^^l^^.f^ LEGENDS 671 



hi, hi, hi; he takes to wife his younger sister." This it repeated 

 thrice. At once the old woman arose, saying : " Why do you two 

 not stop it constantly saying, ' He takes to wife his younger sister.' " 

 But the young man exclaimed: "Fie upon it! ^Aliy do you pay any 

 attention to all the notes made by a common horned owl?" With 

 these words he again gave it meat, which it greedily seized as he 

 said to it : " Here, take this ; it is what you eat." As soon as it had 

 finished eating the meat it resumed its regular note, " Hi, hi, hi, hi,''^ 

 Then the young man said to his suspicious host : " So let it be ; now lie 

 down again." However, the old woman continued to grow more and 

 more suspicious, for she began to believe that something had per- 

 haps happened to her son and that he was no longer alive. At mid- 

 night the brother said to his sister : " Yon must lie as still as possible 

 and I, too, shall do the same ; we must pretend to be asleep." They at 

 once began seemingly to snore, but of course they were not snoring; 

 the.y did not know what the old woman would do should they fall 

 asleep. 



The old woman arose very stealthily while the notes of the owls 

 continued, the screech owl saying, " It is another, it is another, it is 

 another," and the horned owl, '■'Hi, hi, hi, hi; he takes his younger 

 sister to wife." Creeping slowly over to the spot where the two were 

 lying, and thrusting her hand under the coveimgs, the old woman 

 made an examination of their private parts, after which she ex- 

 claimed : " Pshaw ! Of course things are as they are with those who 

 do as married people are accustomed." Then she went back to her 

 part of the lodge and again lay down. 



In the morning the old woman prepared the morning meal, and 

 all ate their breakfast. When they had finished eating the old 

 woman said : " I have mysterious premonitions. I visited the place 

 there where thy friend has kindled a fire, and it says continually, 

 ' My own friend has killed me : my own friend has killed me ; my 

 own friend has killed me.' " The young man replied : " Pshaw ! 

 It is foolish to pay any attention to that noise, for it is caused by 

 our scraping arrows there." As he sjioke he got his arrow and began 

 scraping it. and cast the litter into the fire, whereupon the fire said 

 several times, "My own friend has killed me." He added, "Now 

 cease paying any attention to such idle things." The old woman 

 replied, " So be it, as you say." 



Then the young man said : " Oh, mother ! We two will now go 

 back to the other place. I said that of a certainty we would re- 

 main here only one night, and perhaps now my brother-in-law is 

 anxious about us." The old woman replied : " So let it be as you 

 ha\e spoken." He answered : " In two days we two will return 

 again." So they started for their home, where they an-ived all right. 

 Then the young man said to his sister : " The only thing left for us 



