HE^i'S] LEGENDS 497 



let it be." and he started for the place where stood the temporary 

 camp of his elder brother and himself. 



When he arrived there he found his brother at home. As soon as 

 nis elder brother looked at him he said, "You look very dejected; 

 possibly you are ill." The younger brother said : " I am not at all ill. 

 Perhaps the reason why I am looking as I do is that I saw a strange 

 man. who said to me, 'Are you the person who keeps on saying " I 

 am swift of foot ? " ' I replied that I am the person. Thereupon the 

 stranger said, ' I will run you a race just to test your words. So to- 

 morrow when the sun will be at midday here in this very place you 

 and I must again stand, and from this place you and I must start.' 

 Moreover, he told me that I must inform you, my elder brother. So 

 I have now informed you." And he continued to sit with his head 

 bowed as if in deep trouble. 



Then the elder brother said : " Oh ! my younger brother, you and I 

 are brothers, and we are about to die because of your doing that 

 which I have frequently forbidden you doing, namely, your continu- 

 ally saying, ' I am fleet-footed.' I kept saying to you that your talk- 

 ing thus would bring us misfortune. Now that form of talking has 

 this day severed our minds one from the other." Thereuiwn the 

 elder brother began to shed tears of bitter grief, saying between 

 paroxysms of weeping: "Perhaps that thing with which you have 

 made an agi'eement to run a foot race with your life as a wager is not 

 at all a human being. Verily, no one knows of what abominable spe- 

 cies of monsters it comes." 



Seemingly undismayed, the younger bi-other replied. "Oh! my 

 elder brother, now you must make me two pairs of moccasins, and I 

 shall take with me also two ears of parched corn, which I shall place 

 in my bosom." So the elder brother sat up the entire night to make 

 the two pairs of moccasins which his younger brother required in his 

 race on the morrow. 



In the morning the two brothers conversed together. The elder 

 said : " When you start away I shall go to notify our friends in their 

 encampment: for perhaps the person with whom you are to run a 

 foot race is not a human being. Perhaps, too, you are about to die, so 

 you and I may be now talking together for the last time." Then 

 they parted there. 



The younger brother went to the place where he had agreed to be at 

 midday for the beginning of the two days' foot race. In due time he 

 arrived at the spot, and he was surprised to see standing there the 

 strange man who had challenged him to the race, and who now ad- 

 dressing him said, " Now, truly, you have ai-rived on time." In reply 

 Hayanowe (" He-the-Fleet-footed ") said. " I have arrived all right, 

 and I am ready for the race." To this the stranger answered, 

 94615°— IG 32 



