It was so immense that when it was thus stretched across, its shadow darkened the whole valley below.
For a long time the people did not know it was there, but when at last they found out that such a monster inhabited the country, they were afraid to live in the valley, so that it was deserted long before the Indians were removed from the country.
MYTH TWENTY-THREE.
The Snake Boy.
There was a boy who used to go bird hunting every day, and all the birds he brought home to give to his grandmother, who was very fond of him. This made the rest of the family jealous, and they treated him in such fashion that at last one day he told his grandmother he would leave them all, but that she must not grieve for him.
Next morning he refused to eat any breakfast, but went off hungry to the woods and was gone all day. In the evening he returned, bringing with him a pair of deer horns, and went directly to the hothouse (Asi), where his grandmother was waiting for him. He told the old woman that he must be alone that night, so she got up and went into the house where the others were.
At early daybreak she came again to the hothouse and looked in, and there she saw an immense Uktena that filled the Asi, with horns on its head, but still with two human legs instead of a snake’s tail.
It was all that was left of her boy. He spoke to her and told her to leave him, and she went away again from the door. When the sun was well up, the Uktena began slowly to crawl out, but it was full noon before it was all out of the Asi. It made a terrible hissing noise as it came out, and all the people ran from it.
It crawled on thru the settlement, leaving a broad trail in the ground behind it, until it came to a deep bend in the river, where it plunged in and went under the water.