HOW THE BIG TURTLE WENT ON THE WAR-PATH. 275 
Beware lest you go homeward. Beware lest you leave me and go homeward,” said 
the Big turtle. He arrived there. Some ashes had been poured out. They were 
extinguished. At length the Big turtle pushed his way through. He went within. 
He sat within, with his eyes sticking out, looking around. A woman was approaching, 
when it was morning. She stood very close to the sitting Big turtle. The Big turtle 
carried his shield. ‘You will tread on my shield,” said he. The woman looked around. 
“At what place does he speak?” thought she; so she looked around. Again he said to 
her, ‘You will tread on my shield. Stand further away.” And the woman found him. 
“Oh!” she said. “Stand still. I send you with a message,” said the Big turtle. 
“Reach home and say, ‘The Big turtle says that he has come to war. He Says that 
he has come desiring the chief’s daughter, whose body has been placed on the bough of a 
tree’” All the people said as follows: “Break in his skull suddenly.” He said as fol- 
lows: “How is it possible for you to break in my skull suddenly? If you let your 
weapons slip off suddenly from me each time, you will break your legs with the blows.” 
“When the water is very hot, it will be good to put him in it,” said they. “For shame! 
When the water is hot, and I scatter it by kicking, many of you will be scalded to 
death,” said he. ‘He tells what is probably true. And if it be So, it is good to burn 
him,” said the people. ‘For shame! If I scatter the fire by kicking it, I will cause all 
the land to blaze. Beware lest many of your children, too, die from the fire,” said he. 
“He tells what is probably true,” said they. And a child begged for water. “O 
mother, some water,” it said. The Big turtle said, “Oh!” He tempted them with 
reference to the water. ‘Cause the child to ask for water,” said one. “What do you 
mean by that?” said others. “When it said, ‘O mother, some water,’ this one, the 
Big turtle, said ‘Oh!’” said he. “Wonderful! He is fearing the sight of water,” they 
said. They took him to the water, holding him by the tail. Notwithstanding the Big 
turtle clung to the ground with his forelegs, they held his tail, and reached the water 
with him. They threw him forcibly right into the water. He walked the water for a 
while, crying a little, and pretending that he did not know how to swim. He said, 
“Wil wil wi!” “Wonderful! Throw him out to the middle of the stream,” said they. 
Again they sent him headlong. He was wandering around. At length he sunk. And 
they said, ‘“‘He is dead.” They went homeward. “You should have done that to him 
at the first,” said the people. 
When the people went homeward, some boys stood there. And the Big turtle 
was approaching floating. He came peeping. And some boys stood looking at the 
place where the deed was done. The Big turtle said, ““When the Big turtle came in 
the past to war on you, you said that you killed him.. Look here at me.” The boys 
went homeward to tell it. “You said that you killed the Big turtle, but as this one 
behind us showed his body, he laughed at us. The Big turtle is he who is alive,” 
said they. “Ho! we attack him!” said the people. They attacked him. They arrived 
there. “In what place?” said they. ‘In this place,” said the boys. ‘Where is the 
Otter? Where is the Grass-snake? Let those two alone seek him,” said they. The 
Big turtle sat under the soil (7. e., mud, ete., at the bottom of the water). Only the 
tip of his nose and his eyes were sticking out. The Snake and Otter sought him be- 
neath the water. They passed very near to him, and stepped regularly over his head. 
When the Otter was about to pass the second time, the Big turtle bit him in the very 
abdomen. ‘Ho! elder brother, you make me pain,” said the Otter. And the Big 
