117. The Legend of Hodadeñon and His Elder Sister
It is said that once there lived together all alone in a very long lodge an infant brother and his elder sister. The only remaining fire burned at the end of the lodge. In this place for some years abode these two, undisturbed by any unusual event.
One day the brother said to his sister: “Oh, elder sister! what truly is the reason that we two live here alone in a lodge which is so very long?” In answer his sister said: “Indeed, we have been quite numerous in the not distant past; our relations, who have lived and are now dead, filled this lodge on both sides of the fire pits, to the doorways. The sorcerers have caused them all to perish; and this explains why you are called Hodadeñon, for you are the last one not under enchantment.”
It was evident that the young boy would become powerful in the exercise of orenda (magic power). It happened one day that he said: “Elder sister, you must make me a bow and an arrow.” She had great compassion for him, so she answered: “Let it be so.” Then she made a bow and an arrow, using on them her best skill. [[574]]Having completed her task, she gave them to him. “Thank you, elder sister,” he said; “now I will hunt. Hereafter you and I will regularly feed on meat. Now I will go to hunt.” She said: “Let it be so.”
Then the boy went out of the lodge. His voice continued to break forth as he went murmuring right there round about the lodge. He did not go far away. In the evening he entered the lodge, saying: “Ho, my elder sister, I come, having killed nothing. Tomorrow, very early in the morning, you must arise and prepare food for me. Then I will go to hunt, for very early in the morning game wanders about in the clearings.” In the evening they became quiet and slept.
At the dawn of day the boy spoke, saying: “Elder sister! come now, arise. You must prepare food for me. As soon as I finish eating I will go to hunt.” Arising, she prepared food, which was soon ready for him. As soon as he finished eating, he said: “Now, elder sister, I will go to hunt.” “Let it be so,” she said in reply, thinking that he would not go far away, as he was still so very small.
He went out of the lodge early in the morning. After a long time his voice was no longer heard. Thereupon his sister went out, wondering, “Where has he gone?” She looked around, going from place to place, but nowhere was he to be found. Then she thought, “He will get lost.” Soon after she had reentered the lodge, the sun being nearly set, it happened that all at once a noise again arose, as if something had struck the door—then suddenly Hodadeñon pushed his body against it and entered the lodge. He said: “Elder sister, it is a fact that I have been to hunt for game. I have killed a something, I know not what [it is]. Blacklegs, perhaps, it is called; banded-tail, perhaps, it is called, this thing that I have killed. So to the spot you and I must go, and you must take along the ‘burden cradle,’ for in that will the body be brought, as it is of great size.” “Let it be so; go on,” she said. “You would better take the burden cradle,” he said again. “Wah, I will carry its body easily,” she said. “Wah, you must be very strong,” he replied. “Go; let it be so,” she admonished him.
Then the two started. Having arrived at the place, he told her: “Right there I stood, and there it walked. Thus [I did] with my arrow, saying, ‘sî, sî, sî, sî, stop thou, first.’ So it did stand, forsooth. From here I shot, so that I hit it right in the center [of its body], whereupon it fell backward, saying, ‘daʻ, daʻ, daʻ, daʻ.’ Toward it I ran, crying, ‘Do not break my arrow that I prize so highly,’ while it rolled itself about in the dust.” While they slowly made their way along Hodadeñon did not cease telling what had happened. At times his sister would say: “Come, go thou on.” Suddenly he said: “Right there it lies. Do you think you can indeed carry it back?” “Wah,” she said, seizing it by the neck and starting homeward, [[575]]adding: “Come; go thou on.” “Goh, it is true, thou art strong, elder sister,” he said.
