'^^^l^] FICTION 261 



heard Avhat the chief said. They could devise no way of saving 

 themselves or their people. The people in the settlement, bewildered 

 with fright, ran from place to place, not knowing what to do. The 

 Stone Coats were near the village, when the chief said, " Let us halt 

 and rest a little." 



The two friends sat on the bank of the river, on the leeward side 

 so that they could not be scented. All at once they saw a man 

 with a smiling face. When he came up, he said : " I will help you ; 

 I will save your people. I will conquer the Stone Coats, for Hawen- 

 niyo has sent me to aid you. I will go alone and fight for yonr 

 people." Telling the people who were running for their lives not 

 to be afraid if they heard a frightful noise, with a smiling face he 

 went down the bank into the valley where the Stone Coat army had 

 halted to rest. Soon a terrible noise was heard, as of a desperate 

 battle, and the two men, who had been commanded not to move, but 

 to sit and listen, could see steam rising above the hill from the sweat 

 of the Stone Coats."^ Then the sounds came only at intervals and 

 were not so loud, and finally they ceased altogether. The watchers 

 saw the stranger with the smiling face coming up the hill. He said: 

 '■ I am thankful that I have destroyed them. The Stone Coats are 

 all dead, and the i^eople now alive will live in peace. I am ap- 

 pointed by Hawenniyo to open the way and the paths to his peo- 

 ple on earth. Wherever there is sorcery among your people, I am 

 always sent against it. We are sure to kill all we pursue. If a witch 

 crawls into a tree, we shoot the tree until it opens and the witchcraft 

 comes out. It is I whom you always hear called Lightning or 

 Hinon," i. e.. Thunder. 



He left them, whereupon the two men went to the place where 

 the Stone Coat army had been. Only piles of stone remained. The 

 stones found all over the earth are remains of this battle and the 

 killing of the Stone Coats. Thus, it was through the two trans- 

 formed young men that our forefathers were saved from death and 

 enabled to- live to a great age. They foretold what was to be as it 

 is today, and at the present time we hold to the teaching of these 

 men. who had their religion from the upper world. 



49. Dagwanoenyeist 



Once some men in a village were preparing to go on a hunting 

 expedition. Now, in the old times, as far as can be traced back to 

 the forefathers, some men had luck and others had not. 



Now, in the village in which these men lived was a young man 

 who was somewhat foolish — not strong in mind — as people thought. 

 Knowing that the men were getting ready, he went to one and an- 

 other asking leave to go with them, but no one would let him go, 

 for thev considered him foolish, and hence unluckv. 



