Hahyennoweh smiled, and then laughed at his father saying, “Nia’´gwahē is an old and foolish creature. So it is only he who makes this challenge! Chisnah! He should know that I am the champion of runners. Father, tell me more particularly about him, I would like to know how to feel afraid, but what you have said does not make me afraid.”
Turning, the father answered, “Nia’´gwahē is a mighty conjurer. He can change his form to suit him any time he wishes. He has never once been beaten in a race. Now you had better go to sleep and let me think about it and when I am done I shall awaken you.” So the son drew his blanket over his head and went back to his dreaming.
Seizing the pestle, the father pounded parched corn and maple sugar together and moistening the meal molded it into a cake and put it into a rawhide bag. After awhile he awakened his son for he had been thinking as he had worked.
“Son, awake!” he said. “I have been thinking and now I will advise you. The small humming bird is the swiftest of all the feathers and Nia’´gwahē has never had a race with him. In your cap I am going to put two feathers from the humming bird’s breast; they are a race charm.”
The father did not want to sleep that night but sat and threw pinches of oyankkwaoweh, the sacred tobacco, on a small fire to calm his fears and give him power with medicine spirits.
Before the sunrise the son awoke and going down the trail to the creek took his morning plunge and returned to eat his venison. Finishing his meal, he shook his father’s hand and said, “Oneh, now I am going.” His limbs felt strong and elastic for he had rubbed them well with plenty of oil. As he ran he thought he would like to test his jumping power,—just for luck,—and nearing the windfall, judged its breadth seven times his length. Increasing his speed he gave a great leap and cleared it. “Ho!” said he, “I am ready for any race in the world and ready for Nia’´gwahē, the beast-conjurer. My legs move of their own accord and my feathers give me power. Now where is this old thing that gives me a challenge?”
Just as he spoke there was a loud snort, and looking up he saw the monster.
The sun was about to go under the rim of the sky, over Onondasdaht, the big hill. Hahyennoweh spoke, “Shall we race now? I am ready, it is sunrise!” But Nia’´gwahē did not answer. He simply blew wind through his nose and started running.
The monster’s path was toward a swamp and Hahyennoweh followed after. The great beast ran very fast through clumps of bushes, just as easily as the son ran over grass. Saplings, stumps and trees fell before the big animal. For about five miles the son labored through the muck and tangles, and then seeing that these obstacles were too much for his style of running, concluded that it would not be wise to follow much longer through the swamp-land. He, therefore, decided to return to the starting point and take his route over the high ridge that curved for miles around the big swamp. Toward noon, when he had circled it, and had run miles beyond, he saw Nia’´gwahē far in the distance. Increasing his speed he soon reached the animal with the exclamation, “Ho-hoh, I am up to you!” But the mammoth bear only replied, “Ungh wooh!” The son saw that the Nia’´gwahē was very tired and as he ran beside him he said. “Kway Nia’´gwahē! Adekoni, it is time for eating!” But the beast with heavy breathing kept on running. Hahyennoweh, the Swift Runner, paused in the race, and sitting down on a stone, took a swallow of water and slowly chewed a handful of parched corn and sugar. He rested for a while after his meal and then after a swim in the brook, near by, he started on his race again.
When the sun was midway from the high heavens to its setting, the son caught up to the beast again. “Ho-hoh, I am up to you, old opossum!” he said, but the huge animal was too tired even to grunt. A stream of water poured from his body leaving in his tracks a muddy streak and his big sides bulged within and without.