Indian Legends Retold

She would not listen to him, however, and he noticed that the dam had grown higher, and the pool was much bigger than before.

The woman did not come to bed at all that night, and the deserted husband could not sleep for thinking of his wife swimming about in the cold water. He lay awake, listening to the lapping of the little waves and the slap of her leathern apron as it struck the water when she dived.

Next morning the pool had become a pond, and out in the middle of it he could still see her swimming about. For the third time he called to her and pleaded with her to come out, but she would not answer him at all, so he went home very sorrowful.

Now the young woman had six brothers, and when they heard what had happened, they all declared that they would go and bring home their sister. Their brother-in-law guided them to the spot where he had left her and behold! a large lake filled the valley, and there was a beaver house under the dam.

The young men saw several young beavers swimming about, and presently they heard a great beaver tail spank the water. Looking closely, they recognized the woman, but she was covered from head to foot with soft brown fur, and her leathern apron had become the flat tail of a beaver.

At this they wept much, and with one voice implored her to come home.

“No,” said the beaver woman. “My husband has said that I am no better than the raccoons, and I am too much ashamed to live with mankind any longer. Do not trouble about me further, for I shall never come back.”

“Let us go away and leave her,” said the eldest brother, for he did not know what else to do.

“No,” said the youngest. “Let us break the dam; then all the water will run out, and she will be compelled to come.”

They broke the dam and destroyed the beaver house. The woman lay face downward in the mud at what had been the bottom of the lake. She was quite dead. In all points she was like a beaver, but when they turned the body over, grieving much, the face was the face of the offended wife.

THE TEN PRINCES

The ten sons of a chief went hunting, and all took their wives with them except the youngest brother, who was unmarried. They all camped together at night, and in the morning the eldest prince went out in search of game.

The first thing he saw was a fat porcupine coming toward him, which he easily caught. He wrung its neck, and hung it on the branch of a tree, and went on.

Near the top of a hill, he met a handsome white she-bear and shot her dead. He kept on to the very top, and looking down, perceived a strange town at the foot, which made him very curious. He walked up boldly to the first hut, in which a pretty young woman sat alone. She beckoned to him through the window, but he had scarcely entered when some one called out from the next dwelling:

“You have a visitor. Send him here: the chief wishes to see him.”

At the chief’s door, several young men met the stranger with much kindness and greatly admired his weapons, which they begged to be allowed to examine. As soon as he went in, the chief greeted him with all hospitality. He ordered that the softest robes be brought for his seat and caused him to be served with the choicest food. While he ate, his weapons were returned to him and laid at his side. When night came, the chief said, “Bring the best blanket for our guest; he will remain with us to-night”; and it was done.

In the morning a cry arose, “The bears are coming!”

“Let my best hunters go out against them,” ordered the chief. Now the young prince was an expert hunter and had a mind to display his skill, so he hastened to attack the foremost bear. He drew out his best arrow, but to his astonishment the arrow broke. Hurriedly he seized his spear, and the spear broke. In a moment the grizzly bear was upon him and bore him to the ground.

As soon as he was dead, the young men dragged his body into the chief’s hut, where the chief caused it to be cut in pieces and hung up to dry.

Now when this young man did not come back to camp on that day or the next, his wife grew anxious, and the next in age offered to go in search of him. He set out in the same direction, and half-way up the hill he met a fat porcupine, which he clubbed and hung in a tree as his brother had done. A little further on, he saw a white she-bear and killed her, after which he went toward the village which he observed in the distance.

The pretty young woman invited him to come in, and the young men welcomed him cordially and took away his weapons, which they returned to him as he sat feasting in the house of the chief. In short, everything happened to him exactly as it had happened to his brother; and in the morning, when his arrows broke off short, he was at the mercy of the bear, and his body was cut up and hung beside that of the first.

