96 MYTHS OF THE IROQUOIS. 



rightful owner of the clothes and they were returned to him, and the 

 impostor was obliged to resume his old rags. The young man was then 

 married to the faithful maiden, and returned to his home in safety, 

 where he became in time a noted chief. 



THE BOY AND THE CORN. 



An old man brought up his nephew in a solitary place. One day as 

 they walked through the field the uncle picked an ear of corn, but he did 

 not eat it. " Strange," thought the boj", " that I never see him eating 

 anything;" and he watched him when the old man thought he was 

 asleep. He saw him go to a hole and take out a kettle and a few grains 

 of corn, which he put iuto it. Theu lie took a magic wand and tapped 

 the kettle till it grew big; theu he ate some corn and again tapped the 

 kettle till it became small once more. 



In the morning when the uncle left home the boy got at the hole aud 

 did as he had seen him do, but as he tapped the kettle it grew so large 

 that he could not stop it, aud it weut on growing until his uncle came 

 home, who was very angry. "You do not know what harm you have 

 been doing," said he ; " we can get no more corn; it grows iu a place 

 that is so dangerous that few who go there come back alive." " We 

 have plenty in the house," said the boy. "And when it is gone, what 

 then ? " But the boy persisted that he knew where the corn grew, and 

 could easily fetch some. " So, uncle," he added, '' tell me how to pro- 

 ceed." " I shall never see you again," moaned the uncle. " Oh, yes, 

 you will," said the boy, aud he started. Now, the uncle had warned 

 him that he would come to a lake where the woman witches lived, and 

 that he never could escape them. But he made himself a canoe aud 

 picked some peculiar nuts and launched himself ujjou the water. Then 

 he threw the nuts before him to feed the fowls who guarded the shore, 

 that tliej' might not betray his coming. He landed ou the other side 

 safely and filled his pockets with corn, and was hasteuing to put off in 

 his boat, but before he did so was curious to know what was in a lodge 

 on the shore. So he peeped in and stole a bear's leg which he saw. 



Now, all his nuts were gone ; so when he passed the birds they were 

 alarmed and set up their call and out came the witches with their hooks 

 and cords. But he launched his canoe, and when a hook reached him 

 he broke it off, and reached the opposite shore in safety. There he saw 

 a number of ducks, and he stripped a tree of its bark and caught them 

 and started Lome. As he neared his home he heard his uncle singing 

 a dirge — "My poor nephew, I shall never see him again." The animals 

 had been telling the old man sad tales of his death, so when the boy 

 knocked at the door he did not believe that it was his nephew. But 

 the boy heard the Hi-Wadi, and he knew his uncle. So he said, " Uncle, 



