402 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTUS [kth.ann. 32 



he had rested from hunting he played on his flute and again it said, 

 "I shall kill an elk tomorrow," a different kind of animal from that 

 of the previous day. The next day the lad killed exactly what the 

 flute said. 



The morning after he w-ent out he wondered why he must go so far 

 toward the south ; he made up his mind to go northward ; so making a 

 circuit, he was soon north of his lodge. Finding tracks of game ani- 

 mals, he followed them until he came to a broad opening. Here he 

 ran after the elks, which he saw in a circle in the woods; at last he 

 came out in the opening again, where he had started. All at once he 

 heard a woman's voice calling, "Here! Hold on!" but he ran on 

 at full speed after the elk. Around again he went after these ani- 

 mals. When he got back to the same place a second time the woman's 

 voice called out, " Wait and rest ! " Looking around, he saw the 

 woman sitting on a fallen tree, whereupon he stopped. She said to 

 him : " Sit down here and rest. I know you are tired ; when you 

 have rested j'ou can run again after the elk." He sat down near her, 

 and pretty soon she took his head on her laiees. He had very long 

 hair — so long that he kept it tied up ; whenever he let it down, it 

 swept the ground. He tied one of his hairs to a root in the ground, 

 but the woman did not see him do this. After a while he fell asleep, 

 whereupon she put him into a basket; swinging this on her back she 

 stai'ted off on a run. Rising soon into the air, she traveled verv fast. 



The hair which had been made fast to a root stretched till it would 

 stretch no longer; then they could go no farther, for the liair pulled 

 them back to the place from which they had started. The lad woke 

 up, and the woman said to herself, " I think there is some witch- 

 craft about you ; we will try again." Once more she began to search 

 in his hair. At last he closed his eyes, and she asked, ''Are you 

 asleep?" "No," he replied. She contimied untying his liair, again 

 inquiring, "Are you asleep ? " He did not answer this time, for he 

 was indeed asleep. Putting him into the basket and flinging it on 

 her back, she ran off very fast, after a while rising in the air. When 

 she had gone a long distance she came down by the bank of a river; 

 rousing the lad, she asked, " Do you know this place? " " Yes," said 

 he; "I have fished in this river." "Well," said she, "hold your head 

 down, and let me look at it again." She took his head on her knees, 

 and after a while spoke to him, Init he did not answer, for he was 

 once more asleep. Putting him into the basket, she went up in the 

 air, coming down at last on an island. Then, rousing the youth, she 

 asked, "Do you know this place?" "Yes; my uncle and I used to 

 come here often," he replied (he had never been there, but he wished 

 to deceive her). Again she put him to sleep, afterward taking him 

 up in the air in her basket. Finally, removing the basket from her 

 back, she laid it on the edge of a ravine, which was so deep that the 



