^^«J,'^-.] LEGENDS 597 



Very early in the morning the j'outh arose and, after making his 

 usual preparations, said to his uncle : " The time has now come lor 

 us to begin." The uncle replied : " So be it ; I am ready." While they 

 were taking their places the old man remarked : " Verily, you must 

 give me a clue to the ' word ' of your dream." But the nephew 

 answered: "That is not at all the custom in such cases, and it is 

 certain that the reason it is called ' the seeking of one's dream word ' 

 is that no clue shall be given." At this reply the old man exclaimed 

 with mock sm-prise, " IFm".' this is indeed an astonishing thing"; 

 but he failed to make his nephew agree to give him a small clue to 

 the thing he had dreamed. 



Thereupon the old man began to ask the questions necessary to 

 ascertain the dream desire of his nephew. He asked: "It ma_y be 

 that you desire my pouch?" His nephew answered: "No; that is 

 not what I desire." The old man continued : " It may be that you 

 desire, possibly, my raccoon-skin robe?" The answer came: "No; 

 that is not what I desire." The ne.xt question was: "It may be that 

 you desire fle.sh of the bear?" In disgust the nephew answered: 

 " ir«". No.no! I do not want that." The uncle ventured :" It may 

 be, it is probable, you desire the flesh of the raccoon ? " The youth 

 answered: "No; that is not what the dream indicated." Another 

 question from the uncle: "It may be, perhaps, that you desire the 

 flesh of the turkey?" His nephew said: "No; that is not what is 

 required." Again the uncle asked : " It may be, perhaps, that you 

 desire the flesh of the deer ? " The nephew rejoined : " No ; that is 

 not what the dream indicated." Meanwhile the uncle and his 

 nephew kept walking up and down in their respective places. Again 

 the old man asked : " It may be, perhaps, that you desire my war 

 club ? " But his nephew replied : " No ; that is not what I desire." 

 At last the old man spoke, saying : " Well, what, indeed, will take 

 place? I moreover have the thing, but I would like to know what 

 I have asked? " The nephew answered in disgust: " IFw", you know 

 that it is not the custom that there should be a lot of talk about such 

 things when one is seeking the ' dream word ' of another." He did 

 not give any intimation to his uncle as to what his dream had ihdi- 

 cated to him, but he kept looking up at the sun to see how near 

 midday it was. On resuming the struggle of questioning and reply- 

 ing, the uncle said: "It may be, perhaps, that you desire what I 

 prize very highly — my fetish, which is very fine and with which I 

 hunt," at the same time showing it to his nephew to cause him to 

 desire it. But the nephew answered merely : " No ; that is not what 

 my dream indicated to me." It was then nearly midday. The old 

 man, going to and fro and stopping now and then to ask the ques- 

 tions, would hang his head, saying to himself : " I wonder what can be 

 the thing that my nephew desires." Addressing the youth, he said: 



