HE^m]' TRADITIONS 451 



man said that he had not gone very far, but that he had proceeded as 

 far as he was able, and he told all he knew about the White Country. 



The people, not satisfied with his relation, said, " We must send 

 another man "; so they despatched a second man, who was gone four 

 months before he returned. The old man again called a council, at 

 which he asked him, "Did you go around the world?" "No, but I 

 went as far as I was able," answered the man. " Everything was as 

 it is here until I came to the White Country. I traveled two months 

 in the White Country and could go no farther. I could not have 

 lived if I had gone on." 



So the people sent a third man, who went on until he reached the 

 White Country, where he traveled longer than the second man. On 

 coming back he reported that the people there lived in white houses 

 and dressed in furs (looking like the animals). 



Encouraged by this, the old man sent a fourth man, who went on, 

 noticing everything, until he came to the White Country, whereupon 

 he crossed white rivers and white lakes, keeping on the run. He was 

 gone eight months. He said, " I returned more quickly than I went, 

 for in coming home I cut across in a straight line, reaching the green 

 land sooner than if I had come on the road by which I went." 



The old chief now sent a fifth messenger, who i-an nearly all the 

 time. He crossed the White Country and beyond found a place where 

 there was nothing but rocks, rocks, rocks. He had to climb very high 

 and then go down; so he went up and down until he wore off all his 

 moccasins. After being gone ten months he came back. At a council 

 called by the old man this fifth man said : " I have passed over the 

 whole country and have crossed rocky places. In returning I came 

 straight home. The route was not quite so long as the road by which 

 1 went. It can not be very far across the world." " How did you 

 know the way ? " asked the old man. " Oh ! I took notice of the trees. 

 The tops of the hemlocks lean toward the east, and our home is in 

 that direction, so I followed the bend of the hemlocks," was the man's 

 reply. 



The old man. the bald-headed chief, was learning something all 

 the time. Various people went, one after another: each came back 

 with a story slightly different from those told by the others, but still 

 no one satisfied the chief until one man said : " I will start and will 

 go around the world before I return." The old man looked at him : 

 he was very uncouth but strong. The chief said: "I think you will 

 do, and you may go." Thereupon the man went home to his people, 

 who held a council of their entire tribe. Each one of their best travel- 

 ers agreed to make a journey by himself in a different direction, and 

 afterward to come home and tell all he had seen to the one who had 

 promised the bald-headed man to go around the world. So the man 

 and his whole tribe journeyed for forty months. At the end of this 



