670 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. an.n. 32 



manship, and that as he himself had been adjudged the winner of 

 the contest and also of the chief's daughter, he felt constrained to 

 thank him for thus considering him worthy of these great honors. 

 The chief replied by bidding him to repair to his lodge to claim 

 his bride. This Djengo"se' did. 



When the competitors and suitors saw that Djefigo"se' had won 

 the prize for which they had striven for so many days, they wei-e 

 greatly chagrined, and, moved by jealousy and malice, they went 

 forth and secured the aid of sorcerers to compass the death of their 

 more fortunate competitor. The sorcerers were asked to permit 

 Djengo"se' to live with his wife until the dawn of the following 

 day, when a messenger of death should pierce his heart so that he 

 should die. 



AVith a light heart Djeiigo"se' repaired to the nuptial bed of his 

 newly won spouse and they two were very happy. But at the dawn 

 of day on the morrow he expired in his wife's arms. Stricken with 

 grief, the widowed bride, divining the cause of her affliction, went 

 out of the lodge to see how near daybreak it was and lest her 

 lamentations would disturb the repose of the spirit of her dead 

 husband. She was not afraid . . . for she was alone in the 

 yard adjoining the lodge. Presently she heard the door, which she 

 had just closed after her, open, and looking back again she saw her 

 husband come out of the lodge and walk briskly past her without 

 speaking to her. At .once she followed him as rapidly as she could, 

 but she could not overtake him. She did not become weary in her 

 pursuit, feeling no fatigue nor hunger. She kept up her pursuit all 

 that night, all the next day, and all of the following night. Thus, 

 for three nights and days she kept closely on the trail of her hus- 

 band. He had, of course, outwalked her, and so she could not see 

 him on the trail ahead of her. 



At dawn on the fourth day she suddenly came to a narrow passage- 

 way *-^ in which stood two men, who accosted her, saying : " What 

 do you here? What brings you into this place, seeing that you are 

 not dead? This is not the land of the living." She quickly an- 

 swered them : " I am following the tracks of my husband, which ap- 

 pear to lead through this passageway; I am seeking him." As they 

 seemed to be not satisfied with her I'eply, she related to them in de- 

 tail what had happened to her and her husband. AVhen the men had 

 learned her storj' they decided at once to aid her, for no one who 

 had not seen death could pass without their permission freely given. 

 They informed her that some distance farther on there was another 

 passageway, guarded by two fierce panthers, which would rend her 

 in pieces unless she was pi-ovided with the usual toll. So they gave 

 her two roasted pheasants, of enormous size, saying: "When you 

 reach the next passageway throw one of these to each of the pan- 



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