When the boys arrived near home they heard singing, whereupon the younger said, “Our father is feeling bad because he thinks we are dead.” The other replied, “When we get to the lodge, you will tell him of our adventure.” “No; you must tell him. He will believe you sooner than he will me, for you are older,” was the answer. When they entered the lodge, the hunter was sitting by the fire; his song was about the loss of his children. “Father,” called out the boys, “we have been hunting and we have come back. We have not been killed and we shall not die. There is no trouble in the world for us, for nothing can harm us.” The elder man, looking around, greeted his boys, whom he was very glad to see. At night they began telling their adventures: How far they had been; how they had seen a stream of dry land and had ridden on it to the Genonsgwa lodge; how they had killed the two Genonsgwa and burned their lodge. “And now,” said the younger, “we are going farther.” The hunter said: “Your uncles are ferocious men; they have killed all my people except you. You will find beyond the lodge you burned other lodges; they are all inhabited by your uncles.” The younger boy said: “I do not care about them. I meet all people with pleasure; their action or treatment matters not. I am determined to try everything.” The man made up his mind to say no more; he was astonished at their resolution and became aware that his children were possessed of potent orenda (magic power), and that, though there were many witches and wizards, they were far above them all. The younger boy seemed to have control of his father’s mind, and it was through his influence that the father let them do as they liked. The advice of the younger was: “You stay at home and never worry about us. We will go to see our uncle who lives beyond Genonsgwa lodge; perhaps he will tell us some stories. We are lonesome.” Their father said, “I am afraid that if you go you will never come back. Your uncle is full of orenda, and it is his custom to kill his visitors.” The little fellow answered: “Let us go. I want to know all persons who possess orenda.” The hunter replied: “Beyond the lodge you destroyed is another. Your uncle lives there, and beyond that other uncles dwell. The first lodge is ‘three looks’ from here; the lodges are all ‘three looks’ apart.” Having heard this, the boys departed.
When they came to the Genonsgwa place they halted; looking around, they could see some object at a distance. There was the end of the first “look.” Getting near to that object, they looked again, and seeing a similar object, they went to it; then looking off at a distance and seeing an opening in the woods, they said, “Our uncle must live there.” They advanced cautiously, in the hope of surprising their uncle. As they got out of the woods they saw a lodge, and as they came near it there seemed to be no one in it, all was so [[447]]quiet. The younger boy crept up carefully, and making a sudden leap, sprang into the house, calling out, “I have caught you, uncle!” “How are you, nephew?” said the uncle; “I am glad you have come. I am sick; you shall give me medicine.” “All right,” replied the younger boy, “whatever you wish shall be done. What is it you take most pleasure in?” “It is this, nephew,” said the uncle. “When a person comes to see me I play hide and seek. If you find me, I lose my head; if I find you, I take yours.” The boy looked around everywhere. The lodge was entirely empty, but he saw hanging from the rafters where they met in a point, a very small bag, and concluded it was there that his uncle would hide. The uncle told the boys to hide first. The younger said, “All right,” for he had decided where to hide. As was usual in those days, there was a very large log on the fire, and the fire was all there was within the walls of this lodge. The old man said, “The finder must go over the top of the hill, and when the hider is ready he must call.” Thereupon the old man went out, fastening the door behind him. The boys heard the clatter of his bones as he ran beyond the hill. The younger boy said: “I will go into the log and you go behind the sun. When you are ready I will give the word.” The elder boy, flying off through the air, hid behind the sun. Then the other called out, “Now, ready!” “This is what I do to my nephews,” said the old man, as he came running into the lodge. He expected to find them sitting around somewhere, but seeing no one, he caught up his club and singing out, “Here you are; come out of this,” he struck at the wall. He went to every part of the lodge, saying, as he hit the wall with the club, “Here you are; come out.” The boy in the log was looking at his uncle, laughing; the boy behind the sun was also watching him, and could see the club as it hit the walls of the lodge. When the old man’s time was up, he said, “Come out. I can not find you. I give up.” As he said this, the nephew behind the sun showed himself, and laughing at the old man, came down to the lodge. The other boy crawled out on his hands and knees from the heart of the log. The old man, laughing loudly, said, “Now I will hide; you go beyond the hill, and when I am ready I will call.” They started off and had been waiting some time when they heard the old man call, “Now, ready!” At this they ran to the lodge. The younger, picking up the old man’s club, did as he had done. At every crack and crevice he gave a thump, saying, “You are here; come out.” He was sure the old man was in the bag, but he kept on as though he did not suspect it. The man was so large that, even after making himself small, he was so crowded that the boy could see the bag move occasionally. At last, going up to the bag, he gave it a heavy thump with the club, [[448]]saying, “Come out, uncle!” The old man came out, laughing, and said, “My little nephew, you are full of sorcery; no one ever found me before.” The boy said, “It is customary when a person makes a bet to live up to it. You have lost your head.” The man begged his nephews to give him time to smoke. “No,” said the younger; “if you had won, I should not have asked it.” Upon this he ran up, and catching his uncle by the hair, cut off his head. Thereupon the elder boy picked it up, and striking it against a tree, commanded that trees should hereafter have heads (knots) on them, which could be used to make ladles and bowls (to this day all trees with knots have the uncle’s head fastened on them). Then they burned the home. The elder boy said, “Our uncle has delayed us; otherwise we might have been a long way on our journey by this time.”