“What thing is it named, the thing that I have killed?” “Djoqgweyani[430] it is called,” she said. “Djoqgweyani is it named, elder sister?” he asked. “That is its name,” she replied. “Does it taste good?” he asked. “It tastes good,” she answered. “Dumplings are what it requires, for dumplings are what people put with it.” After reaching home she plucked the game, after which she “set up” the kettle and put in dumplings [with the meat]. Constantly did Hodadeñon stand around about the fire saying, “So it will indeed taste good to us?” “Ho, it certainly does taste good,” she said. When it was done she removed the kettle [from the fire] and placed the mess on pieces of bark, and the soup and dumplings in a bark bowl. Then they ate. Hodadeñon kept saying constantly, “It is so good, is it not, elder sister?” “Oh, yes! it is good,” she would reply. “Djoqgweyani—is it not true that is the name of the thing I killed?” he would say. “That is its name,” was her answer. When they finished eating, he said, “Tomorrow again will I go to hunt. Then indeed a large game animal will I kill.”
It was a usual thing in the evening that this boy did not go to sleep at once. Continually in the dark noises were heard here and there; then, again, under the bed these noises were heard. What he was doing was not known. So the elder sister said: “My younger brother, what are you usually doing making noises in the dark, yes, even under the bed, for long periods; and, too, you go about laughing?” “Well,” said he, “I will tell you. It is this. I am engaged in hunting fleas. They are very palatable, tasting good to me. I have now told you. Whenever one escapes I laugh. So never ask me this again.” He added, “Now again I will go to hunt.” “Let it be so,” she said in reply.
Thereupon Hodadeñon went out. For a short time his voice was heard around about outside the lodge; then again nowhere was his voice heard by his elder sister. On going out of doors and looking around without finding traces of him, she reentered the lodge. Not very long after, all at once she heard approaching footsteps; then something struck the door, which opened, and there stood her younger brother, Hodadeñon. He said: “My elder sister, get the burden cradle right away; forsooth, I have killed a large animal, and you are not able to bring it without the burden cradle. I wonder what the animal is called. Perhaps Baldheaded is its name; perhaps Snot-nose is its name; perhaps Tasseled-with-Hemlock-bough[431] is its name.” “Come, go on! let us go back there,” she replied. “But you will take the burden cradle,” he added. She answered: “Oh! I am fully prepared to bring it. Go thou on. Let us then start.” [[576]]
Thereupon the two started. She followed him a long distance, when at last he stopped and she did likewise. He said: “Right here I stood when suddenly yonder there walked a very large animal, and when I said, ‘Tci, tci, tci, tci, tci. Stop thou first.’ Just this way [indicating] I did with my arrow. I shook my arrow. The animal stopped. Then I said, ‘What, indeed, is thy name? Bald-head, it may be, you are named; Snot-nose, it may be, you are named.’ Then I shot it there so that the arrow fixed itself just in the center of the body, making it fall backward, saying [with its wings] du, du, du, du; it fluttered loudly its wings as it fell backward. Thereupon then I ran thither, saying as I went, ‘Do not break my arrow’; which I prize so much. Then I went near the place where it lay. So right there it lies.”
Hodadeñon then asked: “Gwe. What is its name?” She replied: “O’soont it is called.” Seizing it by the neck and throwing it on her shoulder she started homeward bearing the body, and said: “Come, go thou on; let us go home.” So they started homeward. They had not gone far when he said: “O’soont, is it not the name of what I have killed?” “That is it,” she said. Soon afterward he again said: “O’soont, is it not the name of what I have killed?” “That is it,” she again replied; “go thou onward; so be it.”
Once more they started forward. It was troublesome to answer him as they went along, for every little while he would stop again, saying: “My elder sister, what is the name of what I have killed?” Her answer was always: “O’soont is its name. Come, do you go on.” She became thoroughly provoked with him because at short intervals during the day he kept asking her the same question over and over.
