The Ants went to work and filled the wigwam with punk, the Bat, meantime, going every few moments to watch the enemy’s progress. At last he said that they had landed on the island.
The Wolf ordered everything to be removed from the wigwam,—his bows, arrows, stone axes, spears, pipes, and the paddles of his great stone canoe,—then he took the flint and set fire to the punk inside the wigwam.
The Ants had also filled the mouth of the passage on the mainland with punk, so that all the witches who went to see the killing of K’chī Molsom might not escape but perish.
When all was ready, Woodpecker gave the signal, and the wigwam fell into the hole, to be sure; but the blaze soon filled the passage and all their hiding-places with fire and smoke.
The witches, vainly hoping to escape, ran to the mouth of the passage on the mainland, but found it also stopped with fire; and they were all burned to death.[33]
K’chī Molsom took all his men and his goods in his stone canoe, and went to the next island, where they built a strong wigwam and thenceforth lived, more powerful and more to be dreaded than before, fighting many battles with the spirits of the water.
WAWBĀBAN, THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
There once lived an old chief, called “M’Sūrtū,” or the Morning Star. He had an only son, so unlike all the other boys of the tribe as to distress the old chief. He would not stay with the others or play with them, but, taking his bow and arrows, would leave home, going towards the north, and stay away many days at a time.
When he came home, his relations would ask him where he had been; but he made no answer.
At last the old chief said to his wife: “The boy must be watched. I will follow him.”