Next day, the third youth went to look for the other two, and so on, until all were gone except the youngest. The nine widows mourned continually, and they begged the last brother not to follow the others, for if he should, they felt sure that he too would be lost and they would all be left without a protector. However, he insisted upon going, assuring them that not only would he come back safe and sound, but would bring back their husbands also.

He took the same path up the hill, and when he saw the fat porcupine coming to meet him, it occurred to him that he had better let her pass unharmed, and he did so. A little later, he met the white she-bear and shot her; but when he came to her he could not help laying his hand gently on her side and exclaiming aloud, “How beautiful she is!”

Instantly the bear became a handsome young woman, who smiled upon him, and warned him of the dangers that he would meet in the Bears’ town at the foot of the hill.

“These people are really Bears,” said she, “and I am one of them sent to deceive you. But you have no wife, and I like you very much. Do not let the young men take your weapons even for a minute, or they will change them to dry sticks as they did those of your nine brothers, who killed me without remorse.”

Finally she gave him two small pups and told him to hide them in his robe, and if ever he was in trouble to set them one by one on the ground, saying, “Red, grow up quick and help me!” “Spot, grow up quick and help me!” and it should be so. Then she kissed and embraced him, and he went on down the hill to the village.

In the first hut he came to he found his sweetheart again, and she greeted him lovingly. When the chief sent for him, she delayed parting with him as long as she could, but was at last forced to let him go, with many charges as to the best way to outwit her kinsmen. Accordingly he kept fast hold of his weapons, when the young men crowded admiringly about him, and even lay awake all night lest they should take them from him while he slept.

In the morning, when the Bears came on as before, and the chief called for men to go out and meet them, the young prince drew his bow and shot the foremost through the heart. More followed, and he killed them one after another until his arrows were all gone. Then he fought with his spear until he was tired out, and still the Bears came on.

Finally he remembered the pups that his sweetheart had given him, and he placed the first one on the ground, saying, “Grow up quick, Red, and help me!”

Instantly the pup became an immense dog which rushed at the Bears and drove them back.

Then he put down the second pup, saying, “Grow up quick, Spot, and help me!” and another savage dog attacked and put to rout the last of his enemies.

Then the young man returned to the Bear chief’s wigwam for his nine brothers. He took down the pieces of their bodies and laid them side by side, and they all came to life and followed the hero and his Bear wife back to their own camp, where they were welcomed with great rejoicings.

THE GIRL WHO REJECTED HER COUSIN

In the old days, a chief’s daughter was expected to marry the son of her uncle, and so keep the chieftainship in the family. But there was once a proud princess who behaved very badly to her cousin when he came wooing, according to the custom.

“I must be sure that you love me,” she said.

“I do love you,” he declared.

Upon which she answered, “Then prove your love by making a cut down your right cheek.”

The young man immediately took out his knife and slashed his right cheek so that the blood streamed over his face.

When the cut had healed, he went again to his cousin and asked for her hand with some confidence, but she said:

“First you must cut your left cheek also, and then I shall know that you really love me.”

The young man did not like to do it, but he would not give up, and he slashed his left cheek also.

He waited for the second cut to heal and then went to her with his scarred face and begged her to marry him at once.

“Yes,” said she, “I will marry you, for you have done well,” and she kissed him, so that he became more in love than ever. Finally she told him sweetly that she was not yet entirely satisfied, and that before the wedding he must cut off all his hair.

Now short hair is considered a disgrace to a man, and the prince was most unwilling to cut his off, but at last he yielded and went to her to ask that the wedding day might be set. But she refused to see him, merely sending a servant with the message that he must be quite mad to suppose that she would marry such a hideous object as he had made of himself.

The poor young man was very unhappy, and he left his home and wandered away until he came to a small hut that stood all by itself under a hill.

An old woman opened the door and kindly asked him to come in—“that is,” said she, “if you are the chief’s son who was rejected by his cousin.”

“I am he,” declared the youth.

“What can I do for you?” asked the old woman.

He answered that he wanted nothing more than to be as he had been, before he disfigured himself at the bidding of the cruel young woman.

