208 
“I am going about looking for a man to be my brother-in-law,” he 
told her. 
“But have you seen my father-in-law who lives close by?” she asked 
him. 
“Yes.” 
“Have you a wife?” 
“No.” 
“But have you seen my sisters-in-law?” 
“Yes.” 
“They are the ones I am teaching to sew. As soon as they are good 
at sewing, they are to take husbands,” she told him; “I am the one for 
you to woo,” said the little old woman. 
“Oh, you are too old, grandmother,” he answered her. 
“Why! So now for the first time a mortal man rejects me! All those 
whom you saw on your way here are my husbands, and here you refuse to 
marry me!” 
“Oh, grandmother, you are too old!” 
He rose to his feet as he said this to her. The old woman made a 
leap, and took hold of him here, and threw her legs round him, and clasped 
him here round the neck with her arms. The old woman kept a tight 
hold. Though he tried to pull her free, he could not move her; his grand- 
mother was too strong. He carried her about like a pack-load, ******* 
The youth was ashamed. Then he wandered helplessly about. He went 
to the tipi of an old man, a place of which he had dreamt, the youth. He 
was a very old man. When he arrived, the other came forth from the 
lodge. 
“Dear me! Why are you being carried here like a pack, wife?” he 
asked her. 
“Yah, because this person rejected me when I told him, ‘Woo me!’ 
Because he rejected me, is why I thought, ‘Then let him at least carry me 
on his back.’ Those fellow-husbands of yours, handsome as they are, 
every one, none of them refused me. Do not argue with me. This person 
has angered me by refusing me.” 
“Alas, young man! There is a lake close by here. You had better 
go there. For there stay two of our grandchildren, whom she you are 
carrying indulges. But as for me, I fear mj^ wife,” said the old man. 
He went off with his pack. Really, he came to a lake, and there came 
two young women, laughing gaily. 
“Hey, why are you again acting like a child, being carried here on 
someone’s back?” 
“Oh, do not reason with me, my grandchildren! When this person 
rejected me and angered me, I decided, ‘Then at least let him carry me 
round on his back'.” 
Wherever he slept of nights, still he had her on his shoulders; he lay 
with his pack. So those young women said nothing. 
“I shall have to take her to my dream-guardians,” he thought. 
So he carried her round to these places. 
Whenever he reached a dream-guardian of his, “Alas, grandson, I 
fear her!” he would be told. 
Nothing could be done to her, to shake her loose. At last he had 
gone to all of his dream-guardians without avail. So there he was. 
