed that whole family." The father 

 took the skin for a pouch. " Now, my boy," said the father, " you 

 must never go north, to the country of the Stone Coats." The elder 

 brother would not go, so the little one went off alone. About noon 

 he heard the loud barking of Stone Coat's dog, which was as tall 

 as a deer, so he knew the master was near. He jumped into the 

 heart of a chestnut tree, where he found a hiding place. 



Presently Stone Coat came up, and, looking at the tree, said, " I 

 think there is nothing here; " but the dog barked and looked up. so 

 that finally he struck the tree with his club, splitting it open. " What 

 a strange little fellow you are," said Stone Coat, looking at the boy 

 as he came out; "you are not big enough to fill a hole in my tooth." 

 " Oh ! I did not come to fill holes in your teeth. I came to go home 

 with you and see how you look and how you live," said the boy. 

 "All right. Come with me," said Stone Coat. Stone Coat was of 

 enormous size. He carried in his belt two great bears, which to him 

 were as two squirrels to an ordinary man. Every little while, looking 

 down, he would say to the little fellow running by his side, " Oh ! 

 you are such a funny little creature." 



Stone Coat's lodge was very large and long. The little boy had 

 never seen anything like it. Stone Coat skinned the two bears: he 

 put one before his visitor and took one for himself, saying to the boy, 

 " Now you eat this bear, or I will eat you and him together." " If 

 you do not eat yours before I eat mine, may I kill you ? " asked the 

 boy. " Oh, yes," said Stone Coat. The little boy cut off mouthfuls, 

 and cleaning them as fast as he could, he put them into his mouth. 

 He kept running in and out, so as to hide the meat. In a short time 

 all the flesh of his bear had disappeared. " You have not eaten 

 yours 3'et: I am going to kill .you." said the little fellow to the Stone 

 Coat. " Wait until I show you how to slide down hill "■ — and Stone 

 Coat took him to a long hillside, which was very slippery and which 

 ended in a cave. Putting the little fellow in a wooden bowl, he sent 