Accordingly the crone prepared a bath for him, and when he came out his skin was smooth and fine, without any mark upon it. She combed his hair with a comb of ivory, and it became long and splendid and fell over his shoulders like a mantle, so that he was far handsomer than before.

When he went back to the village, all the people admired him as a being from another world, and his cousin put on her best robes and walked to and fro, trying to attract his attention, but he did not even glance at her. Finally she sent her servant with a message, asking him to come and see her.

When he did not appear, she sent a second time, and inquired very humbly what she could do to please him. He told the messenger to say that if she would slash her right cheek with a knife, he would come.

So the princess cut open her right cheek, and when the cut had healed she sent to her cousin again. This time he made answer that she must first cut her left cheek also, and she did as he ordered.

When her messenger came to the prince a fourth time, he directed that her mistress cut off all her beautiful hair, declaring that he would then be entirely satisfied. Crying bitterly, the poor girl cut it off and sent it to her lover, but he threw it on the ground with contempt, saying that nothing would induce him to look upon the face of a woman who had so disfigured herself.

The wise men say that since this happened, women have not been allowed to choose their husbands, or to refuse the men who have been selected for them to marry.

GRIZZLY BEAR AND THE FOUR CHIEFS

There were once four chiefs who were brothers and lived in one village. In the dead of winter, when food was scarce, a lean stranger came among them and stopped at the hut of the eldest brother.

He was courteously received and seated by the fire, as is the custom, and the chief asked him where he came from.

“I have come a long way,” replied the stranger.

“And what have you eaten on the way?”

“I have eaten nothing but snow,” he said.

Then the chief ordered a dish of snow and a spoon to be placed before his guest, but he got up without touching it and went on to the house of the second brother.

Here he was again asked where he came from and what he had eaten on the road, and when he answered that he had eaten only snow, he was given a large dish of it with a spoon. The same thing happened at the third house.

When the traveler came to the dwelling of the youngest brother, and the host heard that he had eaten nothing but snow and was starving, he said to his wife, “Wife, see if there is still a dried salmon left.”

She looked, and found a single one, half of which she broiled and gave it on a dish to the stranger.

After he had eaten, he made ready to go on, but his host said, “Wife, give our guest the other half of the salmon to eat on the journey,” and she did so.

Then the stranger said to him, “All the others ridiculed a starving man, but you were a true host. Your kindness shall be rewarded. Meet me to-morrow at the mouth of the river.”

The young chief did as he was told, and behold! a great grizzly Bear, who presented him with leggings, a grizzly-bear headdress, and a magic bow which killed all manner of game. From that day he never went hungry, but became the envy of his elder brothers and the richest man in the village.

THE WOODEN WIFE

Once there was a young man newly married who was very fond of his wife. She was not only a pretty woman, but she wove the most beautiful dancing-blankets of any one in the tribe.

One day this young man went into the mountains to hunt wild goats, from whose hair his wife might weave more of her much-prized blankets, and she went with him to keep his hut and to cook for him. While they were yet far from the village, the girl fell sick, and although he did all that he could for her, the young husband soon saw that she was dying.

“Tell me, my dear, what can I do for you?” he begged, as he hung over her.

“Only do not leave me soon, my husband! Do not soon forget our love,” sighed the wife, and she died.

The goat-hunter mourned her truly, and he did as she had asked him to do. He remained on the spot where he had lost her and seemed to have no thought of going back to the village. He kept her body with him in the hut as long as he could, and when at last he was forced to lay it away, he carved an image out of cedar wood and set it up in front of her loom, so that as one entered the hut it seemed that a woman sat there, weaving a dancing-blanket. Every morning he went out hunting goats, and when he returned in the evening he would call out as he came near the hut, saying:

“Come out, my wife, and see what I have brought you!”

Then he would answer himself in a woman’s voice, “I cannot come just now, my husband. I am weaving, and the wool may become snarled if I leave my loom.”

