THE WHITE AND BLACK RATS. 469 
Now there must be rat trails in the forest, 
Now there must be rat trails in the forest, 
Made by Black Rats, made by Black Rats. 
The artichoke vines will climb 
Upon the red willows, and there 
If you dig you will find artichokes, 
From this time you will find artichokes 
With eyes like an ash tree. 
Then Magpie sang to the White Rat: 
Hunting ground beans, hunting ground beans; 
That is hunting something, hunting something, 
Among the willows you will find earth-nuts, 
Earth-nuts by the willows under the ground, 
You shall go there to the willows; 
There you will find soft, crumbling soil. 
Hereafter, White Rat, 
You shall live on earth-nuts. 
Each of the Rats went his way, singing: ‘‘The errand bird of the god 
in the north, who is known as ‘Ready-to-Give,’ has given us artichokes to 
eat. 
Ever since that time the White Rat has been known as the ground- 
bean Rat and the Black Rat as the artichoke Rat. 
147. TURTLE’S WAR PARTY.’ 
Turtle started on the war-path. On the way he met Mosquito. Mos- 
quito asked Turtle where he was going and Turtle said: ‘‘We have a 
root sticking into us and we aremad. I amonthewar-path.” Mosquito 
then asked that he be allowed to join, and the Turtle said: ‘‘ All right.” 
After a while Cricket met the war party and asked that he be allowed to 
join, and they consented. The three warriors traveled on until they 
came toalodge. They entered the lodge and tried to kill the people who 
were inside, but they were discovered. They caught Turtle, Cricket went 
into a hole, and Mosquito lighted on a place in the fire. They were going 
to put Turtle into the fire, but he said that he was not afraid of the fire 
and that he wished they would put him in, for he would scatter the fire all 
over the room. At last the people said: ‘‘Let us throw him into the 
water.”’ Turtle cried and said: ‘‘I am afraid of the water.”’ The people 
said: ‘‘ He is afraid of the water; let us throw him into the water.”” They 
threw him into the water, and when he struck the water he raised his head, 
poked his tongue out to the people, and said: ‘‘The water is my home; I 
1Told by Thief, Kitkehahki. This story is told to the children to teach them 
that they should not join a war party which had weak men init, but that they 
should join a strong party, and theirs would be successful. 
