Now all went on as usual. One day after the man returned from hunting, as he and his wife sat by the fire they heard a man approaching the hut, and they kept listening until he came to the door. When the man opened the door, there stood his friend. For the first time now the woman saw him. They greeted each other. The guest said: “The time has come when your life is again in danger, but I will try to save you and your wife. I will tell you what to do. Rub your hands on your wife’s head and she will turn to Osʻhada;[391] then you must tell it to follow you wherever you go. It will not be well for you to stay here; you must go away, but remain here as long as you can after your wife has gone. She must start immediately after you change her into Osʻhada, and when you have given up all hope of being able to stay, then flee directly toward the south. Tomorrow morning as soon as you get up, you must do as I have told you. I shall go now and we shall meet again.”
Thereupon the visitor started off. The man and wife began to talk. They did not know what to do. In the morning the man rubbed her head, saying, “Let my wife become Osʻhada.” At once she became Osʻhada and rested on his hand, while with the other hand he rubbed it off in the direction it was to go. Then piling up all his meat, he said in a loud voice, “I give this meat to you, all flesh-eating animals that live in the woods.” He now went toward the southeast from his lodge to a very large elm tree, which was smooth up to a great height, where branches formed a crotch. Climbing the tree, he sat in this crotch. Soon he noticed that he felt faint and very weak at intervals, and he thought that there must be near him something mysterious. He looked around everywhere, but saw nothing. Taking out the tooth Gaasyendietʻha had given him, he dampened it with spittle; then having rubbed his finger over the tooth, he passed it over his eyes, saying, “Now I can see everything that is going on, even down in the ground.” On looking into the ground, he saw, deep down, a tree and on the tree a great monster. He sat still, watching it as it slowly climbed the tree. As it came near the top, the faint feeling grew stronger on the man. He saw that the animal was a Djainosgowa,[392] the greatest of the Djainos family of monsters. This Djainosgowa had determined to overpower the orenda of the man. It came up out of the ground and up into the heart of the tree on which the man was sitting. As it came nearer and nearer, the man leaped to another tree. At that instant the Djainosgowa, [[479]]coming out at the place where the man had been sitting, said, “Guhge sedjinoⁿ (You are indeed somewhat of a man, but I am determined to overpower you in orenda).” Thereupon the Djainosgowa leaped toward the man, but the man jumped to another tree, and then from tree to tree, the Djainosgowa following. There was a great rock at the brink of the hill to which the man ran; from this he leaped through the air across the great valley to a mountain far away. Thence he ran directly southward, right along the top of the mountain, descending on the other side to another very wide valley. He ran across this valley and had begun to ascend the mountain on the other side when he heard the monster in close pursuit. It continued to run all night. In the morning he came to an opening, on the other side of the valley. It was nearly dark, but the man continued to run all night. In the morning he came to an opening, on the farther side of which he could discern a hill and smoke arising. As he came to the foot of the mountain, he stopped, and turning around, he saw that the monster Djainosgowa had gotten to the opening. Raising its paw, it struck the man’s footprint on the trail. Instantly the man fell to the ground. As he fell, his friend appeared and said: “Get up; you cannot live if you fall this way.” So saying, he pushed him into a run, telling him to hurry. The man then felt stronger and again ran fast from valley to valley, with the Djainosgowa always about the same distance behind. All at once the man fell again. Immediately his friend was there, and put him on his feet, saying, “Keep up your courage,” at the same time pushing him into a run. Again he felt stronger and ran fast. He ran all night. It was a very dark night and he struck a great maple tree, going straight through it; this happened many times during the night, whenever he hit a tree.
For eight days and nights the monster chased him. When it discovered that the man went through trees it threw its power ahead of him, making the trees so hard that the man could no longer go through them. On the ninth night the monster commanded a terrible rainstorm to come and the night to be so dark that the man could not see where he was going, but the man ran on until midnight without hitting a tree. Just at midnight he struck a tree and was thrown far back. At that moment his friend was there, who said, “Do all you can; exert yourself”; and taking hold of his hand he led him. The two went and traveled a great deal faster than the man had gone alone, unaided by his friend, Gaasyendietʻha, the Meteor. The two ran together until daylight, when the friend left and the man went on alone. This was the tenth day and he began to be very tired and faint, but still the monster was approaching and its strokes on his tracks were frequent, so that the man fell often. The chances seemed against his escape. Night came and the Djainosgowa made it terribly [[480]]dark. Running against a tree, the man bounded far back, but fortunately the Djainosgowa was so near that he fell behind it. The Djainosgowa, having likewise struck the tree, was also thrown back. At once the man was up and running forward again. The Djainosgowa was just upon him and was reaching out to grasp him when the man fell, as it seemed to him, into a hole in the ground. He thought, “Well, I am near my end. When I strike I shall be dashed to pieces.” He kept falling, and as he fell he grew sleepy. Looking up he saw the monster coming down the side of the hole, winding round and round. Thereupon the man went to sleep. After a long time he woke and was still falling, and the monster was still pursuing him. At last the man landed on his feet. He seemed to have come out of the hole, and on looking around he saw a beautiful country. Saying to himself, “My friend told me to go toward the south,” he ran in that direction. As he went on rapidly he saw the Djainosgowa coming toward him very fast, and thought, “Now I shall die.” As it came near the monster turned itself into a man. The runner, closing his eyes, kept on thinking, “I will not be looking at him when he reaches me.” He ran until he thought it was a long time to wait to be seized; then he opened his eyes and looked around, but he could not see the Djainosgowa, but still he kept on running.
