A METOWAC LEGEND. 197 



The men laughed at this, and thought it very good. Things 

 went on very well for a considerable length of time : but at 

 last the men began to feel as if the women ought not to talk if 

 they could not hear. They found many other faults, but this 

 was the chief. 



The Master of Life laughed at an evil so easily cured, and 

 he made more women like these, excepting that they were 

 created at mid-day, when there are so many sounds to be heard. 

 So these women were all dumb. They were much more intel- 

 ligent than the others, and he thought his task must now be 

 done. Sometimes the deaf and sometimes the dumb women 

 pleased best, and matters went on very well. 



But neither did this state of things last. The Great Spirit 

 found man by far the most troublesome being in the universe. 

 Yet he was resolved to try to the utmost to adapt things to his 

 strange powers. He saw the husband of the deaf woman and 

 the husband of the dumb woman were neither of them content. 



So he made another woman. 



This time he made but one. She was far more beautiful 

 than the rest. She could both hear and speak. But she 

 was blind, for she was created as the day was going out. 



The men and women looked at her, and then they looked at 

 each other ; and they all laughed. 



