HBwSJ LEGENDS 637 



ure attractive in person, in manner, and in her words and actions. 

 The brother questioned her, asking her wlience she came and whither 

 she was going. The woman replied: " I have come from the south to 

 assist you and your people in obtaining food for your needs. I 

 came because my mother sympathizes greatly with her people, and it 

 is she who has sent me here to become the wife of your elder son." 

 Answering her, the man said : " It seems very strange that your 

 mother should send you l;iere, but of course she probably knows that 

 we are in despair, expecting nothing but death from hunger and 

 starvation." By way of reply to this the young woman asked : '' Will 

 you grant me the pleasure of having my mothers request fulfilled ? " 

 The man, whose mind had already begun to hope for better things 

 for his people, replied, '* Yes; her request will be granted, and you 

 will become the wife of my son." She did become his wife, and 

 they lived as husband and wife. 



The bride wife the next morning said to her brother-in-law : " You 

 must have the corn bins cleared out and ready, just as if you expected 

 to use them for storing corn." The brother-in-law at once told his 

 sister to clear out the corn bins just as if they expected to store corn 

 in them. Having done this, the sister informed her sister-in-law 

 that they were ready. The younger brother exclaimed : " I am glad 

 that our family has increased." At the dawn of day the next 

 morning the people, awakening as if they had been frightened, heard 

 sounds which indicated that corn was falling into their corn bins, 

 which had been empty so long. Some hardly believed their ears, and 

 doubted that they had received so much coi-n freely. So when the 

 bride wife asked that corn be prepared and cooked, her husband told 

 his sister to make it ready, although in his mind he felt that his 

 wife had said this just because she knew well that they had nothing 

 to eat and nothing with which to prepare anything. 



Then the bride wife said to her brother-in-law : " You go to the river 

 and catch for us some fish, so that we may have fish to eat with our 

 corn bread." But the young man replied: "It is strange that you 

 should think that there are fish in the river, for I have not seen one 

 there for many months." But the woman insisted that he should go, 

 saying: "You will, however, find fish there." He, in some doubt 

 still, answered : " Very well, I will go, although I know that I shall 

 not find any fish there." Finally he went, as she had asked him to 

 do, for the sake of his people. On reaching the stream he saw a fish; 

 it was indeed the first he had seen since the great rainstorm had be- 

 gim. He planned his measures so well that he caught the fish, which 

 was very large, and at once started for the lodge. Arriving there, he 

 said that it was the only fish he saw. The bride wife said : " This 

 is the fish I meant. Now your sister will clean it and place it in the 

 kettle to cook it." When the sister was told to get some corn and 



