15 
“I shall needs go dwell there in the sky. Let me be a star!” he said, 
as he rose higher and higher. 
And that woman, that severed head presently opened its eyes. Then 
presently that head spoke. 
“Come, my dish, where are they?” 
Without delay, she asked all her utensils. She spoke to every single 
one in turn, questioning it. At last a stone told her that her husband had 
sunk them into the earth. Four things that man had given his children, 
at the time when he started them off; that they might make a river, fire; 
a mountain of stone, and a forest;, a forest of thorn-trees. 
Then that head began to call. “My children, wait for me! You are 
making me wretched by leaving me!” it cried. 
That woman called all the time. And that little boy who was fleeing 
under ground, from afar he saw that severed speaking head, as he was 
being carried on his elder brother’s back. 
He said to him, “Big brother, our mother is not there. It is only a 
talking head,” he said. 
He took that which his father had given him, that from which the 
Cree make fire; he threw it behind him. 
“Let there be fire here!” he said. 
And really that being was entirely brought to a stop, when far and 
wide the fire blazed. For it was but a severed head which went along. 
Because he, at any rate, who is called Indian was helped by evil beings, 
was why that severed head could roll along. Finally it passed the fire. 
Then it again pursued its children. All its hair was aflame. 
Then presently when again that child looked about, who was being 
borne by the other, “It is not our mother, big brother! Let us flee with all 
our might!” he told him. 
Again he took that which his father had given him that he might make 
a hill of thornberry-trees. He threw it behind him. That Rolling Skull 
was really blocked. Then it bade a Great Serpent to bite through the 
thorn-trees and make a passage through for it, that it might go unchecked. 
And so it managed to go on, unchecked. 
Then, when again they had fled a long ways, again that child who was 
being carried saw the Skull come rolling. And again, he threw behind them 
that which he had been given by his father that he might make a mountain 
of rock. Vastly that rocky crag extended. That Skull-Being could not 
manage to go across it. At once it employed a beaver with iron teeth to 
bite that rock to pieces. Then it was able again to go on. Again it pursued 
its children. 
Again that child who was being borne by his elder brother saw it 
coming. Then that which his father had given him that he might make a 
river, he threw it, by mistake, on ahead. The child kept crying its cry. 
Then they wept in terror that the Rolling Skull would kill them, their 
mother’s skull. 
Then, as they wept, “Do not weep! I will take you to safety!” a 
Great Serpent said to them. 
Then he carried them across the water. When he had brought them 
to the far shore, he crossed back, who had taken those children across. 
83186— 2i 
