ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 55 



And the old man laughed at him, " Ha ! Ha ! Ha ! My grandchild 

 has, I think, guessed the very thing." That night the chief lay 

 with his eye peeping through a hole in his robe, as he wished to 

 watch the old men. He told his men not to sleep. While they 

 were lying the first old man lifted his head very cautiously, and 

 looked at the (supposed) sleepers. At last the old man seized his 

 hammer, but just then the chief sprung to his feet, whirled his club, 

 and at the fourth time, said, " Kau." He killed the four old men. 

 " Warriors, arise, and take the hair of all ; take each scalp in one 

 piece." Then they went home. When they reached the end of 

 the sky the chief made his men jump across in advance of him. 

 Running very fast, he made a flying leap, bringing up the man from 

 the ground, and reaching the other side, both being alive. He did 

 in like manner at the graves of those who were killed by the bear, 

 wolf, and buffalo. Thus it happened that he took all of his men 

 home alive. As they went home they saw the many villages which 

 they had reported to the chief on their former march. "Well, 

 warriors," said the chief, "you, too, shall wear robes of scalps." 

 So he killed the people of four villages with his club, and gave to 

 each of his friends enough scalps f(5r a robe. And they reached 

 their own village, and all his villages made him head chief, and he 

 governed them. 



The President inquired whether the legend was taken literally 

 from the Indians, and Mr. Dorsey replied that he wrote it out as 

 dictated to him by one of them. 



Prof. Mason referred to the tendency of such stories to grow by 

 repetition. 



Mr. Dorsey said he had often obtained two or three different 

 versions of the same myth. 



Thirty-Ninth Regular Mekting, May 3, 1881. 



Dr. Clay MacCauley read a paper entitled Personal Charac- 

 teristics of the Florida Seminoles. 



