Whereupon the whole crowd of hunters began upon him with their clubs, and knocked his skull about until it was no harder than a morass in the middle of summer. Grasshopper thought as well as ever he did, although he was inhabiting the carcass of a beaver; and he felt that he was in a rather foolish scrape.
Presently seven or eight of the hunters hoisted his body upon long poles and marched away home with him. As they went, he reflected in this manner:
"What will become of me? My ghost or shadow will not die after they get me to their lodges. So perhaps then I will be free again."
Invitations were immediately sent out for a grand feast. But as soon as Grasshopper's body got cold, his soul flew off, being uncomfortable in a house without heat.
Having reassumed his mortal shape, Grasshopper found himself standing near a prairie. After walking a distance, he saw a herd of elk feeding. He admired their apparent ease and enjoyment of life, and thought there could be nothing more pleasant than the liberty of running about and feeding on the prairies. He had been a water animal and now he wished to become a land animal, to learn what passed in an elk's head as he roved about. So he asked them if they could not turn him into one of themselves.
"Yes," they answered, after a pause. "Get down on your hands and feet."
He obeyed their directions and forthwith found himself an elk.
"I want big horns, big feet," said he. "I wish to be very large." For all the conceit and vain-glory had not been knocked out of Grasshopper, even by the sturdy thwacks of the hunters' clubs.
"Yes, yes," they answered. "There," exerting their power, "are you big enough?"
"That will do," he replied, for, looking into a lake hard by, Grasshopper saw that he was very large.