^°wi'^] FICTION 215 



So he started, and as he went on he heard this same sound from 

 time to time. Directing his course toward tlie spot whence came 

 the sound, at last he reached the edge of a vilhige. Entering the 

 first lodge he encountered, he met nobody there. He then went to a 

 second lodge, and that, too, was empty. Thus he entered every 

 lodge until he came to the center of the village; there was no one 

 in any of them. He stood looking on every hand, quite discouraged. 

 At last, seeing smoke arising from the opposite side of the village, 

 he directed his way toward it. On reaching it he entered the lodge, 

 where he saw an old man on p. couch. Raising himself and throwing 

 off the skin mantles which covered him, the old man said to Hoda- 

 denon : " You must take my life at once, for you have caused all 

 my pain and misery." Hodadeiion replied : " It is not I who have 

 done this. It may be my companion, who looks exactly like me. I 

 am here to see whether it is he who is making all this trouble." The 

 old man said : " It is time for him to come now ; and on this account I 

 made my niece hide in that loom yonder. We are now the only per- 

 sons left in this place." Hodadeiion, going to the room indicated, 

 paid to the young woman in there : " I have come to see how that 

 man keeps the agreement he made with me. If he has taken to eat- 

 ing human flesh, he must kill me before he eats more, and to aid me 

 you must do just what I tell you to do. So help me all you can. I 

 shall fight with him for 10 daj's. We shall begin here, and shall con- 

 tinue fighting westward. At the end of 10 clays we shall return, 

 fighting as we come. At that time there will be nothing left of us 

 except our heads. You must kill your dog and try out its fat, and 

 when the tenth day comes you must have it ready in a vessel, boiling 

 hot. But you must not mistake me for him, for if you do I shall be 

 lost and you will die." 



At this moment he heard the old man cry out. Running to him at 

 once, he found that the man whom he called friend, the old widow's 

 grandson, had already taken flesh from the legs and thighs of the 

 old man. There he stood with his flint knife, ready to cut off 

 more flesh, saying, " I do not icnow where to take off the next piece 

 of flesh," when Hodadeiion came into the room. The latter at once 

 declared, " My friend, you agreed when we parted last that if you 

 would eat human fle.sh you would first kill the person before eating 

 him, and you have not kept your word."'^ The other man defiantly 

 replied, " Let us go out and fight to decide who shall rule." At once 

 they went out. and they began to fight, going westward as they 

 struggled, and soon disappeared in the woods. The young woman 

 heard their cries and groans for several days. Killing the dog, she 

 tried out its fat, and when the 10 days had passed and she heard them 

 coming back toward the lodge she heated the fat and had it ready. 