When finally they reached their home, he asked: “Does it taste good?” She replied: “Hoh, it tastes good. It must be accompanied with hulled-corn mush.” After plucking the animal and cutting it up, she boiled it in a kettle over the fire. While it was cooking she exclaimed: “Hoh, how fat it is,” for the oil came bubbling up in the kettle. Again Hodadeñon stood around and kept saying: “My elder sister, does it taste good?” She would reply, “Woh, it does, indeed, taste good.” Then she hulled corn and made meal, from which she prepared mush to go with the boiled meat. Having removed the kettle from the fire and skimmed off the fat, she mixed it with the corn-meal mush. Next pouring the meat into a bark bowl and the corn-meal mush into another, the sister said: “Come now, let us two eat together.” While they ate the boy still kept saying: “Elder sister, I do think that the thing I killed tastes good. It is called O’soont, and it certainly does taste good.” They finished their meal, whereupon the boy said: “Tomorrow again I shall go to hunt. This time perhaps I shall kill something which will indeed be much larger than what I have killed already.” Soon it became [[577]]night, and they lay down to sleep. But as for Hodadeñon he spent the night going about hunting fleas, laughing when one would escape him.
When morning dawned the boy said: “Come, my elder sister, arise now. The game animals habitually go about the open spaces very early in the morning.” The sister having warmed up things [to eat], they ate their breakfast. When they were through the boy said: “Now I shall go out to hunt.” With these words he went out of the lodge. After going around the lodge murmuring for a long time, all of a sudden his murmurs ceased. He was now nowhere about the lodge, for he had gone to some unknown place. It was a long time before the sister heard the footsteps of a person who was approaching—the sounds, dih, dih, dih, dih. Again Hodadeñon struck the door, making it fly open, at which the boy leaped into the lodge, exclaiming: “Elder sister, let us go back right away. I have killed a very large game animal, but I do not know what animal it is. It may be that its name is Great Eyes; it may be that its name is It Has Two Long Ears; it may be that its name is White Tail. Now it is that you must take the burden cradle; otherwise you can not bear its body, for it is so great in size.” Answering, she said: “So be it. I will take the burden frame.”
Then the two started, and having arrived at the place, the boy suddenly stopped, saying: “Just here is the place where I was when I was surprised to see this animal running along there. Only my arrow I held out and said to the animal, ‘Tci, tci, tci, tci. Stop, first,’ and it stopped. Thereupon I asked it: ‘What is thy name? Perhaps Thy-Two-Eyes-are-Large is thy name; perhaps Thy-Two-Ears-are-Long is thy name; perhaps Thy-Tail-is-White is thy name?’ Then I shot, hitting the animal in the very center of its body. It ran along farther, and I pursued it. At a long distance from here I suddenly found its body lying there, with the arrow protruding very little, so deep had it penetrated into the middle of the creature’s body.” The two went on to the place where the game animal lay, and on reaching it, the boy said: “Here it lies.” His sister was surprised to see the body of a deer lying there, and she exclaimed: “My younger brother, I am thankful that now you have killed a large game animal. I have been in the habit of pitying you, hoping that perchance by the risks you have taken you might grow up to be a good hunter. Now I think you are immune to the orenda (magic power) of the neogen, for you have killed an animal bearing this name.” In a short time the boy exclaimed: “Oh, elder sister! does it taste good?” She answered: “Yes; indeed, it tastes good, and I shall now skin it.” When she completed this task she quartered the deer, after having cut off the legs, which she placed aside in a [[578]]pile by themselves. Then she proceeded to arrange a package of the meat on the burden cradle, securely binding it with cords of bark. Having finished her own load, she next proceeded to make a load for the boy of the four legs of the deer. Deftly fashioning a pack strap of bark, she fastened the load on his back, saying: “Come now, you take the lead.” At this he started ahead, and kept on while she gathered up her utensils and made ready to follow. Her load being very heavy, she could hardly manage it. In order to get it on her back she had to place it first on a log, from which she was able to raise it to her back. Then, with the sister following the lead of her younger brother, both went along with their burdens. A long distance was covered when she saw him sitting on a log with his burden resting on the log, too. He said: “I am resting because the load is so heavy. Come, do you also rest yourself here.” So, setting her load also on a log, she, too, rested. Again the boy asked: “My elder sister, what is the name of the thing that I killed?” She answered: “Neogen is its name.” He asked: “Does it taste good?” “Hoh, it tastes good,” she replied, “if it is cooked in the right way. Come now, let us go on homeward.” Of course she helped him get his burden on his back. When she readjusted her own load, she followed her brother. On reaching home, she found that he forsooth had arrived there too. As she entered their lodge her forehead strap broke, letting her burden fall, with the sound, pumh! It was very heavy.
