352 SENECA FJCTION, LEGENDS, AND MVXHS [eth. anx.32 



visit you." Tlie man replied : " Oh nephew ! I am ghul you have 

 come. I have a game to phiy. Everyone who comes here plays it 

 with me. We bet our heads on the issue of the game." The youth 

 i-eplied, " Well, uncle, what is this game ? " " We hide right here 

 in this room," answered the uncle. "I will hide, and if you do not 

 find me before midday, you lose, and I will cut off your head ; but 

 if you find me, you will win, and then you shall cut off my head." 

 The youth replied, " It is well." Then the uncle said : " Now you 

 must lie down here on the ground, and I will cover you with an 

 elk' skin. When I am ready I will let you know." Thereupon the 

 youth lay down, but after he had been carefully covered with the 

 elk skin by his uncle, changing himself into a woodtick, he got on 

 his uncle's neck. When the old man said, " I am ready," the wood- 

 tick called out, " I have found you, my uncle." The old man thought 

 the voice came from behind, so he hid again. Again the woodtick 

 called out, " I have found you, my uncle." The old man looked 

 everywhere, but he could not see his nephew ; he saw no one. Once 

 more the old man hid and was discovered. Thus he kept on until 

 midday, as, was his right. The old man. thinking all the time 

 that the youth was still under the elk skin, wondered how he could 

 find him so easily. He frequently ran outside to see by the sun 

 how near midday it was; then he would hurry back to hide. At 

 last he decided to hide outside the lodge, but the youth called out, 

 " That will not do, uncle ; you said that we must hide in the lodge." 

 It now being nearly midday, the old man was frightened, so with 

 a long pole he pushed the sun off' toward the east. Then running 

 in, he hid again. But the youth shouted, " I have found you. my 

 imcle." Again the sun was nearly overhead, and again the old 

 man, running out, with the long pole pushed ■'" the sun toward the 

 east and kept on hiding, but without success. He was discovered 

 each time. At last when the sun was directly at midday, directly 

 " at mid-sky," the youth called out to his victim : " Oh, uncle I I have 

 found you. I have won the game." Thereupon the old man begged 

 for one more smoke, but the youth, knowing his purpose, would not 

 let him have another. Instead, he proceeded to cut off his head: 

 then he dragged the old man's body into the lodge, where he burned 

 it. When the flesh had burned from the head of the old man. the 

 head burst open and out flew an owl. Looking around this place, 

 the youth saw large heaps of bones of persons whom the old man, 

 having deceived, had killed and eaten. 



Then the youth went home and told his grandmother what he 

 had 'done. Her only reply was: -'My grandson, you still have a 

 fourth uncle, who is more evil and more potent in orenda than 

 the others. I advise you not to go near him, for I greatly fear 



