^^Ew'^] LEGENDS 547 



means, the A'oung woman, whose anger was thoroughly aroused by 

 the youth's refusal to be seduced by her, went out of the lodge into 

 a dense thicket, and, baring her legs, she plunged into the midst of 

 briers and thorns, which lacerated them very badly. In this condi- 

 tion she returned to the lodge to await the coming of her husband. 

 AVhen her husband and his brothers and sister had returned the 

 young woman kept her peace for a while, although she pretended 

 to be troubled in mind. But after they had eaten their supper and 

 had retired for the night she told her husband a story of another 

 attempted assault on her by his youngest brother, and to confirm this 

 she showed him in the ill-lighted room her torn and blood-stained 

 legs and thighs. Her husband made no reply, although he had de- 

 cided what to do. 



The next da\' after their morning meal all except the young wife 

 and the recluse left the lodge on their daily trips into the forest, 

 the brothers to hunt and the sister to procure bark and fuel for 

 the fire. AVhen the brothers had reached their rendezvous in the 

 foi'est the eldest told the rest what his wife reported to him, and 

 also that she had shown him her bleeding legs and thighs in con- 

 firmation of her story. After a short parley, the brothers solemnly 

 decided that it was their duty to kill their youngest brother; so they 

 returned to the lodge that night with the firm determination to 

 carry out their resolution. The next morning, after they had eaten 

 their breakfast, they informed him of their decision to kill him in 

 order to put a stop to his scandalous conduct toward his brother's 

 wife. The youth, knowing that he was innocent of the charge and 

 that the young woman had falsely accused him to his brothers, 

 calmly lay down on his couch in silence that his brothers might 

 kill him. 



First, the eldest brother solemnly approached the couch, and 

 drawing his flint knife from his pouch he passed it across the throat 

 of his youngest brother; whereupon he was astonished to see that 

 the knife had made no cut. After sawing away with his knife 

 until he had worn it out, he abandoned the attempt with grave mis- 

 givings that all was not well with his brother. Then the rest of 

 the brothers tried in turn to cut the throat of the youngest, but in 

 this they failed completely. When they fully realized that they 

 had been foiled by some unknown power, the recluse said to his 

 astonished brothers: "None of you possesses the orenda (magic 

 power) to enable you to kill me. My sister alone possesses such 

 potency; hence she can kill me. When she has done so, you shall 

 build a log lodge of massive construction, and you shall put over 

 it a roof of the largest logs, so that the lodge shall be entirely secure. 

 But Ijefore putting in place the roof you shall lay my body in the 

 lodge and also leave my sister alive therein. Further, you shall 