Unwrapping and untying the packages of meat, the sister hung the various pieces around the interior of the lodge; the meat nearly filled the small room. Next she stretched the skin. For this purpose she made a large hooplike frame, telling the boy to watch her carefully while she did so. Then she attached the skin around the edges to this frame by means of bark cords. “In this way do people generally do this thing, which is called ‘stretching the hide,’ ” said the sister, “and you must ordinarily do it in the same manner, for I believe that you will live a very long time.” “So be it,” said the boy, “I will follow your instructions. Come now, do you prepare the food. I will try it to learn how good it is.” The sister answered: “So be it. I will make a dish of meat cut into small pieces boiled down. I will prepare it.” So she set up the pot [over the fire]; and around the place the boy hung, continually saying: “Perhaps this will taste exceedingly good to us. It tastes good indeed, I suppose.” “Oh! it tastes good,” she replied. So things went on until the food was cooked, when the sister removed the pot from the fire. Then she put the meat into a bark bowl, and the soup also. The deer’s liver had become by this time of the consistency of bread, so the brother and elder sister began to eat. While at their meal the lad exclaimed three times: “Ho, my elder sister, what I killed tastes exceedingly good.” [[579]]
When the two were through eating the boy said: “My elder sister, I shall now take a rest because I am tired out. Just now we have an abundance of meat.” Then he rested. Indoors he walked around, and indoors, too, he seated himself at times, and for a long time he went about hunting fleas. The sister went to fetch wood for fuel, taking the burden frame with her, so the boy was left by himself.
Suddenly he was startled by the sound of some one singing in the loft above: “My younger brother, tobacco. Once more I want to enjoy a smoke, my younger brother.” Climbing up into the loft, the boy was surprised to find a male person lying there, having a very large head and an enormous suit of hair. Hodadeñon said: “Gwe, what ails you?” The man replied: “My younger brother, I desire to smoke. Yonder lies a pouch made of skunk skin; in it there is a very small quantity of tobacco and there is also a pipe.” Having found the pouch as said, Hodadeñon took out of it a very small piece of tobacco; also a pipe. Next he proceeded to cut up all the tobacco, and kept saying, “I shall use it all, as it is my custom to do, for it is abundant seemingly.” Having completed his preparations, he took from the pouch the fire flint and the punk, and struck off sparks that set fire to the tobacco. Then, placing the pipe in the man’s mouth, he said: “Now you shall smoke.” Replying, “I thank you, my younger brother,” the man drew in the smoke, and smoke settled all over his head. Thereupon mice in large numbers came out of his hair because of the tobacco smoke that settled into it. Hodadeñon then ran away because he was choking with the smoke.
Just then his elder sister returned and said in a loud voice: “What are you doing? What are you doing?” Hodadeñon replied evasively: “My elder sister, what is the reason that you have not told me that a man lay in the loft who is your elder brother? You have constantly said that we two were alone, and that that was the reason I am called Hodadeñon.” The elder sister replied: “The reason why I have not told you before is because you are inattentive.” The younger brother answered: “I cut up the tobacco because my elder brother kept saying that he desired to smoke, and I used all of it, for there was only a very small piece left, and it would seem there is an abundance of tobacco growing. As soon as I placed the pipe in his mouth he drew in the smoke and blew it out, whereupon his hair became filled with the smoke and many mice came forth from it. The room was filled with smoke. I was choking from the effects of it when I descended from the room. That is what you heard and led you to say that I was doing mischief.”
