ZT^?i] FICTION 197 



But the younger sister thought something was wrong. When the 

 old woman lay down the girls went out. She said to her sister: 

 " Something is wrong. This is not the man. He is the man we met, 

 and our mother told us not to speak to anyone." The elder said, " I 

 suppose we have done wrong." Then, putting into the bed two slip- 

 pery-elm sticks and covering them up, they started on with their 

 basket of marriage-bread. They heard dancing, and as they ap- 

 proached the source of the sound they saw a Long Lodge. Peeping in, 

 they saw Gesagwe in the middle of the floor. The singers sang to 

 him. Then everyone, rising, threw corn into his mouth. He had a 

 blanket around him. They threw what they had into his mouth. A 

 woman and her son sat by the fire, and they, too, looked very at- 

 tractive. The younger sister said, " That is the young man we want." 



Going into the lodge, they walked up to the old woman. Big 

 Earth, and put down the basket. Big Earth was pleased. When 

 the dancing was over all the people went home. The man who was 

 dancing went home. Seeing what he thought were two girls in 

 his bed, he said : " Well, I must smoke. They have had a big coun- 

 cil. They could not do anything. I was there." Taking down a 

 piece of deer's tallow, he chewed it. Every time he spat it sim- 

 mered on the fire. He lay down and one of the girls, he thought, 

 pinched him. He said, " Wait until I get ready to lie down." 



Undressing himself, he started to get into bed, whereupon he 

 found two rotten logs and a bed full of ants. Awfully angry, he 

 scolded his wife and threw the logs out of doors. 



The girls lived happily with Big Earth's son for two months. At 

 the end of that time he got bear meat and deer meat, wjiich he put 

 into very small packages. He made two loads of the meat, one for 

 each of his wives. Then they all started with the meat to visit 

 his mother-in-law. She had been very uneasy, thinking that her 

 daughters had been deceived again. When she saw them coming 

 with their husband she was pleased. After they had lived there 

 some time. Big Earth's son said he was going to take his mother-in- 

 law to his own home. They all went to his place, where they lived 

 happily together. 



40. HiNON AND THE SeNECA WaREIORS 

 (a tale of the wars of the SENECA AND THE CHEROKEE) 



Once a war party of Seneca while on the warpath against the 

 Cherokee became very hungry. Seeing a bear, they chased it into its 

 den, one of the party following it. When he had gone some dis- 

 tance into the den he could no longer see the bear, but he saw instead 

 a fire burning briskly and thi'ee men sitting around it. The eldest 

 asked the Seneca warrior why he had tried to shoot one of his men 