Presently he would enter the wigwam, come up behind his wooden wife, and kiss her lovingly.

After a time, the story of these strange doings spread to the village, and two young girls, sisters, being filled with curiosity, decided to come and find out for themselves what truth there might be in the rumors that were about. When they reached his lonely hut, the hunter was away as usual, so they raised the door-flap and peeped in. There sat the wooden wife in front of the loom, with her back to them, exactly like a woman weaving.

“Elder sister,” said they, “we are hungry.” But when she did not move nor speak, they knew that she was not a real woman, and they hid in a corner behind some blankets until the husband should return.

By and by they heard his voice outside the hut, telling his wife to come out and see the game he had brought, and then her usual answer that she was busy weaving and could not come just then. Next he came in, put his arms about the wooden wife, and kissed her fondly.

Upon this the elder girl could not help laughing so that he heard it and discovered them both. But the young man was a courteous host. He begged them to be seated and offered them food, and the elder sister ate heartily; she even over-ate, while the younger was very quiet and took but a taste of each dish. The hunter took note of their conduct, and when supper was over, he asked the younger girl to be his wife.

“I will marry you,” said she, “if you will put away your wooden wife.” Accordingly he destroyed the image that he had made, and married the girl, and they lived happily together for many years.

ILDINI

Ildini lived at End-of-trail, with his wife and two boys. One day he went fishing when the wind blew strong from the shore. It blew his boat so far out that he could not get back. All day and all night he was blown about the cold gray waters. He became very hungry and chilled to the bone.

Ildini prayed and sang for a fair wind. This was his song:

After many days the wind went down and the canoe floated near a strange shore, but by now the man was so weak that he could not land. On the shore he saw no one but a little child, scarcely big enough to talk. He told the child his name, “Ildini”, and the little fellow repeated it over and over as if it were a game—“Ildini—Ildini—Ildini!” He ran home still saying over the new name, and exclaimed to his grandfather: “Grandfather, come—Ildini!” He kept saying this until the old man followed and discovered the canoe and the fisherman, who was by this time unable to stand.

He called his wife to help him and together they carried Ildini to their house, where they rubbed his limbs, warmed him and gave him broth, a little at a time. When he had recovered, he became the chief of that tribe, and learned their ways and their language. He never ceased to mourn for the two sons whom he had left behind at End-of-trail, but he did not weep for his wife, for he believed her faithless and thought that she had been the cause of his misfortune. In truth she supposed him dead and had long since married another.

ALASKAN STORIES

He considered taking his own life, but did not like to do it. Finally he concluded to go among the bears and let them kill him. He found a bear trail, and lay down in it till he heard the bushes breaking and saw several grizzly bears coming along the trail. An unusually large bear was at their head.

Suddenly the man became frightened and felt that he had chosen a hard death. He arose and spoke to the leading bear.

“Brother,” said he, “I am come to invite you to a feast in honor of my dead. I have lost my children and my wife and there is none left of my blood and of my house. Will you help me to do honor to their spirits?”

The largest bear turned toward the others and whined, as if he were telling them of the invitation. Then they all went back, and the man hurried home to prepare his feast. He took away all the old sand from his fireplace and replaced it with clean sand. He brought a load of wood and picked many berries, both cranberries and huckleberries. He also told his neighbors what guests he expected, and they all supposed him crazed by sorrow.

Next morning he arose early and painted himself with unusual care. When all was ready, he stood in the doorway of his house awaiting his guests. Presently he saw the bears entering the mouth of the creek in single file, the great bear in the lead, just as on the day before. The other villagers saw them too and ran and hid themselves in their houses, terrified out of their wits; but their host stood still to receive them and give them the seats of honor, the chief in the middle seat, as is the custom.

First he served them with large trays of cranberries covered with grease, and as soon as the bear chief began to eat of the food the others followed his example. The other courses were served and eaten in the same way. When all had finished eating and were about to retire, each in turn licked some of the paint from his breast and arms in sign of their sympathy.