The sister retorted: “I do say that you are careless and inattentive. You used up all the tobacco. At all times it was my habit to scrape only a very small quantity, which I put into his pipe, and he would [[580]]smoke. The times that he smokes are a year apart. But now you have used all the tobacco. This is the reason that I say you are careless and inattentive. Moreover, you have killed him, for I think there is no more left of that on which he must live.” Hodadeñon answered: “How far away is the place where that thing abounds?” She replied: “It is distant.” He persisted: “Come, tell me in what direction it grows.” She answered, “It is of no use for me to tell you. You could never have the power to accomplish the task of getting some.” “Guʼúʻ!” he exclaimed; “you seem to have a great contempt for my ability. Come, tell me, please.” Thus they spent the entire day disputing about the matter. The sister kept on saying: “It is of no use for me to tell you.”
Finally the lad stopped talking. It was a long time before the elder sister spoke again, saying: “Now my mind is troubled. I shall now tell you and make you understand, too. Look at this lodge of ours, which is a long lodge. It was full of our kin and relations, who are no more. Your brothers were many. They have all been lost in the region where the tobacco abounds. That place is full of what are called female sorceresses. So it is impossible for you to accomplish the task of getting the tobacco. The lad replied: “So be it. I shall make the attempt. I shall succeed in this matter, as is known [that I can]. Just look at what I can do; no matter how dark it may be I can slaughter the fleas, a task which no one else has been able to do.” The sister responded: “Do the best you can.” To this the lad said: “Tomorrow you must prepare provisions for me; I shall start then.” At once she began preparing food for the journey. The lad added: “You must make me a pack—one that is called a wrapped bundle.” So she made such a bundle and placed meat and bread in it. In the morning the two arose, whereupon the lad said: “I shall start. You and I are now to eat together for the last time.” When they had finished their meal the sister exclaimed: “My younger brother, do your best.”
Then he set out on his journey. Around the lodge he walked with his pack, murmuring as he went from place to place. Thus he spent the day. In the evening he reentered the lodge, with the words: “Oh, elder sister! I did not start. Tomorrow, I think, I shall surely start.” So saying, he laid his pack down. In the morning he said: “My elder sister, I am about to start. You say that the path leads directly south?” She replied: “That is what I have said. In certain places there are yet visible spots where fires have been kindled and where forked rods or crotched sticks are set in the earth, on which are fixed pieces of bread which are of many degrees of staleness. You also shall affix bread there to such rods. Such is the custom.”[432] The lad replied: “So be it. You shall be suddenly startled; the ashes where you have kindled a fire shall be scattered [[581]]because a measure of tobacco will fall there, causing the ashes to fly up. Then you shall think that I am still alive. I believe this shall come to pass.”
Taking up his pack, the boy said: “My elder sister, I am starting—you say that the path leads directly south?” She replied: “That is what I said.” Thereupon he went out of the lodge. For a long time she heard his voice around the lodge, as he went about murmuring. After that she heard it no more. Then she said: “Now, I suppose he has started. Oh! he is to be pitied, for he will become wretched. It is doubtful whether we shall ever see each other again.” The lad followed the path, and in the evening he suddenly came to a spot where it was plain that fires had been kindled and people had spent the night. The remains were of many times. Having decided to spend the night there, he kindled a fire, by means of which he warmed the bread and the meat which he took out of his pack. When he had finished his meal, he was startled to see near by forked or crotched rods set in the ground, on some of which were fixed pieces of bread, and on others pieces of meat. These had been there for widely varying periods. At this sight he exclaimed: “Oh, how wretched did they become! Those persons who have left these remains are indeed all dead, and they were brothers to me. So I, too, shall do the same thing.” Then he set up in the ground a rod with a crotch, on which he fastened a piece of bread among the other fragments of all ages—some of them quite old. Then he lay down and went to sleep, with his body supported against his pack. In the morning, finding everything as it should be, the lad said aloud: “I am thankful that I am still alive. My elder sister said indeed that it was doubtful that she and I would see each other again, because the path I must follow passes through all manner of difficulties.”
