670 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. axn.32 



When the sun had sunk low in the west the door flaps were thrust 

 aside suddenly, and the old woman entered the lodge. They two who 

 lived there were indeed husband and wife (in appearance). The 

 old woman thereupon said : " Oh ! I am exceedingly thankful that 

 now for certain I have a daughter-in-law." At this they two smiled. 



The old woman said further: "I have misgivings in my mind, 

 caused by the actions of your dogs. None of them will accept what 

 I offer them for food. You should go there again to feed them, and 

 you two might remain there once overnight." 



The young man replied : " So be it." Just then the fire began to 

 sing unexpectedly, and the fire spoke too, saying three times: "He, 

 my friend, has killed me." At this the old woman exclaimed : 

 '■'■Kyu-u'! It is frightful. 'It is an astonishing thing that is hap- 

 pening in the fireplace which you two have for yourselves; for it 

 does not cease from saying : ' My friend has killed me, there in your 

 fire.' " The young man answered : " I do not know anything about 

 the thing concerning which you are perplexed." Reaching for an 

 arrow, he scraped it, saying: " It is so that we two, I and my friend, 

 use the fire for the scrapings from our arroM's;" and thereupon he 

 threw the scrapings into the fire. At once the voice from the fire pit 

 exclaimed several times very rapidly : " My friend has killed me ! " 

 The young man again said: " We use the fire for the scrapings from 

 our arrows." The old woman exclaimed: ^^ Ivyu-u\ You two have 

 no sense," and she then departed. The young man said to her as she 

 was leaving the lodge: " We will soon be there." 



When they were alone he said to his sister: "It is just as I have 

 been saying right along: we two are about to meet our death." He 

 believed that she was in great fear, so he added, " Do you have 

 courage; and do not let it appear that you fear anything." Just as 

 the sun sank low in the west they started for the place where stood 

 thelodgeof the old woman. They arrived tliere just before night. As 

 they entered the lodge and sat down in the place where the friend of 

 the young, man was accustomed to sit they were surprised to see stand- 

 ing on one side a screech owl and on the other a horned owl. They 

 were more distressed when the screech owl sang out. " It is another, 

 it is another, it is another, it is another." Then the old woman said: 

 "Lo! This is happening all the time, and it gives me a troubled 

 mind." The young man answered her: "It is very strange that 

 you pay any>heed to the various notes of the screech owl," and he 

 said to the owl : " Here, this is what you eat," giving it meat. It 

 stopped uttering its warning notes and merely repeated its usual note 

 thrice, saying, ^^flo-ho-ho-wd\" 



Then all lay down for the night, and the brother and sister lay 

 together in the place where the dead friend of the brother was ac- 

 customed to lie. All of a sudden the horned owl cried out : " Hi, 



