The man and his dogs went toward the west. The dogs had left the children in a place near a village where an old woman lived with her granddaughter. While the young girl was in the woods gathering fuel she heard the sound of voices. On listening, as the wind came directly to her, she discovered that they were human voices, and thought, “I will ask grandmother what to do.” When she reached home with her wood she told the old woman that she had heard children crying and asked her to go to the woods to hear for herself. The old woman asked: “In what direction were the voices? It is a pleasure to know that there are children yet alive; they must be for us.” They went to the place. “Now listen!” said the girl. “True,” said the grandmother. “Look everywhere and find these children; they may be sent to us, as we are alone.” The girl followed the sound, which she could hear distinctly as coming from the ground. She kept on until she found the two children, seemingly a year old, one slightly larger than the other. Going up to them she told them to stop crying; that she would be their mother. As she stood there talking her grandmother came, who pitied the children; she found that they were clothed with skins. The grandmother said: “Now stop crying. You shall be our children. I will be your grandmother and my granddaughter will be your mother.” The girl added: “All we have shall be yours. I will love you as a mother.” The boys stopped crying. Each had his little bow and arrows and ball club. The children went home with the women. The old woman said: “We will take care of these children. There are many people in the village, but not a child among them all. I lived here a long time, but have never seen a little child.” The children soon seemed larger and sometimes would go to hunt birds. They were never gone long at a time, and never went out of sight of the lodge. “Grandmother,” called one of the boys one day, “come and see what we have killed; it is all spotted and lies yonder in the weeds.” “Where is it? Where is it?” she asked. The boys led the way, but she could hardly keep in sight of them, as the weeds were tall. On reaching the spot she found a fawn, a few hours old, which they had killed. She carried it home, saying to herself: “I am thankful to have these children; they will be great hunters in time; their game is getting larger. First they kill birds, now a fawn.” [[296]]When they did not feel like hunting they would play out near the lodge and then go in and sit down.
One day one of the boys said, “Our father is coming.” The other said, “I hardly think our father is alive.” The old grandmother overhearing this, told the boys to go out and shoot birds, for she wanted some to roast and eat. The next day while the children were out a man came into the lodge. The invisible brother had told him where he would find his children, and that he must say when he came to the old woman’s lodge, “Grandmother, I am thankful to see you,” and to the girl, “Sister, I am very glad to see you.” As he went in he saw the old woman and saluted her as grandmother; to the girl he said, “Sister.” One of the boys outside said, “Our father has come.” The other replied: “I do not believe this is he, for our father had two dogs. There are no dogs with this man.” As the boy was bound to know, raising the doorflap slightly, he saw his father sitting with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. Noticing a red spot on his jaw, the boy said further: “Look for yourself; see, he has a mark on his face; it is really he. Let us go and see which way he came; we can tell his trail, and we will follow it and see whether we can find the dogs.”
They had gone but a short distance when they found that the dogs had gone in another direction, whereupon one of the boys said: “Let us follow their tracks; father loves those dogs; let us find them.” In the evening they found one dog sitting on a fallen tree. The larger boy said: “There sits one of the dogs.” “Let us go and see if it is really father’s dog,” said the other. On hearing the children’s voices the dogs were as much pleased to see them as the boys were to see the dogs. The boys now said, “Let us all go home.” The boys did not know the way, however, so the dogs took the lead. It was late at night and very dark, and the people at home were frightened and very anxious about the children, not knowing where to look for them. When the boys came back, the grandmother asked: “Why were you gone so long? Why did you frighten us so?” “We were looking for our father’s dogs,” said they. Thereupon they went into the lodge, the dogs following. The man was lying down, so all went to sleep. All were now together again.
The young woman was the man’s own sister and the grandmother was his grandmother. They all lived very happily together. And this is the story.
58. Doonongaes[135] and Tsodiqgwadon
Doonongaes, who lived at one end of Ganyodaes,[136] or Long Lake, had such orenda (magic power) that no one in that region could influence or control him. He claimed the lake and all that lived in its waters. [[297]]
Doonongaes had a servant, Skahnowa,[137] who lived at the other end of Ganyodaes, which was so long that one end of it could not be seen from the other. Skahnowa’s work was to patrol the lake and keep off intruders. One morning early he jumped up, saying, “I must be on my rounds, for if I do not I shall be punished.” So he hurried along the shore; soon he saw some one with a pole, evidently fishing. Skahnowa approached and, seeing him eating a fish, he asked, “What are you doing here?” “Oh! there is a great deal of fungus[138] growing on the hickory trees here,” replied the intruder. “If you are getting fungus from the trees, why do you go to the water?” asked Skahnowa. “You see,” said the man, who was Djidjogwen,[139] “the fungus is sandy and I go to the lake to wash it.” “Well,” said Skahnowa: “I think you have stolen something, and you better give up one of your own people as a gift in payment[140] for what you have taken. The owner of this lake will come soon and he will settle with you. I am going on.” Djidjogwen stood on the bank and kept thinking: “Can this be true? It is very strange if it be true that one person owns this lake.” Going to his master, Skahnowa said: “I have news for you. There is a man yonder at Dediosteniagon[141] who is getting fish out of the water very fast.” “I will stop him. I like to amuse myself in this way,” said Doonongaes, who got his kettle ready at once and, taking his club, started for the place.
Skahnowa continued his journey around the lake. When Doonongaes came in sight of Dediosteniagon, looking around carefully, he saw a man[142] some distance off. “Oh! that is the one,” thought he, and diving under the water he came out right in front of Djidjogwen, who had pulled out a great fish a moment before. “What are you doing?” asked Doonongaes. “What business have you to meddle with my game animals?” “Oh! you are mistaken. I am not meddling with them. I am merely eating the fungus[143] that grows around here,” replied Djidjogwen. “Then how came that fish here?” asked Doonongaes. “As I stood here a small bird flew along above the water, and a fish, leaping up to catch the bird, perhaps, jumped out here on the shore,” said Djidjogwen. “Oh! that is not true; I will punish you,” snapped Doonongaes. Djidjogwen started to run. Doonongaes followed and, striking him on the head with his club, killed him, remarking, “That is the way I treat intruders on Ganyodaes.” He then threw the body of the dead man over his shoulder and, after reaching home, cooked his flesh. When the flesh was cool he ate the meat, which he enjoyed much, and thanked Skahnowa for what he had done.
One morning Doonongaes said to his servant: “I am going on a long journey, and I want you to be faithful in the performance of your duty. If you find a trespasser, kill and eat him.” “Very well,” replied Skahnowa, “it shall be done as you say.” [[298]]