On the next day, the smallest bear came back alone in human form, and spoke to his host in his own tongue, telling him that he was a man who had long since been captured and adopted into the Bear tribe. “The Bear Chief,” said this person, “is very sorry for you, because he too has lost all of his friends. He understood your sorrow and for that reason refrained from killing you. I was not permitted to speak to you in his presence, but he wishes you to remember him when you mourn for your dead.”

Ever since this time, the old men, when they kill a grizzly bear, paint a cross on its skin. It is also commanded that when you give a feast you should invite every one, even your enemies, just as this man invited the Bears, who are the enemies of human kind.

BEAVER AND PORCUPINE

Once in the old days Beaver and Porcupine were comrades and went everywhere together. Now Beavers are much afraid of Bears, who break down the beaver dams so as to let off the water, catch them and eat them. But the Bear fears the sharp quills of the Porcupine, therefore the little fellow acted as guard to his friend. Porcupine often visited Beaver in his house, which is dry and comfortable, and unfortunately annoyed his host by leaving some of his quills there.

One day Porcupine proposed to call on his friend, and Beaver offered to carry him on his back, since the prickly one cannot swim. But instead of taking him to his home under the dam, he took him to a tall stump in the very middle of the lake, and there he left him!

There Porcupine was compelled to stay until the lake froze over, and he could walk home on the ice.

Beaver contrived to explain the whole thing as a joke, and the pair appeared to be on as good terms as ever. One fine day the Bear appeared.

“What shall I do? Save me! save me!” cried Beaver in terror.

“Certainly, friend; just get upon my back and I will carry you to safety,” replied Porcupine.

Beaver did as he was told, and was taken to the top of a very tall tree and left to himself. He did not know how to climb and was afraid to try to get down alone.

“Oh, do help me down!” he cried; but it was of no use to beg. After staying up there so long that he grew dizzy and almost starved to death, he finally contrived to scramble down the tree; and they say that is why the bark of trees is rough and full of scratches to this day. We are also told that it is on account of this happening that people who have loved each other very much sometimes quarrel, and are no longer friends.

MOUNTAIN DWELLER

Two sisters belonging to a well-known family one day became very hungry and helped themselves to some of their mother’s fat meat, notwithstanding the girls were strictly forbidden to eat anything between meals.

When the mother found it out she was angry, especially with her elder daughter, for the younger was still a child. She not only scolded the girl, but slapped her severely. At last she said: “Since you are so fond of eating, you had better go and marry Mountain Dweller!”

Now Mountain Dweller is a being who lives alone upon the mountains and is supposed to be a great hunter. Up to this time, no mortal had ever seen him. The girls were more deeply offended by her words than by the blows she had given the elder, and that night when their mother slept they ran off into the woods.

They had wandered a long way and were crying with fear and hunger when they heard some one chopping wood in the distance. “Perhaps it is really he,” said the elder sister, and they followed the sound.

There stood a man whose face was painted red. He was kind and asked the girls what they were doing so far from home.

As soon as they had told him, he invited them into his house near by, and they found it large and well stored with abundance of meat. They remained there as he asked them, and the elder sister in time became his wife.

Now the mother had soon repented her hasty speech and both parents searched everywhere for their daughters. When they could not find them, they mourned them as dead. A year passed, and the mourners’ feast had been given, when one day Mountain Dweller said to his wife and his sister-in-law: “Wouldn’t you like to see your father and mother again?”

“Oh, yes, yes!” exclaimed the little girl, but the other thought not, for the insult was hard to forgive. At last she consented to go, whereupon her husband hunted continually and prepared a large quantity of meat for a present to his father-in-law.

“Make a little basket, no larger than the end of your thumb,” he told her; and when it was finished, he put into it all those canoe loads of meat, hung it on his finger, and the three of them went down the mountain to the old home of the two girls.

