HEwS] LEGENDS 551 



the lodge of the sister and her blind brother. He remained over- 

 night with his wife, but left the lodge at the dawn. Before leaving, 

 however, he assured his wife that he would return at night. Ac- 

 cordingly, he came to the lodge that night also and remained with 

 his wife until the dawn, when he departed as he had done on the 

 previous morning. 



Thus he came and departed for seven nights. Then he said to hi? 

 wife: "It is my wish that you return with me to my mother's 

 lodge — my home." His wife, knowing well who he was and who his 

 mother was. readily consented to accompany him; by so doing she 

 was faithfully carrying out the policy which her blind brother had 

 advised her to pursue toward him. On their way homeward, while 

 the husband was leading the trail, they came to a point where the 

 path divided into two divergent ways which, however, after form- 

 ing an oblong loop, reunited, forming once more only a single path. 

 Here the woman was surprised to see her husband's body divide into 

 two forms, one following the one path and the other the other trail. 

 She was indeed greatly puzzled by this phenomenon, for she was at 

 a loss to know which of the figures to follow as her husband. For- 

 tunately, she finally resolved to follow the one leading to the right. 

 After following this path for some distance, the wife saw that the 

 two trails reunited and also that the two figures of her husband 

 coalesced into one. It is said that this circumstance gave rise to the 

 name of this strange man, which was Degiyane'geii' ; that is to say, 

 " They are two trails running parallel." Not long after the two 

 reached the husband's home, the residence of the notorious witch, 

 Gaho"'dji'da"ho"k, who welcomed her daughter-in-law to her lodge. 

 In due course the wife of Degiyane'geii', gave birth to male twins. 

 The great witch, who acted as midwife to her daughter-in-law, cast 

 one of the children under a bed and the other under another, and 

 then nursed her daughter-in-law and instructed her as to her conduct 

 during convalescence. 



Some days elapsed, when the inmates of the lodge were surprised 

 to hear sounds issuing from beneath the beds under which the twins 

 had been cast. At once the great witch, making two small balls of 

 deer hair and buckskin and also two lacrosse ball clubs, gave a ball 

 and a club to each of the twins. At once each of the twins began to 

 play ball beneath the bed under which he lived, and it was not long 

 before each of the little boys was seen to pass fi'om under his bed 

 beneath that of the other. Thus they amtised themselves the entire 

 day, but at night each of the twins returned under his own bed. 

 Day after day the twins visited back and forth. There came a day, 

 however, when one of the twins tossed his ball up in such wise that 

 it flew out of the doorway of the lodge. Thereupon the two young- 

 sters followed the ball so nimbly and swiftly that they were able to 



