“Jump in, Sē´no‘, two brave fellows as we can collect a most formidable party,” said the turtle, and he changed the words of his song as he paddled.
A rattlesnake next offered his services and when he had shaken his rattles and shown his fangs, was accepted.
“Tumble in,” said the turtle, “and we will sing until another warrior as brave as we is added to our party.” So all sang, as they coursed down the stream.
The song attracted a hedgehog, and wishing to become a warrior too, he shouted from the shore.
“Well, what can you do?” inquired the turtle as the canoe neared the bank.
“I can shoot my arrows,” said the hedgehog, and mounting a stump shook himself until his quills flew in all directions.
“You are my warrior,” said the turtle as he shoved his canoe to a convenient embarking point.
When the hedgehog had climbed over the side of the canoe and the war party had paddled off from the shore, the turtle swelled proud in his skill and sang a mighty war song defying all foes.
The party counselled together and decided to make their first attack upon a human settlement. Reaching a short distance below they secreted their canoe and crawled stealthily through the bushes and grass to a lodge not far from the river. It was evening and the party resolved to take their positions of attack and await the coming of dawn. The skunk lay at the back door, the hedgehog at the wood pile, the snake coiled in the kindling barrel and the turtle hid beneath the rocks of the spring and morning found them ready to fight.
A woman pushed aside the curtain of the lodge door and stepped out of doors. The skunk was on the alert and shot her full at her face. The woman with a groan fell upon him and beat his head flat with her fists. Another woman, hearing the commotion rushed out and standing at the wood pile to watch her distressed sister received a sudden shock. The hedgehog ran between her legs and filled them full of his sharp barbed quills. With a scream the woman dealt her assailant a death blow with a billet of wood and ran screaming into the house. Soon, out came another woman bearing a basket which she set down in the kindling barrel as she paused to look at the dead bodies of the hedgehog and the skunk. Through the splints she saw the coils of a snake. She picked up a heavy stone and flung it into the barrel and killed the snake before he had had a chance to strike.