264 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. ann.32 



young man, who arose and undressed himself, and laying his gar- 

 ments in a safe place, carefully covered them with hemlock boughs. 

 The stranger had an old skin robe with the fur all worn off, which 

 he told the young man to use as a covering for the night; this he did. 

 Keturning to his side of the fire, the self-styled uncle began again 

 to tell stories, to which the young man responded for a while, after 

 which he again became silent. Knowing that the young man was 

 asleep, the stranger went to the place where he had concealed his 

 garments and, after removing his own, put them on, leaving his own 

 soiled things in their stead. The stranger knew where the young man 

 was going, and knew also the orenda (magic power) of the garments 

 and pouch belonging to the latter, so he had determined to secure 

 them for his own use. In the morning when the young man awoke 

 he discovered that he was alone, that his garments and pouch were 

 gone, and that in their stead remained the well-worn and soiled 

 things of the wily old stranger who had visited him the night before. 

 Naturally, he was sad and deeply humiliated, but he determined to 

 don the shabbj' garments of the stranger and to finish his journey 

 to the lodge of the chief. 



When the old man was dressed in the garments and headdress of 

 the j'oung man, he looked well, so when the sisters saw him coming, 

 they said, "At last, our man is coming to us." But on looking more 

 closely at him, the younger sister, becoming suspicious, decided that 

 he was not the man they had expected. Hence, when he entered the 

 lodge, leaving the side of her sister, she went over to the other side 

 of the fire. The man took his seat beside her elder sister, who said 

 to her : " Why do you leave me now ? You have been washing that he 

 would come, and now that he has come, you leave and go to the other 

 side of the fire." The younger sister, however, remained firm in her 

 conviction that he was not the right man. The chief notified the 

 people to go to the lodge of public assembly to meet his new son-in- 

 law and to see him smoke. In response to this invitation all the peo- 

 ple assembled. The man arrayed himself in the stolen garments for 

 the purpose of convincing the people and the chief that he was pos- 

 sessed of great orenda; but for him the times were out of joint and 

 ill-omened. A beautiful piece of buckskin was spread on each side 

 of him to receive the expected wampum. But the duck that sur- 

 mounted the stolen headdress appeared to be lifeless, for its head 

 hung limp. Drawing the pipe out of the pouch and filling it with 

 dried red-willow bark, the man told the manikin to bring an ember 

 to light the pipe. The manikin, however, did not move. He spoke 

 to it a second time, but it did not move. Then he said to the people, 

 " ^ly manikin is shy because of the great concourse of people." 

 Reaching out, the man took an ember which he placed in the hand of 



