152 TALES OF READY-TO-GIVE. 
must reach for the kettle, place your right foot upon the rim, and do not 
be afraid of getting burnt. Then jump up. I will do the same. Then 
we will disappear and the sharp-elbow people will do the rest of the work 
necessary for killing themselves.’’ 
One of the sharp-elbow men came out and invitedthe boysin. The 
kettle was swung over the fire. The boys were given seats on the north 
side of the lodge. The sharp-elbow people began to question the boys 
as to where they lived and where their people were. The strange boy 
answered them. One of the sharp-elbow people said: ‘‘The water is 
boiling over the kettle. Be ready now to get the meat to put into the 
kettle.”” All the while the sharp-elbow people were touching one another 
to indicate that they were to jump upon the boys, kill them, cut them up, 
and put them into the kettle. When they were ready to jump on to the 
boys the strange boy knew it. He touched his brother and they both 
arose and said: ‘‘Grandfathers, we will now go home.”’ The two boys 
stood up and placed their feet upon the rim of the kettle, and the sharp- 
elbow people ran to them, but the boys disappeared. The sharp-elbow 
people began to stick the sharp points of themselves into one another. 
The kettle overflowed with the hot water, so that when the sharp-elbow 
people fell down they were scalded. While they were striking the sharp 
points into one another, the two boys were standing outside laughing at 
them, for the sharp-elbow people became angry with one another and 
they fought and scattered the hot coals so that the grass-house was 
burned up. The boys could see them from where they stood. The 
strange boy then went to where the sharp-elbow people lay and he took 
the leader by the arm and told him to stand up. The sharp-elbow leader 
stood up. He touched him again and said: ‘‘ You are now dead as a 
human being. You shall again take life and become a locust tree.” 
Then he took the other people and placed them in different places in the 
timber as locust trees. Then he told them that people, when they saw 
the trees, would remember that they were once people with sharp elbows 
and had sharp spines all over their bodies. The boy also cut off four 
thorns before he turned them into trees, and he took them home and 
told his father that he had brought four awls for him. The man thanked 
the boys and gave them something to eat. 
In the night the man could not go to sleep, for he was thinking of the 
wonderful powers which the strange boy possessed. He would say: 
““T am wonderful myself, but this boy beats anything I have ever seen. 
He has killed all bad animals throughout the country. Even the light- 
nings and thunders he has killed. These strange sharp-elbow people he 
has killed and they were the last to be killed. There are no other bad 
