HAWK SLAYS THE FIRE-KEEPER. 197 
just stepped off of the log he was taken by some mysterious being. It was 
so foggy that he could not see the being. The being stripped the young 
man of his leggings, that were decorated with scalps, and his coyote robe, 
and took them and burned them. The young man tried to see, but he 
could not, for the being had burned out his eyes. He was carried off by 
the mysterious being and for several days was led along, until at last he 
was taken into a lodge and was told that he was a slave. 
He was missed at his wife’s place and the people wondered where 
he could have gone. One night the baby began to cry. The mother 
tried to quiet him, but he kept on crying. The mother thought that her 
husband must be across the stream with his brother. Said she: ‘‘I will 
take the child to his father, and when he takes him he will stop crying.’’ 
She went to the stream and when she came to the log she was not afraid 
to cross it. She crossed and went to the lodge of the young men. She 
went into the lodge and saw only the younger brother. She asked where 
_ her husband was and the boy said that he had not been there. The girl 
said: ‘‘Take this baby. It may be that he will stop crying, for he is crying 
for his father.’’ The boy took the child, but it cried the louder. The 
boy said: ‘‘Take the child, for I must go and hunt for my brother. I am 
afraid that some one has killed him.’’ 
The woman went out of the lodge to the crossing. Just as she was 
about to step upon the log she saw pieces of her husband’s leggings. 
Then she looked around and found also bits of his coyote robe. She 
looked carefully and saw his footprints. She followed his tracks, which 
led toward the setting sun. She went on for many days, until at last she 
saw a big fire. She went to the fire, which was very bright, for it was 
night. She came to the fire and found a large tipi with a big fire in it. 
She peeped in and there sat a man at the west on the inside of the lodge, 
painted red all over. She knew him. He was her uncle. Again she 
looked, and close to the entrance sat her husband. He was burnt on 
different parts of his body and he was blind. The man in the west said: 
‘Blind man, stir the fire. The fire is nearly out.’’ The blind man went 
to the fire and took hold of his own war club and stirred the fire. The 
baby then began to cry and the woman began to sing: 
Uncle, you sitting there, 
Let him come out. 
Yonder the child was left, yonder. 
My husband sitting there, 
His child is crying; 
Ha-o-o, you sitting there. 
The man spoke and said: ‘‘My niece, I want to kill your husband, for 
he married you without my knowledge. Stir the fire, you blind man.’’ 
