280 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [bth. ann. 32 



going, finally the elder said, " I will let you go part of the way, but 

 1 can not let you go all the way, for that would he too much for you 

 to undertake." So they started, the youth dressed in the turkey- 

 bkin garb following his brother far into the forest, whereupon the 

 elder said, " I think this is as far from home as you should go ; now 

 you would better return thither." So the youth, prancing around 

 like a turkey, went home. The elder brother had noticed that lately 

 the youth never removed his turkey-skin robe, wearing it even at 

 night. Not liking to have the little fellow wear this robe all the 

 time, he asked him to take it off when retiring for the night. But 

 the youth replied, " You made it for me, and I like to wear it con- 

 stantly." He always gave this same answer. As he dearly loved his 

 younger brother, the elder did not order him to tal\e it off. 



The youth played just as turkeys play, and when he saw wild 

 turkeys he would imitate the noises made by them ; he was learning 

 all the habits of the turkey, and no longer wore feathers on his head ; 

 his voice began to change and it did not sound to his brother as it 

 formerly had. The elder brother wondered about and worried over 

 this conduct of the youth. At last he commanded the younger one 

 to remove his turkey-skin robe. He replied, " I can not take it off, 

 so you will have to take it off of me." On trying to do this, the 

 elder brother found •lie could not remove the robe, which had grown 

 to the little fellow's body, so he let it alone. 



The brothers always ate together when encamped in the same lodge. 

 One day the brother with the turkey-skin robe declared, " I will now 

 go with you, but you must be strictly on your guard, for something 

 strange is about to happen." The youth was very wise; his counsel 

 and advice seemed superior to the opinions of any other man and 

 beyond the comprehension of his elder brother. Once when the elder 

 brother, returning, failed to find his brother at home he went to 

 bed. But in the morning he heard his brother on the roof of the 

 lodge making the noises which turkeys make at the break of day, 

 whereupon he was convinced that the youth had really turned into a 

 turkey. This conviction made him feel vei"y strange. Soon he heard 

 his brother jump to the ground and come into the lodge. On enter- 

 ing he exclaimed: "Brother! brother! a woman is coming. I think 

 she desires to see you, but you must be exceedingly cautious, for 

 something may happen to us. By all means you must not accom- 

 pany her if she asks you to do so; but if you do go I siiall follow 

 you." That day when the woman came she saw in front of the 

 lodge what she took to be a turkey, and eyed it carefully. Thereupon 

 the youth acted as much as possible like a turkey in order to deceive 

 her the more completely. On entering the lodge the woman found 

 the elder brother, whom she had come to take away, and said to him, 

 " 1 have come purposely to have you accompany me home." In reply- 



