BBwni] LEGENDS 403 



tops of the tallest trees which grew in it could just be seen below the 

 brink. Then, upsetting the basket, down the lad went headlong into 

 the depths, but he fell slowly, for he had orenda (magic power) 

 and hence came to the ground unhurt. But he could find no way of 

 escape. The sides of the ravine were like a wall and he was alone. 



Meanwhile the boy's uncle waited and waited, saying to himself: 

 " It is late. Something has happened, for my nephew is not coming 

 home tonight. I must fintl out what the trouble is." On taking 

 down the flute he found the mouthpiece bloody,''^" whereupon he said, 

 " They have overmatched my poor nephew in orenda, and trouble 

 has come to him." As there was not much blood on the mouth- 

 piece, he thought that perhaps the lad would free himself and come 

 back in a few days. 



Xow the nephew lay down among the rocks in the deep, blind 

 ravine and tried to sleep, but he could not. All at once he heard a 

 great bird coming, and as it swept past it bit a mouthful of flesh out 

 of his arm. Spitting on the arm he rubbed it and thus cured the bite. 

 When the bird had been gone .some time, he heard it coming again, 

 and as it flew past in the opposite direction, it took a large bite out 

 of his other arm. This he cured in the same manner as before. 

 When daylight came he arose and on looking around he saw skele- 

 tons on every side. Two men were barely alive. The lad said to 

 himself, '' I suppose that I shall die here in this same way." 



That night the boy's imcle saw on looking at the flute that the 

 mouthpiece was bloodier than before. He then gave up his nephew 

 as lost; sitting down at the hearth's edge he cried and scattered ashes 

 on his head in despair. 



The second night the bird twice flew past the lad, each time 

 taking a piece of flesh out of one of his arms. Thereupcm the boy 

 would spit on the arm, thus healing it as he did on the first evening. 

 When the huge bird had gone he fell asleep and dreamed that he 

 heard an old woman's voice saying : " Grandson, I have come to 

 help 3'ou. You think you are going to die, but you are not ; I will 

 save you. Just at sunrise in the morning you will vomit, and if you 

 throw up anything that looks like a hemlock leaf you may know 

 that 3'ou will be saved. Pick up the leaf and stick it in the ground. 

 Then sing, and as you sing the leaf will become a tree. Sit on one of 

 the limbs and keep on singing. The tree will gi-ow until it reaches 

 beyond the top of the bank. Then jump oft' and run away." In 

 the morning the boy vomited as the old woman of the dream had 

 predicted, and he found the small hemlock leaf. Sticking this in 

 the ground near the wall of the ravine he began to sing. The leaf 

 soon grew into a tree, and as he sang the tree grew higher and 

 higher. He did not get on the tree but remained below singing until 

 the tree was higher than the brink above. 



