The dog ran forward but after a long tedious journey the sister dismounted to rest, and seeing a pretty bird fluttering just before her, began to chase it. It finally flew out of sight and when she returned to find the dog it had disappeared. She then remembered her brother’s warning and stumbled forward hoping to find relief.
Meanwhile the brother ran on to the refuge but when he reached the lodge he found that his sister had not come. Some one was coming, however, for he heard footsteps. He looked and saw the witch approaching. “Where is she?” cried the witch, “Where is my daughter-in-law?” The youth was perplexed, but answered, “She is coming, you must have passed them.”
“I cannot rest,” said the witch, “for your pet owls continually say, ‘It is another and she is his sister.’”
The youth now perceived that he must escape the witch and so he asked her where she was going. “To your lodge,” she called as she sped onward over the trail.
The youth hurried forward over a shorter trail and reached the lodge before the witch. “Where is my daughter-in-law?” yelled the old woman as she entered the lodge.
“She has returned to the other lodge,” answered the youth.
“It is another one,” sang the fireplace, and then added, “My friend has killed me and taken his younger sister to wife.”
“I must meet my wife,” said the youth as he hurried away. He knew that he must now make his escape.
The witch was now thoroughly suspicious and dug into the fireplace. Soon she discovered her son and saw that indeed he had been killed. Burying him in another place she ran to her own lodge and took her witch charms, invoking them to give her power. To make herself mighty she drank the oil of hickory nuts. To test her power she smote a hickory tree but her blows only loosened all the bark. Drinking more oil she struck the tree again, reducing it to splinters. Now feeling confident she transformed herself into a Niă’´gwahē and started in pursuit of the youth, crying, “You cannot escape me.”
When the youth found himself closely pressed he threw out a handful of pigeon feathers ordering them to become a monster flock of pigeons and to make the ground beneath them impassable. Immediately pigeons flew thickly in the air and covered the ground with an impassable slime in which the witch wallowed until exhausted, when she swooned. When she recovered the youth was far away and only a few pigeon feathers could be seen on the ground.