Having said this, he set out along the path. When he had gone a long way he was startled to hear at some distance the sound, “doʻʹ, doʻʹ, doʻʹ, doʻʹ,” which one would suppose was made by a woodpecker loudly pecking on a great hollow tree. Going to the tree whence the noise came, he saw fluttering from place to place and pecking holes in the trunk a cuckoo of enormous size. A sight that caught his eye and conveyed a more serious warning was the great number of arrows stuck in the tree near the spot where the cuckoo was fluttering about. He concluded that these arrows had belonged probably to those who had been his brothers, and that therefore this bird was possessed of great orenda (magic power), which it exerted with evil purpose only. Thereupon the lad exclaimed: “It shall see its doom, for now I will kill it.” Aiming at the cuckoo, his arrow struck in the very center of its body, whereupon it began to beat with its wings against the tree to which it was pinned. [[582]]
Thus leaving the bird, the boy went on until evening, when he again came to a spot where there were still traces of the former fireplace. There he stopped for the night. After taking his pack from the forehead strap and laying it aside, he kindled a fire, by which he warmed up the meat and the bread he had brought. When he finished his meal he set up a forked or pronged rod to which he fastened a small portion of bread. The spot was literally covered with rods carrying bread of all ages, which had been set up by persons at widely varying times. Having completed his offering, the boy retired for the night, resting on his pack. Soon he began to be troubled with dreams, so that he rolled and tossed from side to side and could not sleep.
Suddenly he was startled by the barking of a small dog, which had a very shrill bark, such as he had never before heard. The sound drew nearer. The night was very dark. Quickly arising and taking with him all his things he ran to a near-by stream and ran up the trunk of a tree that slanted far out over the water. In a short time he became suddenly aware from its barking that the dog was near and that it was rapidly coming nearer still. When the animal was very close the boy heard the sound of rattles [of deer knuckles] and a woman’s voice approaching, too, saying to the dog: “Do your best, my slave. Just leave me the head of Hodadeñon.” Now he was startled by the barking of the cur directly under the tree in which he was seated. Carefully fitting his arrow, he released it, whereupon the arrow flew with the sound “thum!” and he heard the cry of the cur, “kwĕñʻʹ, kwĕñʻʹ, kwĕñʻʹ,” so he knew that he had struck it. There the woman turned back, saying: “Aha! It is true, I think, as all people are saying, that Hodadeñon is without a peer in sorcery.”
In the morning the lad descended from his perch on the slanting tree and went to the place where lay the cur, stark dead. The arrow had struck the body fairly in the middle, where it still remained. He drew his arrow out of the dog’s body, when he suddenly found that there was a very small knuckle rattle tied to its neck. Having removed this rattle bell, he cast the body of the dog, which was indeed very small, into the water. In doing this he remarked, “Now will begin the period in which my mind is to be disturbed by serious difficulties, it would seem. I think those women whose minds are evil do not live far from here.” So saying, he started on his journey.
The lad had not gone far when all at once he saw a man coming toward him. As they met, the stranger said: “I am thankful that you are in health and peace, Hodadeñon.” Hodadeñon answered: “It is true in the terms of your greeting to me. It is now my turn, too, to greet you. I am thankful that you are well and in peace.” The man replied: “This is certainly the truth.” Then the two [[583]]smiled, and one asked: “Is it not true that you and I are friends?” Whereupon the other answered: “Indeed it is the truth we are friends. Whence did you come?” Then the lad said: “Ho, far from here have I come. Whence did you come to this place?” The stranger replied: “I, this self of mine, came from far from here, and I have left no relations, and this is the reason why I am called Hodadeñon (Sʻhodadeñon[433]). It is known that I myself am the last one. The lodge whence I came was very long and, it is said, was full of my relations, now dead, and of my own brothers. They were destroyed on the way to the place where dwell those women of evil minds. We are friends, so let us go together. You can aid me, and we shall be able to rob them of tobacco.” The stranger’s answer was, “Be it so,” whereupon the two at once started off along the path.
