568 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. ann. 32 



During the festivals the envious young men conspired to put 

 this unsuspecting youth out of the way. In carrying out this reso- 

 lution they invited him to accompany them to an island on which 

 they assured him there was an abundance of game, and that they 

 would return in time for the festivities on the morrow. So he con- 

 sented to go with them to this place, in which they had agreed among 

 themselves to leave him to die of hunger and exposure. On leaving 

 the village they went to a large lake containing an island, from which 

 the mainland was not visible in any direction. After landing on 

 the island the party dispersed, ostensibly the better to hunt. Hav- 

 ing previously agreed on their method of procedure, the conspirators 

 waited until they saw that the youth had gotten some distance into the 

 forest. Thereupon they returned at once to the landing place and 

 stole silently away, leaving their victim to die from hunger or to 

 be devoured by unknown monsters which, it was said, infested the 

 island. 



Their intended victim kept on hunting, however, and finding only 

 two partridges, killed them and carried them along with him. When 

 it became so dark that he could not see, he returned to the landing 

 place to seek for his supposed friends, only to find that they had gone 

 off, leaving him to his fate. Seeking the tallest pine tree that he 

 could find, the young hunter climbed very high, to a point where 

 the limbs were closely interlocked. Having cut off a number of over- 

 hanging branches, he placed them on the top of those on which he 

 desired to rest, thus forming a fairly comfortable resting place. 

 Seating himself on this perch of boughs, he soon began to doze. 



Some time during the night he was roused from his slumbers by 

 the barking of dogs, which were following his trail. These belonged 

 to a Son of the Winter God, who was hunting for human flesh to 

 eat. Finally the dogs came up to the tree in which the youth was 

 concealed, whereupon he threw down to them at once one of the par- 

 tridges which he had been fortunate enough to kill. Seizing this, 

 the dogs went off fighting for it. Shortly they retui'ned to the tree 

 and began to bay at him. At this he threw to them the other par- 

 tridge, with the result that they again went off as before. Seeing the 

 dogs eating what he believed they had treed, the Son of the Winter 

 God called them off to another part of the island, and they did not 

 return hither. 



In the morning the youth, descending from his lofty perch, went 

 to the shore of the island at the point where the party had made a 

 landing. Finding no boat there he struck his breast several smart 

 blows, which caused his stomach to give up a canoe no larger than a 

 plum pit, provided with a pair of oars. Several sharp blows on 

 the diminutive canoe with his enchanted arrows immediately caused 

 it to assume the proportions of an ordinary canoe. The same treat- 



