416 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (ktii. axn. sz 



Some time after the woman had taken the skull awaj', the elder 

 brother told the younger that he was going to the place to which the 

 women had carried it. While on the way there the elder brother 

 asked himself the question, "How shall I disguise myself?" He 

 finally concluded to transform himself into an aged man ; so, making 

 the necessary change, he became a wretched-looking old man. On 

 his journey he reached at last a place where there was a large as- 

 sembly of people, some of whom came to him, saying, " We will aid 

 you"; but he replied, "I do not want to mingle with the crowd, for 

 I am too old to do so; but I shall lie down a little way from the 

 assembly." While lying there he discovered \yhat he wanted— 

 information concernmg the woman who had carried off the skull, 

 He learned that she was there, and that she was ill and suffering gre.it 

 agony. On inquiring casually what was the trouble with the woman, 

 he ascertained from another woman that she had been shot with an 

 arrow, which was still in her body, and that no one had been found 

 who could draw it out. She was in terrible distress from it. Every 

 one in the assemblage was asked to attempt to draw out the arrow, 

 but no one was able to do it. Finally, the pretended old man was 

 asked to make a trial of his power and reluctantly consented to make 

 the attempt ; but he only feigned to be averse to performing this act. 

 So, bearing him to the place where the woman lay in a lodge, they 

 brought her on a piece of skin and laid her near him. Thereupon the 

 old man, seizing the arrow with his teeth, drew it out little by little. 

 At this, some who stood by, exclaiming that it was almost out, seized 

 the arrow to extract it the more quickly, but it shot back into the 

 woman's body as soon as they had touched it. With one accord they 

 exclaimed, " We are sorry for what we have done." Seizing it with 

 his teeth, the old man again drew the arrow slowly forth. Each time 

 that he stopped to rest he cautioned the people with the words: "Do 

 not touch it. Keep your hands off of it." Then he would say, " I 

 will try again." After a while he got the arrow out. Then he said, 

 " This is my arrow." The woman arose from the skin and was well. 



The old man was taken back to the spot where he had lain in the 

 first place, although the people asked him to enter some lodge. He 

 told them, however, that he preferred to remain outside in the place 

 which he had first chosen. They brought him food and drink. Now, 

 the woman who was cured went to her own lodge. 



Then the old man asked the people to make him a present of corn, 

 bean, and squash seed, which he desired to plant the next spring. 

 So they brought to him the seed carefully wrapped in a skin. But 

 he did not leave the place where he first lay down. After a while 

 he opened the bundle and, calling the mice, said : " Little creatures, 

 here is enough for you to eat. I desire to have you dig a tunnel 

 underground to that woman's lodge, so that you may go under her 



