606 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [kth. Ann. 32 



his uncle. Thereupon the old man leaped up, and seizing his war 

 flub, went across the lodge and struck the youth a blow on the head, 

 at the same time asking, " What is it that is causing you to see 

 marvels?" The youth quickly answered : " It has now ceased. Com- 

 pliance with what my dream commanded me is most difficult, and 

 the command is accompanied with an evil portent.'' The uncle at 

 once asked, " What did it command you to do? " The youth an- 

 swered, " It commanded me to drag you, my uncle, in a bark sledge 

 10 times around this lodge very early tomorrow morning. The evil 

 portent is that if this be not accomplished before midday some great 

 calamity shall befall your person." The uncle merely replied, " So let 

 it be." Tlien they retired to their respective beds. 



Very early the next morning the youth, Gadjis'dodo', arose and 

 said in a loud voice, " Oh, my imcle ! I am now going after the 

 bark sledge." The uncle answered, " So be it ; it is well." The 

 youth went out, and soon returning to the doorway, said, " Oh, my 

 uncle! I am now ready; let us go out and begin at once." With 

 these words he laid his bark sledge down in front of the doorway. 

 When his uncle came out the youth said, " You must undress your- 

 self." But the old man said, " Just let me remain dressed, for I am 

 so very old." His nephew, Gadjis'dodo', replied : " I did not say that. 

 So come, undress yourself." And he began at once to undress the 

 old man. When the old man was undressed he lay down on the 

 bark sledge, and the youth quickly bound him fast to it with bark 

 cords. The old man kept saying, " You are binding me too closely; 

 you have made the cords too taut." But his nephew replied, " Oh ! 

 I am a swift runner, you know, and I fear that you may fall oflP. 

 Oh ! uncle. I am now ready." 



Then the nephew started dragging the sledge very swiftly around 

 the lodge, singing as he ran. " I am dragging him on a bark sledge, 

 I am dragging him on a bark sledge; S'hogo""gwas, who is my 

 uncle, I am dragging him on a bark sledge; I am dragging him 

 on a bark sledge." The uncle kept saying. " Oh. my nephew ! the 

 sledge is now going too fast." The youth did not slacken his terrific 

 pace, however, and the sledge at times turned over and over. Mean- 

 while the old man kept saying, " Oh, my nephew ! do not be so rude 

 in this matter; it is going too fast." But the youth only answered, 

 " That is, however, my speed." AVhen they got back to the doorway 

 the youth asked, "Oh, my uncle! are you alive?" The uncle an- 

 swered, " I am alive." At this the youth at once started on the run, 

 singing the same song as that he used on the first trip. 



It now came to pass that all the great sorcerers and past masters 

 in wizard craft who dwelt on the borders of the land of this old man 

 said, " He has now overmatched his orenda, or magic power," mean- 



