ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. Val 
the twelve beautiful blankets, and set the meat and fat ready at hand for 
the feast which the chief now proclaimed. The whole village now came 
together to see the youth and the presents he had brought his grand- 
parents. During the feast the story of his mother’s and father’s life was 
retold again, and their sad end drew tears from all the women present. 
At the close of the feast the grandmother told her neighbours that they 
would see her grandson no more, as she intended to keep him secluded as 
she had his mother; which thing she did, and the lad never left the 
keekwilee-house except at night when all the village was asleep, or early 
in the morning before they had arisen.’ 
Now it had happened that when the people had been invited to the 
feast two old witch-women had been overlooked, as their dwelling was 
somewhat apart from the others ; and when they heard later of the occur- 
rence they were angry, the more particularly as they were very curious 
to see the boy. They determined to be revenged for the slight, and to 
see the youth at the same time whose advent had been a nine days’ 
wonder in the village. So one day they took some human ordure, and 
mixing it with earth fashioned it in the form of birds. By their witch- 
power they then transformed these clay effigies into real live birds of 
beautiful and attractive plumage. They had not long completed their 
task when the little uncle chanced to come that way, and seeing the 
pretty strange birds he much desired to secure them for himself. Having 
his bow and arrows with him he tried to shoot them. He struck them 
again and again, but could not kill them. The most that he did was to 
knock a few feathers out of them. ‘Ah!’ said he to himself, ‘I wish 
my nephew were here ; he would be able to kill them all right.’ And so 
saying he gathered up the brilliant feathers to take home to show him 
and his mother. Calling his mother’s attention to the beauty of the 
feathers, and telling her of his ill success with his shooting, he begged her 
to let his nephew come out for a little while to shoot the birds for him. 
The old mother would not at first hear of it, but on the nephew himself 
expressing an earnest wish to go out with his uncle to secure the birds, 
she presently gave way, and permitted the two to go off together. The 
youth easily shot and killed the birds. To carry them home he put them 
inside the breast of his shirt next his skin. While the shooting had been 
going on the two spiteful old witch-women had taken a good look at him, 
and so won their desire. 
As they were returning home the youth complained of an unpleasant 
odour. ‘What is this nasty smell?’ said he. ‘Where can it come from ? 
Have you not stepped on something nasty, uncle?’ But as he spoke he 
felt something wet and cold against his skin under his shirt. Pulling 
open his shirt, he saw inside, where a few moments before he had placed 
the beautiful birds, now neither birds nor feathers, but the nasty material 
from which they had been made by the witches. Perceiving he had been 
tricked, and horribly disgusted, he cast his garments aside and plunged 
into the river to cleanse himself, bidding his uncle at the same time fetch. 
him some clean garments. After he had washed himself and put on clean 
clothes, he felt so mortified and ashamed that he determined to leave the 
spot and go and live by himself in the woods. He informed his uncle of 
1 This curious habit of seclusion seems from the stories to have been quite a 
fen custom. Instances oceur again and again, particularly in the families of 
chiefs - 
