hewi'tt] legends 351 



Early the next morning the young man ate his breakfast of 

 l)archecl cornmeal, after which he started off, determined to find 

 his other uncle, who lived in a lodge. Reaching the place where 

 the trees were uprooted, he found his first uncle dead. But he kept 

 on his course until he came to an opening in the forest, in which 

 he saw a lodge with smoke rising from the smoke-hole. Somewhat 

 pleased, the youth said. " Well, I must go over there and take a look 

 into that lodge, for that must be the place where my second uncle 

 lives." Going directly to the lodge and opening the door-flap, he 

 peered in, and said to an old man sitting inside, " Well, uncle. I 

 have come to visit you." The old man calmly replied : " Come in, 

 nephew. I have a rule which all who come here to visit me follow; 

 that is, that we must run a race across this field and back again. 

 We bet our heads on this race." The youth answered, "Well, if 

 that is your rule, we will run the race at once." So they went out 

 of doors. Drawing a mark across the opening, the old man said to 

 the youth : " We will run to that red post over there at the end of 

 this opening. If I can get back and across this line first I will cut 

 off vour head; but if you return and cross it first you. shall cut off 

 my head. So be ready." At the line they stood side by side; then 

 the old man shouted, '' Now, go ! " They were off instantly and ran 

 to the post. When halfwaj- back to the line the youth suddenly fell 

 to the ground, a sharpened deer's horn having pierced his foot.^" 

 He sat down to pull it out. Having pulled it out, he threw it far 

 ahead, and it came down right in the path of the old man, who had 

 made considerable headway while the boy was sitting down. Now 

 the old man. stepping on the horn, fell to the ground. While he 

 was pulling out the horn, the youth, passing him, crossed the line 

 ahead of the uncle, saying, " Oh, my uncle ! I have won the race." 

 The uncle disputed this, but when he found that it was of no use 

 he begged for another smoke, but the nephew refusing him, he sub- 

 sided. The youth took out of his pouch a sharp flint Iniife and, 

 seizing his uncle's hair, cut off his head. Dragging the body into 

 the lodge, he burned both lodge and body. As the fire died out the 

 old man's head burst and out of it flew an owl. Then the youth 

 went home and told his grandmother what he had done. But she 

 replied, " You still have a third uncle, who is also a great sorcerer." 



The next morning the youth started off again, this time to visit 

 his third uncle. On his way he passed the uprooted trees and then 

 the burned lodge. Keejjing on, he saw some distance ahead a lodge 

 standing in a clearing in the forest. When he came to the edge 

 of the woods, he found that the opening was large and that the 

 lodge stood on the farther side of it. This, he thought, must be 

 the lodge of his third uncle. When he reached the lodge, he looked 

 in it, saving to a man sitting inside, " Well, uncle, I am here to 