After going a long distance they found the remains of a fire; there they stopped for the night. As soon as they had warmed up bread and meat they ate their evening meal. When they had finished eating the stranger said: “It is a fact that these portions of bread affixed to the top of the rods are the cause or occasion for which all our kinsmen died. Moreover, it is for us to make this a feast of Reunion of the Living, which we must use as the means of thanksgiving and prayer. We must make an offering of tobacco by casting tobacco on the fire. It is called the ceremony of making an offering of tobacco. I have tobacco with which to do this.” Hodadeñon answered: “So be it. How shall we do it?” The stranger: “All provisions that you have brought with you we must lay in a circle around the fire, and a portion we must place aside in the dark (i.e., conceal it).” Saying, “So be it,” Hodadeñon began to take the things out of his pouch and to lay them in a circle around the fire. He also hid far away in the dark some meat and bread.
Standing beside the fire and holding the tobacco from the pouch in his hand, he said: “Come now, listen to me, you, all kinds of animals and you, too, who have formed and made my life.” With these words he cast the tobacco into the fire, exclaiming: “Now do you listen; now the smoke of tobacco arises. Moreover, he and I ask you to give us assistance, all of you who inhabit the forests and who are immune to enchantment, and you who have made my life and that of my friend, who, too, has no relations left, and myself who have no relations left, for which reason I am called Hodadeñon. We shall fetch all these from the place where they have perished. These are the things for which I pray. So thus we here fulfill our obligation by placing this tobacco in this place, and we have laid away food in the darkness.” Having completed this invocation, Hodadeñon said to his companion: “Come, now, let us go.” [[584]]
At midnight the two started and had gone very far when daylight came. As they traveled they suddenly heard ahead of them the sounds “duʻʹ, duʻʹ, duʻʹ, duʻʹ.” Thereupon Hodadeñon said to his friend: “Show your courage now, my friend. We have arrived, it seems, in the place where those who have evil minds dwell. Closer let us go.” At last they reached the place in which the lodge stood, and they halted some distance from it.
All at once they heard a man singing and beating a drum. As he sang, he said: “Here I am making tobacco; here I am making tobacco; here I am making tobacco; he who has tobacco prepares tobacco.” Hodadeñon said to his companion, “Now is the time,” and his friend replied: “So let it be.” Then they two entered the lodge, where they came face to face with an old man, who held a mallet in his hand with which he was pounding the tobacco all over. He was so old that his eyebrows hung down far over his eyes. Hodadeñon said to him, “Oh, my uncle!” but he did not notice him and kept on pounding the tobacco. At this, Hodadeñon, drawing his war club, struck him a blow on the forehead, causing the blood to gush forth. After a long while the old man said, “Oh! I am sweating,” at the same time wiping the blood off his forehead. Next, upraising his eyebrows and looking at them, he said: “Oh! my two nephews, you have now arrived. Take courage, my two nephews, because I myself am a slave working in tobacco.” Hodadeñon answered: “I have come after tobacco and nothing else, because my elder brother, who is far from here, desires to smoke.” The old man answered: “He is, I suppose, my own brother. So be it. Take some back with you.”
So Hodadeñon, taking up a twist of tobacco, threw it, saying: “Go hence to the opening of the chimney of the lodge where my sister abides and drop in the ashes [at her feet].” The sister, greatly surprised to see the ashes of the fire fly up, exclaimed, “I am thankful that my brother Hodadeñon, it would seem, is still alive,” and she picked up the tobacco.
