ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, 547 
aways once more, and presently arrived at the spot where the sugar-trees 
had stood, which were now nowhere to be seen. Desperately angry at 
finding he had been outwitted again by his own daughter, as his wife 
had suggested, and perceiving the trail broad and clear before him, he 
hastened to overtake them once more. It was not long after this that 
the young wife cried out to her husband, ‘ My father is pursuing us again, 
and will speedily overtake us and seize us if I do not do something to 
prevent it. I know it by the trembling in my body.’ Immediately she 
set to work to gather two bundles of brushwood. This done, she trans- 
formed them into two wretched, broken-down huts, and herself and 
husband into a pair of decrepit and grey-headed old people. She had no 
sooner accomplished this second metamorphosis than her father arrived, 
and finding the trail stopped short here, he accosted the old couple and 
asked them if they had seen two young people pass that way. The 
daughter answered for both again, and replied that no one had passed that 
way for many years. “ Have you been living here long?’ questioned the 
Shaman. ‘We were young and active when we first settled here,’ an- 
swered the daughter ; ‘now you can see for yourself that we are old and grey.’ 
‘It is strange,’ replied the Shaman, ‘here are their tracks to this very spot, 
and nosign of them beyond. Perhaps they have hidden themselves in your 
houses.’ ‘ You are welcome to look,’ said the woman, ‘ but I am sure they 
are not there.’ The Shaman then made a close search of both hovels, but 
found no trace of those whom he sought ; and after a fruitless effort to 
discover the trail beyond the huts gave up the search and returned home 
once more. As before, no sooner was he gone than the pair, resuming 
their proper forms, started off again on their journey without delay. 
When the Shaman arrived home he related his second experience to his 
wife, who laughed at him again for not perceiving in the old pair another 
ruse of his daughter’s. ‘The old man and woman were your daughter and 
her husband without doubt. Return quickly and you will still secure 
them.’ The Shaman set out yet a third time after the runaways, and 
coming to the spot where the cottages had stood a little while before dis- 
covered nothing there but two heaps of brushwood, beyond which he now 
clearly discerned the tracks of the fugitives. Taking up the trail again 
he hurried after them. As he was about to come up with them the young 
woman cried out, ‘I am all in a tremble again : my father is close upon us. 
I must use my power once again, and if we succeed in deceiving him this 
time he will molest us no further.’ And with that she spat upon the 
ground and the spittle became at once a lake. She then transformed her- 
self and husband into a pair of mallard ducks, and entering the water 
bade her husband follow her. They had been in the water but a few 
moments when the Shaman came up, and finding the trail lead into the 
water he stopped and looked about him. Understanding the language of 
birds he now accosted the ducks and asked them if they had seen a young 
man and woman cross the lake. The daughter, answering for both, as 
she alone knew the language of birds, replied shortly that they had 
not. The Shaman then requested them to swim over to the other side of 
the lake and see if they could discover any tracks leading out of the water. 
Said the female duck ‘Go, and look for yourself ; we cannot wait upon you.’ 
The Shaman, though by this time weary and footsore, dragged himself round 
to the other side of the lake, but perceiving no footmarks there concluded 
that the fugitives had drowned themselves, and presently returned home 
and gave up the chase. The young people, starting on their way once 
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