286 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS Ieth. ann.sz 



by means of conversation carried on through the partition. Each' 

 went in and out of his own part of the lodge whenever he liived, but 

 never dared to cross the threshold of the other's room. 



After a time the nephew, a handsome young man, discovered his 

 uncle's true nature — he was a man-eater, an Ongwe las. 



One day a woman came to the nephew's room. The next morning 

 at dawn the uncle exclaimed, " My nephew has two ways of breath- 

 ing." The yoimg man, speaking to himself, said: '' My uncle is mis- 

 taken. I am only talking to myself." "Oh!." said the old man, 

 " My nephew can not deceive me. There are two in his room, and I 

 am glad that some wild game has come to visit him." 



The old man then said that he was going out to hunt. When the 

 uncle had gone the young man said to his wife: "My uncle knows 

 that you are here, and now you must heed my words, or he will kill 

 and eat you. Three other women have been here before you. He 

 killed and devoured them all, for fhey disregarded my warnings. 

 Now, before I go, I will bring water and wood and everything else 

 you want, so you will not need to go out. I will also get a vessel 

 for your use. If you go out you are lost; my uncle will surely kill 

 you. As soon as I leave the lodge, he will come back, for he knows 

 you are here." After he left the door, the young man turned back 

 and again warned his wife not to disobey him. 



The moment the husband was out of sight in the woods the uncle 

 came to the door. Having the power of commanding things to be 

 done which he did not see, the uncle said, " Let it be necessai-y for 

 the woman to go out." When he saw that she did not come out he 

 said, " Let the water with which she is cooking boil away." The 

 water boiled away, but as she had plenty more she did not. go out. 

 Seeing this, the uncle became terribly angry, and said, " I will get 

 her out in one way or another." Nom' the old uncle was a man-eater, 

 and the nephew had discovered that instead of hunting beasts and 

 birds he hunted human beings, and that every man or woman he 

 met, he killed, and having brought home the body on his shoulders, he 

 cooked and ate the flesh. The nephew hunted game, for the uncle 

 had always made him find his own food. 



This day, as the young man was returning, he saw smoke rising 

 from his end of the lodge, whereupon he thought, "All is well; my 

 uncle has not been able to kill my wife." When he entered he 

 thanked her for her obedience. In the evening about dusk the}' heard 

 the old man come in and knew that he had brought nothing. He 

 called out : " What luck has my nephew had to-day i " " I have had 

 good luck," replied the nephew. The uncle said, " I found nothing." 

 Now he muttered to himself about his nephew, blaming him for hidx 

 ing his uncle's game in his part of the lodge, and saying that he 



