The brothers now stepped forth in quick succession, but Grasshopper, having got his blood up and limbered himself by exercise, soon dispatched the three—sending one this way, another that, and the third straight up into the air, so high that he never came down again.
It was time for the old Manito to be frightened, and dreadfully frightened he got, and ran for his life, which was the very worst thing he could have done; for Grasshopper, of all his gifts of strength, was most noted for his speed of foot. The old Manito set off, and for mere sport's sake, Grasshopper pursued him. Sometimes he was before the wicked old spirit, sometimes he was flying over his head, and then he would keep along at a steady trot just at his heels, till he had blown all the breath out of the old knave's body.
Meantime his friend, the pipe-bearer, and the twenty young warriors cried out:
"Ha, ha, ha! ha, ha, ha! Grasshopper is driving the Manito before him."
The Manito only turned his head now and then to look back. At length when he was tired of the sport, Grasshopper, to be rid of him, with a gentle application of his foot sent the wicked old Manito whirling away through the air, where he made a great number of the most curious turn-overs in the world till he came to alight. It so happened, then, that he fell astride of an old bull-buffalo grazing in a distant pasture, who straightway set off with him at a long gallop; and the old Manito has not been heard of to this day.
Then the warriors and the pipe-bearer and Grasshopper set to work and burned down the lodge of the wicked spirits, and when they came to look about, they saw that the ground was strewn on all sides with human bones bleaching in the sun; these were the unhappy victims of the Manitoes. Grasshopper then took three arrows from his girdle, and after having performed a ceremony to the Great Spirit, he shot one into the air, crying:
"You are lying down; rise up, or you will be hit!"
The bones all moved to one place. He shot the second arrow, repeating the same words, and each bone drew toward its fellow-bone. The third arrow brought forth to life the whole multitude of people who had been killed by the Manitoes. Grasshopper conducted the crowd to his friend, the chief of the village, and gave them into his hands, telling who they were and the manner in which they had come to life again. Meanwhile the twenty warriors, pipe-bearer, and all the people cried together:
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Grasshopper has killed the wicked Manito."
The chief was there with his counsellors, to whom he spoke apart.