As soon as he heard this, he said to his sister:
"I am now a young man and very much in want of a companion."
He asked his sister to make him several pairs of moccasins. She complied with his request; and as soon as he received the moccasins, he took up his war-club and set out in quest of the distant village.
He traveled on till he came to a small wigwam, in which he discovered a very old woman sitting alone by the fire. As soon as she saw the stranger, she invited him in, and thus addressed him:
"My poor grandchild, I suppose you are one of those who seek for the distant village, from which no person has ever yet returned. Unless your guardian is more powerful than the guardians of those who have gone before you, you will share a similar fate to theirs. Be careful to provide yourself with the invisible bones those people use in the medicine-dance, for without these you cannot succeed." After she had thus spoken, she gave him the following directions for his journey:
"When you come near to the village which you seek, you will see in the center a large lodge, in which the chief of the village, who has two daughters, resides. Before the door there is a great tree, which is smooth and without bark. On this tree, about the height of a man from the ground, is hung a small lodge, in which these two false daughters dwell. It is here that so many have been destroyed, and among them your two elder brothers. Be wise, my grandchild, and abide strictly by my directions."
The old woman then gave to the young man the bones which were to secure his success; and she informed him with great care how he was to proceed.
Placing them in his bosom, Onwee Bahmondang, or The Wearer of the Ball, continued his journey and kept eagerly on until he arrived at the village of which he was in search. Here, on gazing around, he saw both the tree and the lodge which the old woman had mentioned.
He at once bent his steps toward the tree, and approaching, endeavored to reach the suspended lodge. But all his efforts were in vain; for as often as he attempted to reach it, the tree began to tremble, and it soon shot up so that the lodge could hardly be perceived.
He bethought him of his guardian spirit, so invoking his aid and changing himself into a squirrel, he mounted nimbly up again, in the hope that the lodge would not now escape him. But to his disappointment away shot the lodge, climb as briskly as he might.