Hewitt] FICTION 199 



but can not do so. Now, I want two of you to try to crush this rock 

 and so kill him ; but first you must go out and try your strength in 

 orenda " (magic power). So, going out, they shot at a rock, which 

 crumbled to pieces when they hit it. Then they shot at an enormous 

 tree; this, too, they brought down when they hit it, leaving nothing 

 but a stump. " Now," said the old man, " you may go to the open- 

 ing and see what you can do with that enchanted rock. Your com- 

 panions may remain here; thej' will not die, for we never die here. 

 I always help my grandchildren. I cover your trail whenever you 

 need to conceal it. It is I who cause it to rain." 



The two transfigured warriors went to the opening, as directed, and 

 seeing the great enchanted rock, they shot at it; then, returning to 

 the old man, they told him what they had done. He quickly asked 

 them, " Did you use all your orenda ? " They replied, " No. We 

 could have struck the rock a harder blow"; whereupon the old man 

 said, " Go back there and employ all your magical strength." Re- 

 turning to the opening where the great rock stood, the two warriors 

 shot it with all their orenda. After waiting for some time, they 

 heard a person coming toward them. Soon they saw that it was a 

 man carrying the head of an enormous horned snake securely strapped 

 to his back. This man was the old man who had transformed them. 

 Returning to the den, the two warriors said, " Now our work is done; 

 the great horned snake is dead." Then they went back to their homes. 



41. HODADENON AND YeNYENT'hWUS °* 



There was a little boy, Hodadeiion, who lived with his elder sister, 

 Yenyent'hwus, in a bark lodge. 



When the sister went out to plant, she would fasten the door of the 

 lodge so that nothing might harm her brother. She did not allow 

 him to go out alone. To amuse him she got a raccoon's foot, and also 

 brought him a bow and some arrows. In playing he tossed up the 

 raccoon's foot, telling the aiTows to strike it, and the arx'ows always 

 hit the foot before it fell to the ground. 



One day while Yenyent'hwus was at home, a voice was heard in the 

 upper part of the lodge, saying, "Mush, brother! IMush, brother!" 

 Hodadenon asked, "How is this? I thought we were alone in the 

 lodge?" The sister said, "It is our poor brother; he is only just 

 alive." "Well, my sister, make him some mush," said the little boy. 



Uncovering a place under her couch, the sister took out a very small 

 pot and a little fragment of a chestnut. Putting the least bit of 

 meal scraped from the chestnut into the pot with water, she boiled it. 

 While doing this she stirred the meal and tapped the pot, which in- 

 creased in size until it became as large as any pot. When the mush 

 was cooked the sister took it off the fire and put it all into a 



