^"kwS] fiction 233 



dogs. He was in the middle of the stream wlien the woman reached 

 the bank and called out, " Your flesh is mine. I am going to eat it." 

 Thereupon she made a great leap with tlie intention of landing on 

 the raft, but missing it, she was drowned. After the fugitives had 

 crossed the river and had given thanks for their escape, the little 

 dog said, " We shall soon come to a village, and you must do my 

 bidding." 



When they came to an opening or clearing in the forest they saw 

 near by a wretched-looking lodge, and the little dog said, " We are 

 going there; a couple of poor old people live in that lodge." On 

 entering, the hunter asked the old man of the lodge whether he could 

 stay with him for a short time. The old man answered : " It is diffi- 

 cult to grant your request. We have as much as we can do to live 

 ourselves." " It is true." said the man, " you are very poor; so are we. 

 I am not in search of a good home. I am looking for people in my 

 own circumstances." "Very well," said the old man, "you can stay 

 with us, but the chief of the place knows already that you have 

 come; he has great magic power and I am afraid that he will take 

 3'our life." 



Some time passed. Every night the old man would spend a long 

 time in relating the history of the chief and the people. As the 

 visiting man was a good hunter, he brought in much game and 

 soon the old man's lodge was full of meat. After a while the old 

 man said. '• We have decided to adopt you, and you shall be one of 

 our children." 



The chief laiew that there was a stranger in the place, and the 

 old man said : " He will be here in two days; he is coming to see who 

 is with us. He will tell you that he is your uncle, and will challenge 

 you to a foot race. You must ask for two days' time for preparation." 

 " Very well," said the man, and as usual he started off to hunt. His 

 dog seemed to laiow where all the bears were. When he had killed 

 as manj^ as he wanted he went home. The old man said, " The chief 

 has been here, and he challenges you to a foot race." 



Wlien the time came for the race, the old man and his wife and 

 granddaughter started for the race course. The man had said to 

 him, " I will come as soon as I can make my preparations." The 

 second dog volimteered to take the man's place in the race, but the 

 little one said, "You stay at home and I will do the hunting"; and 

 to the man he said, " Take off your garments and let me have them." 

 When the dog had put on the garments, he looked just like the man. 

 The other dog said to the man, " We will go off hunting while he is 

 doing the running." The hunter and the dog were very happy, for 

 they knew that their little brother would win the race. 



When the people had assembled on the race course and the old man 

 saw his supposed son coming, he said, " See how well our son is pre- 



