MoosEY] THE RAVEN MOCKERS 403 



Said the old uuiu to his wife. ■'AVell, wliat luck did you have?" 

 "Nono," said the old woman, '"there were too many doctors watching. 

 What luck did you have?" "T got what I went for," said the old 

 man, ""there is no reason to fail, but you never have luck. Take this 

 and cook it and Icfs have something to eat." She fixed the fire and 

 then the young man smelled meat roasting and thought it smelled 

 sweeter than any meat he had ever tasted. He peeped out from one 

 eye, and it looked like a man's heart roasting on a stick. 



Suddenly the old woman said to her husliand, "Who is over in the 

 corner? " '"Nobody," said the old man. "Yes, there is," said the old 

 woman, "I hear him snoring," and she stirred the fire until it blazed 

 and lighted up the whole plai'C, and there was the young man lying in 

 the corner. He kept quiet and pretended to be asleep. The old man 

 made a noise at the fire to wake him, but still he pretended to sleep. 

 Then the old man came over and shook him. and he sat uj) and rubl)ed 

 his eyes as if he had been asleep all the time. 



Now it was near daylight and the old woman was out in tiie other 

 house getting breakfast ready, Imt the hunter could hear her crying 

 to herself. '"Why is your wife crying?" he asked the old man. "Oh, 

 she has lost some of her friends lately and feels lonesome," said her 

 hu.sband; but the young man knew that she was crying because he had 

 heard them talking. 



When they came out to l)reakfast the old man put a ))owl of corn 

 mush before him and said, "This is all we have — we have had no meat 

 for a long time." After breakfast the young man started on again, 

 but when he had gone a little way the old man ran after him with a 

 fine piece of beadwork and gave it to him, saying, "Take this, and 

 don't tell anybody what you heard last night, because my wife and I 

 are always quarreling that way." The young man took the piece, but 

 when he came to the first creek he threw it into the water and then 

 went on to the settlement. There he told the whole story, and a party 

 of warriors started back with him to kill the Raven Mockers. When 

 they reached the place it was seven days after the first night. They 

 found the old man and his wife lying dead in the house, so they set 

 fire to it and burned it and the witches together. 



121. HERBERT'S SPRING 



"From the head of the southern branch of Savannah river it does 

 not exceed half a mile to a head spring of the Missisippi water that 

 runs through the middle and upper parts of the Cheerake nation about 

 a northwest course, and, joining other rivers, thev empty themselves 

 into the great Missisippi. The above fountain is called 'Herbert's 

 sp/ing,' so named from an early commissioner of Indian art'airs, and 

 it was natural for strangers to drink thereof, to quench thirst, gratify 

 their curiosity, and have it to say they had drank of the French waters. 