Soon the man came to a lodge, which he entered, finding within an old man, who, looking up, exclaimed: “Oh, my grandson! I am glad you have come. I have been waiting for you a long time. You are bringing with you what I have wanted to eat for a long time. So go back there and stay. The Djainosgowa and I will fight alone. We will see whether it is as powerful as it thinks it is.” Soon the noise of the monster’s approach could be heard. Coming to the lodge, it asked, “Where is the man I have been chasing?” The old man said, “Here I am.” “No; you are not the man,” Djainosgowa replied. “I am; but if you think it is some one else, you shall not find out until you overpower me,” retorted the old man. The Djainosgowa said, “Come outside; there is not room in here.” “Very well,” replied the old man, and, arising, he went out. Then they began to fight. Whenever the animal bit the old man, tearing open the flesh, it immediately came together and healed. The old man tore off the forelegs of the Djainosgowa. They fought until the Djainosgowa was torn to pieces and the old man convinced himself that the pieces were not alive. Then he hung up the meat in the lodge and said to his grandson: “Come out! I have killed the monster you were afraid of. I am very thankful, for I have been wishing for this kind of meat for a long time.” The old man boiled the meat in a large kettle, not leaving a particle. In a small kettle he cooked bear’s meat for his grandson. As the meat was boiling, he put corn into the pounder and with only a few strokes it became [[481]]corn meal; then having made bread, he began to eat. He was constantly giving thanks for the meat he was eating. At last, when he had eaten every bit of the great Djainosgowa he said: “I thank you, my grandson, for this will last me for a great many tens of years. You must stay with me until you are rested and cured, for you have been infected by the orenda (magic power) of this great monster.”
One day the old man said, “I want you to see what I have planted.” A short distance from the lodge they came to a field where something was growing. The old man said, “This is called onĕñoñ.” There were great tall cornstalks with ears of corn on them as long as the man was tall and kernels as large as a man’s head. The field extended farther than the eye could see. The old man said, “Let us go on the other side.” There the young man saw another field, where all varieties of corn were growing. Going on, they came to a third field, whereupon the old man said, “These are squashes.” They were very large and in great variety. Passing the squash field, they went to the old man’s lodge.
The next day, after he had rested, the grandson, having bade the old man good-by, went on. He traveled many days and finally came to a large opening, where there was a village. After thinking a while, he went to the lodge of the chief, who received him well. The chief’s daughter, looking at him, asked, “Have you ever heard of a man sending his wife off in the form of Osʻhada, a vapor?” He thought and thought this over; he had entirely forgotten about it. After a good while, remembering the past, he said, “Yes; I myself did that.” “I thought I recognized you. I am your wife,” declared the woman. They were glad to be together again.
104. Dagwanoenyentgowa Sʻhagodigendji[393] and Yenonsgwa
Dagwanoenyentgowa Sʻhagodigendji, the eldest woman of her people, lived in the woods with two grandchildren, a boy and a girl.
One day, when the old woman had gone on a journey, a Yenonsgwa came to the lodge. Picking up the younger child, after speaking kindly to her and saying that she was a pretty little thing, the Yenonsgwa swallowed her. Then she began to talk to the boy, telling him how well he looked, but did not kill him. Sitting on the bed, she told the boy that if he would get on her back she would take him out to look for his grandmother. Accordingly he climbed on her back; but soon becoming frightened, he grasped her so tightly that he became fastened to it, so he could not get off, although he tried hard to do so. The Yenonsgwa started off, but went in a direction different from that where his grandmother was. The boy [[482]]told her so, but she said: “Oh! we shall soon come to the place where she is.” The Yenonsgwa woman went very far into the woods, and the boy began to cry for his grandmother; he cried so hard that Yenonsgwa told him to get off her back. She did not like to hear him cry, and, moreover, she wanted to eat him. But he did not get off, for he could not do so. Yenonsgwa could neither get her hands around to pull him off, nor could she turn her head to bite him; she could not get at him in any way. Knowing this, the boy clung to the middle of her back, for he knew also that she would eat him if he slipped down. They traveled thus for many days.