Their little brother was playing outside the hut and saw them first. He ran inside. “Mother, mother!” he cried, “my two sisters are coming!”

“Nonsense,” scolded his mother. “Your sisters have been dead a long time, as you well know. Did we not give the mourners’ feast for them this last moon?”

“Nevertheless I ought to know my own sisters, and I do know them,” the boy persisted. “They are coming—they are here!”

The mother came to the door and saw them, and instantly she threw herself upon their necks, crying for joy.

The next morning, the elder daughter said to her: “Mother, back there in the woods a little way there is a basket for you. Send my brother to bring it.”

The boy went and soon came back saying that it was too heavy for him. The whole village went, but all of them together could not carry the basket. Finally the young wife went herself, and she brought it easily in one hand. But when she set it down in the house and began to unpack it, behold! the place was filled and running over with meat of all kinds. There was a great feast and every one was pleased, but unfortunately the girls’ mother ate so much that in the night she became very ill, and by morning she was dead.

This is a story told to discourage greediness.

THE EAGLE CREST

It is well known that there is a certain clan which claims the Eagle for its crest or totem, and this is how it happened.

There was once a very poor man, so poor that he could not even get enough to eat. He was always cruising around in a small canoe, trying to catch a few little fish with which to keep himself alive. One day he caught nothing, and as he had brought no food with him in the boat he became very hungry.

Early in the morning, as he lay on the shore, he heard a voice but could not tell where it came from. The voice said: “I have come after you.” The man looked all around him, but saw only a young Eagle perched upon the branch of a tree. Then the voice said quite plainly: “My grandfather has sent me to get you.” This time the Eagle looked to him like a real person, and he followed it into the woods.

The trail led to a fine large house high up on a cliff, and inside there was plenty of good food. There were also mats to sit upon and all the comforts to be found in good houses. The Eagles treated the poor man well, and since he was wretched and despised among his own people, he wanted to stay with them always. He married one of the Eagle women and became one of them.

Now the mother and brothers of this man were just as poor and contemptible as he had been, and he pitied them, now that he himself was well off. Whenever he saw his brother out fishing, he would leave some fish where the other could find it. The brother was astonished at his luck and could not account for it.

One night his mother had a dream. She dreamed that a large fish might be found upon a certain point of land, and when they went there, the fish was where she had dreamed she saw it. Soon afterward she dreamed that they must camp on a certain spot, where they would find much food. While they camped there, they all saw an Eagle bring a fish ashore, after which he sat upon a branch not far from them, and exclaimed: “Do not be afraid; it is I!”

Such is the origin of the Eagle clan, which is now a large one and respected of all the people.

THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE FIRE SPIRIT

Many men wished to marry the chief’s pretty daughter, but she laughed at them all. One day as she sat quite close to the fire, a spark snapped upon her dress and burned a tiny hole in it. She pointed at the fire and called it a bad name in her anger, for it must be admitted that the girl had a quick temper.

That night the chief’s daughter was missing. All the people sought for her. They searched every house in the village and in the other villages, wherever men lived who had proposed for her hand. When she could not be found anywhere, they employed the wisest medicine men. In a far distant village there lived one whose power was much talked about, and when he was consulted he said to the chief:

“Your daughter may have said something to displease the Fire Spirit. Let your fire go out, and have every one in your village do the same; then you may hear something.”

The chief came home and sent his crier through the village to ask that every fire be allowed to go out. When this had been done, the girl came up between the stones of the fireplace. The Fire Spirit had taken her to be his wife!

After this, she was permitted to spend a part of her time with her family, but whenever the burning wood whistled (as you have sometimes heard it do) she knew that her spirit husband wanted her, and she was obliged to go to him at once.

One day, as she was sitting in her father’s house stirring a dish of boiling soap-berries, a young man who was in love with her, and who was encouraged by her mother in the hope that he might be able to keep her always with them, took hold of the spoon. Instantly the fire whistled loudly, and the young wife was terrified.