The youths traveled on until they found tracks, and not long afterward they came to the edge of the woods, where they saw a lodge near by. The younger said, “You stop, and I will go to this lodge alone.” The elder boy saw his brother go into the lodge; then he waited a long time. There were four witches in this lodge, and as soon as the boy went in the old woman said, “Hurry up! get the pot over the fire.” The boy looked on, thinking that very likely they were going to make a feast for him. The girls were sisters of the boys’ uncles. The elder boy getting out of patience waiting, at last called his fetish, the mole. When it came, he said: “I have called you to take me to that lodge. My friend went there, and I wish to see what has become of him.” They went together into the ground. He told the mole to stop in front of the younger boy, but underground. The women were such witches that they knew when anyone was approaching. When the old woman was ready, she said to the boy, “Come and sit on this side,” and to her eldest daughter she said, “Lay a skin on the ground and put on the skin the game that has come to see us.” The boy knew that she intended to kill him. Another of the women took a mallet from the wall, but as she raised it to strike him, the youth said, “Let the mallet strike the old woman.” As the mallet came down, it struck the mother; and as the girl raised it again, he commanded it to strike one of the sisters, whereupon they began immediately to fight among themselves. The boy sat commanding the mallet to strike first one and then another. There was a terrible struggle, a great sound of blows, and at last there was silence. All the women were dead. Then a voice from under the ground asked, “What are you doing, brother?” Knowing that it was his comrade who spoke, he said, “Oh! the women have had a little sport of their own.” “All right,” said a voice behind him, for there stood the other boy. “I got out of patience,” said he; “we might have gone a long way on our journey if it had not been for these women. We will burn up their lodge, after which I think we will go home. [[449]]We have done harm enough.” “What have we done?” said the other; “we have only put an end to man-eaters, who have killed many of our people.” “Very well,” answered the other, “I do not want my mind to be different from yours.”
“There is one thing still to be done,” said the younger brother, “and when we have finished that, everything will be right; but before we undertake it we must purify ourselves. We will go to the river; you must be very careful. I will go first, and you stay on the bank. Unless we bathe and purify our bodies, we shall meet with misfortune, for many of the people where we are going are filled with evil magic power.” Coming to the river, they found very thick red water. The elder youth, seeing the younger go into this water, thought it must be a great pleasure; so without heeding his companion’s word of warning, he went in also, whereupon the filth of the water gathered on his body and he sank out of sight. His brother had great trouble in saving him. “Perhaps we are sufficiently purified,” said the younger; “though if you had waited until I called you, it would have been better. You have caused me to fail in my purpose.” All the filth that had gathered on his body dried, so he could hardly close his eyes. It was as much as the other could do to get him washed clean. At last he was as before he jumped into the red water. Then his companion said: “Now, let us go. We shall come to a large village where there is ball playing.”
They soon came to an opening, in the center of which stood a pole, and many people were scattered around. As the two went forward the younger said to the chief, “We have come to challenge you. What are your rules?” “We wager our heads in betting,” replied the chief. “I thought you had something else to wager. Everyone seems to bet heads,” said the challenger. He saw there were many animals around, which these people fed with heads. “There must be two on a side,” said the boy. The chief told his people that the strangers challenged them to a game of lacrosse ball and that there were to be two players on a side. “But you must take part yourself,” said the boy; thereupon commanding a spider to weave a web across the ball ground, so that the ball could not pass it. When the game began the ball flew off in the direction of the spider’s web and, hitting it, was thrown back. The elder boy, catching the ball, ran for the first point, which he made, thus scoring one point, at which he called out, “The game is mine; we have won, and the game is finished.” “No; it is not,” replied the chief. “That is the way we play,” retorted the younger boy; “whoever gets one inning has the game.” The chief assented, saying, “You have won the heads of the men you played with.” “Not true,” said the boy; “we bet with you; no matter who did the playing for you.” Thereupon the elder boy, running up, [[450]]caught the chief by the hair and cut his head off, saying, “Do not let us talk with the fellow; if it had not been for him we might have been far along on the way.” The chief had wolves, panthers, and all kinds of carnivorous animals. Going up to their dens, the younger boy ordered a panther to come out, which it did, and then he said to it: “Your masters wanted to feed you with human flesh; that is not the desire of Hawenniyo. He put you on earth to be free; henceforth you must never allow yourselves to be captured and fed with human flesh.” All the animals rose and separated. To the bear the youth said: “I wish you to eat that dead man’s body that lies yonder. Then go and never be seen in this part of the country again; your place is among the cliffs and mountains.” The people there asked the boys to be their chiefs, saying that they had never liked the old man. The boys, having agreed to this, commanded the people to remain where they were, as it was not the will of Hawenniyo that his people should leave their old homes.
The two brothers now started back, saying to the people: “Our father will wonder why we do not return. You stay here. We will come sometime to see you.” When they got home the younger one said, “We have finished our work in the west; we have killed all the man-eaters. There will be no more trouble of this kind hereafter.”
90. Bald Eagle Sends Mud Turtle Around the World
A bald-headed old man lived on the top of a mountain, while his wife, who had three children, lived near a lake about half the way to the summit. It was the old man’s daily custom to go down to fish in the lake. On his way home he gave some fish to his wife, and thus they lived well and prosperously.
After he had lived in this way many years, the old man became curious to know how large the world is. Being the chief of his people, having called a council, he said to the people: “I should like to know the size of the world, and I wish some one would volunteer to go and get this information.” One young man said, “I will go.” “All right,” answered the old man; “how long will you be gone?” “I can not tell, for I do not know how far I shall have to go,” was the answer of the young man. “Go on,” said the old man; “and when you return, tell us all about your journey.”