94 MYTHS OF THE IROQUOIS. 



him up well with a swan stuffed. " Xow," said he, " when you take this 

 outside it will be on your head, but it will soon come back to life, and 

 when that happens you must run in a circle and return, and you will see 

 that many deer and bears will follow your track." So off he went. 

 When he returned he said that so many bears and so many deer came 

 out every time as he crossed the track and he shot them, and took the 

 best out and sent them home to show them to the old man. And all 

 the time the swan was alive and beautiful. , 



The old man exclaimed at his luck as he told his tale. "You have 

 done well," said his uncle. "We must save all the meat. Now, hold 

 yourself ready to go tomorrow. I warn you there are dangers in your 

 path. There is a stream that yau must cross. There stands a man 

 and he will try to kill you. He will call out to you that he has a couple 

 of wild cats and will say, 'My friend, come, help me kill these.' Pay no 

 attention ; go right on along, or you will be in danger and never get to 

 the town." The nephew promised to obey, and his uncle brought out a 

 curious thing, made of colored string and elk hair of deep red, about a 

 foot long. "I shall keep this by me," said he, "and so long as you are 

 doing well it will hang as it is; but if you are in danger it will come 

 down itself almost to the ground, and if it does reach the ground you 

 will die." "I will be careful," said the young man, and so he started 

 with his directions, following his uncle's advice. He had almost reached 

 his destination whon he heard a noise, and there in his path stood a 

 man while he watched two animals going up a tree, and he tried in vain 

 to make them come down. As the young man approached him he said, 

 "Please help me, if you can; but kill one of these animals; it will be a good 

 thing. Do help me." So he begged, and the young man thought it 

 could do no harm, so he took out his arrow and said, " Don't be in a 

 hurry." Then the old man handed him the arrows and asked him, 

 "Where are you going?" and he told him; and the stranger said, "Stop 

 all night with me ; that is a long way you are going ; go on to morrow." 



Now the uncle at home was watching the signal. He saw it go down 

 almost to the ground, and he cried out in his alarm, " Oh I oh ! my 

 nephew is in danger, he will get into trouble with that old man." But 

 the young man listened to the persuasions of the tempter and agreed 

 to remain with him all night, and the old man made up a fire and began 

 to tell stories as they sat beside it till the youth fell asleep. Before 

 thej' sat down he had gathered together some sharp prickly bark, pre- 

 tending it gave a good light, and as the young man slept he said to 

 himself, "Now, I can fix him." So he took some of the sharp-pointed 

 bark and placed it on him ; so he writhed in agony. Then he took off the 

 young man's handsome clothes and dressed him up instead in his own 

 old rags, dirty and rotten. "I shall keep these things," said he; "they 

 are mine," and forthwith he started off to the chief's house where the 

 beautiful women were, and he had the young man's pipe and his spotted 

 deer skin, and the handsome bag made out of it, with little birds to 



