157 
At that the man rose to his feet. 
“Very well, tomorrow at noon I shall come to challenge my fellow 
Wampum-Head,” he said; “Seeing that everywhere else no one ever 
speaks to me,” he said, and went out of the lodge, taking his snowshoes 
as he went, and putting them on. As soon as he started away, the snow- 
shoes began to sing. Very sorry was the woman that she had spoken to 
this man in spite of her brother’s instruction. Then, in the middle of the 
afternoon she heard snowshoes come singing from the north. It was her 
brother, bringing, as always, a treat of game. When he threw his snow- 
shoes, as always, on the wood, the snowshoes gave a call. As he came 
into the lodge, deeply she regretted that she had spoken to that man. 
WTien her brother had sat down, she gave him his meal. While he ate, 
she worked at the meats which he had brought, hanging them out of doors. 
When she had finished her work, she went indoors and put away her 
brother’s dishes, for he had done eating. 
“Sister, truly, you have brought me to an evil pass by speaking to 
that man,” he said; “His purpose is not to marry you,” he told her; “Now 
then, when tomorrow he comes to challenge me, at this spot I shall sink 
into the ground; he, in turn, will do the same. When he comes into the 
lodge to challenge me, ‘You first!’ I shall say to him. If he complies, 
there he will sink into the ground; and right here where I sit he will stick 
out his head from the ground. At that I shall slash off his head. His head 
will fall to one side. Do you then take his head. I shall hold fast to the 
body. But, if you do not take the head, his head will fly back into place. 
In this way he will overcome me. There, that is the way of it, sister!” 
Oh, the woman was frightened. 
“Then I, too, shall do the same, I shall sink into the ground. He will 
do the same thing to me. Then at once he will take my head with him 
out of the lodge. If this happens, if he defeats me, then from the direction 
of the setting sun will come a man. All his garments will be made of red. 
He will come to fetch you; he will marry you. Give credence to him,. for 
he is good,” her brother told her; “There, that is the way of it, my sister!” 
At last night came. At last they went to bed. In the morning, when 
he got up and when they had eaten, the youth made a careful toilet and put 
on his finery. It was almost noon, but the woman did not work at any- 
thing, for she was unhappy; she brooded without cease on her brother’s 
words, “Perhaps he will defeat me.” At last it was noon, and already that 
person came noising it, snowshoes a-singing. 
“Alas,” she thought, “It is plain that I was most stupid to think, 
‘Perhaps it is my brother!’ ” she thought. 
When the youth arrived there, he leaned up his snowshoes in the 
doorway. 
When he came into the lodge, “Ha, my fellow Wampum-Head, I have 
come to challenge you!” he said. 
“Yes!” spoke her brother. 
When she looked at them, they looked like one and the same person. 
“Ha, you first, my fellow Wampum-Head!” her brother was told. 
“Ha! No! You first! It is you have come to play,” said her brother, 
“Very well!” 
8318^11 
