^3^] LEGENDS 503 



in all that he had done — this for the first time since they two had 

 lived together, and while the boy was growing up. 



The morning after this episode the old man made his usual prepa- 

 rations for going out to hunt, and said to his nephew, " You must 

 eat whenever you get hungry." He repeated this saying often. 



Then the boy began to sport, as he had been instructed to do by 

 his uncle. Wherever he threw the bear's foot he would attempt to 

 hit it by shooting at it. Throwing it here, he would shoot at it, and 

 throwing it there, he would shoot at it. When he hit it he would ex- 

 claim loudly " Gajihsondis," as he had been told to do. 



When it was the usual time for the uncle to return from his 

 hunting trip, the boy would say to himself, " My uncle will soon be 

 back now." So one day the youth said, " I believe I will prepare 

 food for my uncle against the time of his return." Going at once 

 to his uncle's couch, he drew from under it the bark case and took 

 therefrom the kettle, which was very small in size, and also an in- 

 .significant looking object contained in the latter, which his uncle 

 had scraped down to about one-half its original size. 



Next the lad blow on the kettle to increase its size, as he had seen 

 his imcle do, and after it had become sufficiently large he put 

 water into it and set it over the fire, musing to himself, " So be it. 

 I will now prepare food for my uncle, for he soon will return very 

 hungry. The lad now blew on the kettle the second time, whereupon 

 it increased slightly only in size; so he continued to blow on it 

 until finally it was large enough to suit him, when he said, " It is now 

 large enough." 



Then he began to scrape into the kettle from the small object, but 

 soon he exclaimed, "Oh, pshaw! it is not enough. I will scrape it 

 all into the kettle." Having done this he said, " Perhaps this food 

 is abundant in the place whence he obtains it, so I have used it all." 

 As he began to stir it briskly, using a paddle for the purpose, the 

 mush commenced to boil with great violence. At last, realizing that 

 the mush was rapidly increasing in quantity in the kettle, the boy 

 merely kept on stirring it. As soon as he began to blow on it to 

 cool it, the mush increased still more rapidly in bulk. While he 

 continued to stir and blow on the mush, it began to overflow and to 

 fill the room around the fire. Still he kept on as before (not real- 

 izing the effect of his blowing), until at last he had to run over 

 the couches at the side of the room in his anxiety to stir the mush, 

 for he was now thoroughly frightened at what he had done. As 

 he again blew on the mush flowing from the kettle it still continued 

 to increase in quantity imtil finally he was driven from the room by 

 the great mass, and had to climb upon the roof of the lodge. Here 

 he ran around while he vigorously stirred the mush, which, with 

 the kettle, entirely filled the lodge. 



