“Ionegattha sago no sothetstsowa Haiasho!
Ionegattha sago no sothetatsowa Hayasho!”
These were the words he heard and then he voided his meal.[[42]] He ran out of the lodge, and above the trees overhead he saw his wives paddling a canoe through the air. They were not descending. Osīda was sick at stomach but he ran to catch them. They paddled fast and he did not succeed in getting near them for some time. At last he was at the side of the canoe which the women were paddling over the ground. He leaped into the canoe but the women leaped out and hopped away into the bush lands. Osīda chased them but lost sight of his runaway wives.
Now Sēno heard a noise above his burrow and sticking his head from the door saw the women whom he loved running. “Kwe!” he cried, “what is your haste?”
“We are running away from Osīda,” they replied.
“My lodge will be a safe refuge,” he answered with a smile, and beckoned them in. So they entered.
Osīda spied their tracks in the mud and stalked them to a burrow. He was about to run into the hole without looking when a hairy tail of some animal was pushed against his very face. He had no warning and was drenched with Sēno’s fetid water. He fell back and cried loudly for he was greatly in distress. By and by his grandmother came to him. She said something to him, but Osīda did not laugh. He went home with his grandmother.
46. THE RACCOON AND THE CRABS.
There was a raccoon who was fond of crabs. It was his custom to catch the crabs when they swam out from under a rock in the water. After a time the crabs learned how he caught them and when he came near the water they would hide under a flat rock and not come out until a sentinel told them that the raccoon had gone. The raccoon thought it strange that the crabs had grown so wary and resolved to play a trick. He crept to the bank of the brook and lay upon his back pretending to be dead. After some time the crabs crawled out to the bank and looked carefully at the “dead” raccoon. Then the chief of the crabs, Hasanowane Odji’eg´dă, was his name, notified all the crab people to come out and see their dead enemy. Now when they had all assembled the chief said, “He is dead, let us all rejoice. He who destroyed us is himself at last destroyed. So let us rejoice and show our gladness by a dance.” So they danced and this was the song:
Do sa gwe Do sa gwe ga no ho tci do