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



At that time they left the hunting camp and started for liome, 

 where they soon arrived by canoe and a short land journey. On 

 their way the woman took her seat in the bow of the canoe, while 

 the husband sat in the stern and paddled. The woman wistfully 

 viewed the banks of the river as they moved along rapidly. When 

 they had gone quite a distance the woman noticed a mountain which 

 stood on one side of the river, and which was covered with a dense 

 growth of small shrubs and undei'growth. As she watched this 

 mountain top she was surprised and agitated to see her lost child 

 walking there at the edge of the dense undergrowth. At once recog- 

 nizing him, she sprang up in the canoe, frantically exclaiming, " Oli ! 

 I see my and thy child again. Look, there he is walking along." 

 The father, too, recognized their son whom they mourned as dead 

 and hastened to bring the canoe to the river bank at the point nearest 

 to the place where the child had been seen. As soon as the canoe 

 reached the land they both alighted. The father then went directly 

 toward the child, who apparently awaited them; the mother was 

 following at her husband's heels. But as they approached him the 

 child fled away into the shrubbery, and they pursued him. The father 

 had some difficulty in overtaking him. When the father had caught 

 him the mother came up to them. Then the deliglited parents began 

 to ask the child questions, but he did not give any answer. He did 

 not seem to be able to make a reply, and they saw that the child 

 was too much frightened to be able to imderstand them. So the 

 father lifted him in his arms and carried him back to the canoe. 

 They saw that his face and hands and feet were all still natural 

 in appearance", but that the other parts of his body were covered 

 with fine fur; in this i-espect he was just like a bear. Again 

 boarding the canoe and hastening home, they soon arrived among 

 their people. 



After they had reached their home lodge the children of their 

 neighbors came to visit the newcomer, and they began to play 

 together. At first it was quite impossible for the recovered child to 

 converse with the other children ; it was a long time before he was 

 again able to talk even a little. Gradually, however, he became able 

 to carry on an extended conversation with them. 



There soon came a time when he voluntarily began to relate to his 

 father and mother the circumstances under which he had been lost 

 to them. He told them that a strange man had carried him away 

 to his home. The child carefully told what tilings he had seen that 

 were strange to him, what he had seen when he had traveled around 

 with the strange people, and what these people used for food. He 

 said that the strange man who had taken him away had instructed 

 him to carry back a message which he should relate in detail to his 