“He wants me,” she murmured, as she disappeared. They never saw her again.

THE SHADOW WIFE

A certain young man lost his wife when they had been married only a few days, and he was very sorrowful. All night he lay awake thinking about her. The next night and the next it was the same. In the morning they took away her body to bury it, and he put on his best clothes and started off.

All day he walked and all night; he could not stop; daylight found him still walking. He heard voices a long way off, and he followed them. At last he saw light through the thick trees and came out of the woods upon the shore of a quiet lake. All this time he had been walking upon the death road, the road of spirits, but he did not know it.

On the other side of the lake he saw people and called to them, but to his surprise no one seemed to hear him. After he had grown hoarse with shouting, he whispered to himself: “Why is it, I wonder, that no one hears me? It is not so far over there!”

Immediately they heard him, and one said: “It is a person come up from Dreamland. Let us go and bring him across!”

They came in a canoe and carried him across the lake, and when he reached the other side, the very first person he saw was his wife! Her eyes were red, and he saw that she had been crying for him. What joy to see her again! He was so happy that he could hardly bear it. The people offered him food, but his wife warned him not to eat, for if he did so, she said, he could never return to earth.

As it was, they went back together in the canoe, which is called “Ghost’s Canoe”, and started hand-in-hand down the long trail that led to his father’s house. They walked for a day and a night, and when they arrived, he left her standing outside and went to speak to his father.

“Father,” said the young man, “I have brought my wife home!”

“Why don’t you bring her in?” asked his father.

So they arranged robes to make a soft seat, and he went out to fetch her and came in again, but the people saw him alone. There was something like a shadow that came after. Wherever the young man went, this shadow could be seen to follow him. The shadow wife never spoke, at least not in the day time, but at night her voice could be heard plainly. The people in the house complained that it kept them awake. It seemed as if the two were talking and playing together all the night long.

There was a former lover of the girl who grew very jealous when her husband by his love brought her back from Ghost Land, and one night he hid himself behind their bed and suddenly raised the curtain. As he did so, there was heard a rattling of dry bones and then silence. In the morning the young husband lay dead, and the spirits of both went back to Ghost Land.

THE SELF-BURNING FIRE

One winter there was a great famine on the Copper River. The people began to die of hunger, first the children, then the old people, and finally the young and strong, until at last but eight men were left.

These eight men set out to walk to another village where food might be found, but they had not gone far when one perished of cold and starvation. They buried him and went on. Soon another froze to death, and a third lay down exhausted, and so on until only one was left.

Now this man felt wonderfully strong and walked on rapidly, notwithstanding he felt great sorrow at the loss of his comrades. Late that evening, he heard a shout ahead of him on the trail. He followed the sound and came to a great fire burning in the midst of snow and ice. Then he knew that it was the fire he had heard calling to him.

When he had warmed himself thoroughly and was about to start on again, he heard a crackling of bushes behind him. He looked back, and one by one his frozen comrades came up the trail and warmed themselves at the fire, followed by all the people who had starved to death in the village. This is the Self-Burning Fire which has mysterious power and is worshiped by the Indians.

THE LONG WINTER

It was almost summer time when some boys who were playing in a boat pulled out of the water a long piece of drifting seaweed and put it in again on the other side of the canoe. For this trifling, not only the mischievous boys were punished, but all the people in their village.

For winter at once came on again with fresh fury, and snow was piled so high in front of the houses that the people were soon in want of food. Their winter stores were exhausted, and they would have starved to death, had it not been for a bluejay which one day perched on the edge of a smoke hole with a spray of fresh elderberries in its beak.

“Kilnaxe! Kilnaxe!” screamed the jay. Now this was the name of a neighboring town. So all the people took the cedar bark they had prepared to make their summer houses of and went to Kilnaxe, where they found it was full summer and the berries already ripe. Winter lingered only about their own village.

From this story we learn that one must not insult anything—not even a piece of seaweed.