Next the young men asked the man with the long eyebrows where stood the lodge of the very wicked women. He answered the spokesman: “Have courage. There stands the lodge yonder, on the farther side of the lake. It is doubtful whether you two can cross the lake. As we know, the ice on it is very slippery. No matter who it is that goes there, as soon as he steps upon the ice a man speaks out, saying: ‘Let it rain bones; let it be nothing but bones.’ And at once he becomes a pile of bones. Such will happen to you if it be that you two are sorcerers.” Hodadeñon said in reply: “Come, my friend, let us start.” Then they set out at once. Arriving at the lake, they found that the ice that covered it was very smooth and that the lodge stood on the farther shore. There a number of people were walking [[585]]about. One would think that they were expecting something to happen, for they were looking around. Hodadeñon said to his companion: “Come, let us start.” Unstringing their bows, they started on their journey over the ice, in the course of which they used their bows as walking sticks, striking with them upon the ice. Everything went on all right as they made their way over the frozen surface. All at once the people on the shore saw them coming, whereupon they came at once on the ice to meet the bold visitors. At once the people shouted, “It is raining bones,” and they came on, while the two kept on their way. At last one of the people of the shore exclaimed: “Aha! Now I believe it certain that Hodadeñon, the great wizard, has arrived, and they have indeed crossed the lake.” Then all returned to their lodge on the shore. Having crossed the lake, the two went at once to the lodge on the shore. With bravado they entered it, finding all the occupants at home. One there was who was an old woman.
One of the inmates said to the strangers: “It is a custom with us that when anyone visits us we amuse ourselves, and generally for this purpose we bet our heads.” Hodadeñon asked: “How is it customary for you to do this?” The reply was: “We run a race here on the ice. We usually make a circuit of the lake and we use the snowshoe.” Hodadeñon answered: “So be it, then; let us bet then.” He then made very fine snowshoes, which were very small. When he had completed his task, he announced: “I am now all ready.” Thereupon all went to the ice, and one said: “Now we must go around the border of the lake on the ice, and whoever comes in ahead to this scratch line shall win.” Then the runners went to the scratch line, where they stood awaiting the order to go. Hodadeñon said: “I shall run alone on my side.” But the lake-dwellers pitted four men against him.
The order to go (Oʹnĕⁿʻʹ) was given—at which the contestants started to run around the lake. When they had run half the way around it Hodadeñon was in the rear of the others. Removing his snowshoes and setting them side by side, he got upon them, saying to them: “Take courage, pass him; yes, pass them, and go directly to the scratch line. The other runners were suddenly made aware of the fact by the furious sounds they heard that Hodadeñon was overtaking them very fast. In a short time he passed them, and, easily keeping ahead of them, he soon arrived at the place whence they had started. When his opponents arrived at the scratch line he was standing there awaiting them. Addressing them, he said: “I have now won from you; I have outrun you. Come on, my friend, let us behead them now, one and all.” So the two destroyed all the wicked people. [[586]]
Next they went aside to a long pile of bones and proceeded to lay them in order, side by side, working at this task for a long time. When they had finished, they began to push against a great elm tree, while Hodadeñon shouted: “The great elm is falling on them who are sleeping here.” Bravely they arose, all mingled together, men and women, some with one arm or one leg longer than the other. Then Hodadeñon said: “Take courage, my friend, it seems you must aid me in restoring the defective limbs of the people here.” At once he went to work amending the arms and legs of the people who had received the wrong limbs in their resurrection. This work having been finished, Hodadeñon said: “Let everyone go home to the place whence he came,” but all replied: “We do not know whence we came to this place.” Hodadeñon answered: “So let it be; then you must accompany us home. We will go back to that place where my brother and sister abide, because that lodge in which they dwell is very long, so you can live there. Come, now, let us start.”
So all departed from that place, with Hodadeñon in the lead. They were many nights on the way before they reached home; they were many in number when they reached their destination. Once there, Hodadeñon said: “Oh! my elder sister, we have now returned home, and you must assign them places in the lodge, for I do not know all.” Thereupon she told him to make the assignments himself, so when the large party entered he walked back and forth in the lodge, dividing it among them. But before making the assignments he said: “Now, it is not right that one man should live by himself and one woman by herself; hence it shall be that a man and a woman shall dwell together, and they shall sleep together, and they shall whisper together; they shall love each other, and thus they shall be happy.”
Thus they dwell today according to the labors of Hodadeñon.
This is the length of the legend.