Night coming on, they two retired and lay down to sleep for rest. In the morning they ate their breakfast. Just as soon as they had [[745]]finished eating, the uncle said: “Oh, my nephew! go again to listen. You must again seat yourself in the valley, and you must listen with great attention.” The nephew replied, “So let it be,” and started. Having arrived in the valley where he was accustomed to sit, and there seating himself, he listened very attentively for strange sounds. Suddenly he heard a woman begin to sing in the distance. He understood clearly that it was a woman who was singing, and then saying, “I believe this is what he wants me to hear,” he started on the run for the lodge very swiftly. Having arrived there, the elder man said: “Are you returning after hearing something? Tell what you have heard.” The nephew replied: “Yes.” The uncle said, “Come, tell it!” The nephew answered: “So be it; I will tell it”; but the uncle said, “Wait a moment until I fill my pipe, so that I will be smoking while you are telling me your story.” Having lighted his pipe, he said: “Come, now, you must relate what you have heard.” The young man, Hotkwisdadegeña, answered: “So let it be as you say. The only thing that I heard was a woman singing, and in her song she used these words, ‘Haʻhowe, at the home of Doädanegeñ, haʻhowe, I am going to seek a young person, a male, haʻhowe.’ ” Then the nephew ceased talking. It so came to pass that this time the uncle did not use a bark paddle to dip up hot ashes and burning coals to pour on the head of his nephew. He did not scorch him. “It is a fact, indeed, the woman comes naming me as the object of her coming, and that is why she comes saying on the way, ‘Doädanegeñ.’ Verily, as you know, that is my name. So, now, do you go thither again to listen again for strange sounds, for she is, perhaps, now nearing this place.”
Then the nephew, Hotkwisdadegeña, returned to the valley to listen again. He found that the singing was approaching quite near to the place where he was listening. Suddenly it stopped, and the voice of a woman began to sing: “Haʻhowe, haʻhowe, haʻhowe, at the home of Doädanegeñ, haʻhowe, I go to seek the person of a young man, haʻhowe, haʻhowe.” The nephew sprang up, and turning homeward, ran back there as swiftly as it was possible for him to run. Arriving there he exclaimed: “Behold, the singing is, indeed, now close at hand, just a short distance away.”
Thereupon the uncle arose and began to clean up the lodge, sweeping all manner of dirt and filth over to the place where his nephew was accustomed to stay. Then the uncle bade the young man sit down in that place among the dirt and filth. The entire head of the nephew was covered with scabs and sores. On the other hand, the old uncle cleaned himself up as well as he could. He spread furs and skins about his couch and seat in such wise as to appear to be one who is “downfended,” one who is a noble in the family. He carefully washed his feather plumes, which had become smoked and [[746]]dusty from disuse and from lying around among his belongings. When they were nicely cleaned he preened them, and then, taking his headgear, he set these feathers, two in number, side by side in the front of it. When he had finished this task he put the headgear back in the bark case containing his various belongings. In like manner he cleaned and furbished up all his raiment and arms and ornaments.
He had hardly completed his renovations and cleaning of his belongings when suddenly they heard a woman sing not far away from the lodge. In the song the woman said: “Haʻhowe, haʻhowe, haʻhowe, I am seeking the body of a young male person, haʻhowe, haʻhowe. It is He-who-listens, He-who-listens, haʻhowe, haʻhowe.” Then the uncle said to his nephew: “Oh, my nephew! now you must keep very quiet; you must not talk nor move around.” Suddenly there came sounds at the doorway, which seemed to be the footsteps of two women. All at once the doorflap was thrust aside, and a woman stepped into the lodge followed by another woman, and there the two women stood in the lodge. One of the women said: “Behold it is not certain on which side of the fire sits Doädanegeñ. Indeed, this one who is sitting here is verily not the one. That one sitting in yonder place is, indeed, the one who is called Doädanegeñ. This one is called Hatʻhondas (i.e., He-who-listens). So, as long as you think this one is Doädanegeñ, you go to him; but I myself will go to that one.” The two sisters were not of the same opinion as to the identity of the two male persons before them. The younger desired to go to one of the men, while the other sister wished to go to the other. Now, Doädanegeñ overhearing these remarks of the two sisters, and meanly seeking to deceive them as to his own identity, kept saying: “This is the right side of the fire. Come here.”
Finally, the younger sister, who carried the marriage bread in a large basket (which women customarily carried when they went to the lodges of men to seek for husbands), going over to the place where Hatʻhondas sat, took a seat beside him. All at once the elder woman also ran in that direction and took her seat beside him. So each woman now sat on one side of him.
Then the uncle, Doädanegeñ, went over to the place where the three were sitting, and seizing the hand of his nephew, pushed the youth away across the fire, ordering him to remain there. He himself took the seat between the two maidens. But they both arose at once and went to the place where Hatʻhondas was then seated and again sat down on each side of him. Now the old man again arose, and going over to the place where the three were seated he seized the young man, his nephew, by the arm and shoved him across the fireplace to the other side of the fire, while he once more seated himself between the maidens. But as the maidens did not come to marry [[747]]him they again arose quickly and, leaving the old man, went over to the place where the young man was and sat down on each side of him.
The old man did not repeat his previous actions, but he sat silent for a long time. At last the old man, addressing his nephew, said: “Oh, my nephew! now verily you will marry. I will make the proper arrangements and will put in order the place where you are accustomed to seat yourself, because it is so very filthy and dirty, since you are foolish and do filthy things in the place where you are accustomed to abide.” But it was he himself who had swept all manner of dirt and filth over the place and on the things belonging to his young nephew and so had disgustingly soiled them. The uncle added: “For a while seat yourselves herein this place while I clean and renovate the place and things belonging to my nephew.”
Then he proceeded to clean up the things and to make them fine in appearance, for he carefully swept and dusted everything belonging to his nephew. A bearskin and a deerskin and a beaver skin he carefully spread over the couch of his nephew and caused the latter to be covered entirely with furs and skins.
The two maidens again took their seats beside him as his wives, for he indeed married them. Then the uncle said to his nephew: “Now you have married. Come, now, I do not know whether these two women have brought with them that which confirms customarily the marriage of people one to another, which usually is 20 loaves of marriage bread, commonly called by the Seneca deganăʼhoñsdiăʼgoⁿ.” One of the women, replying, said: “So let it be as you have indicated.” Taking up the basket and going over to the place where he sat, she said: “These are the things of which you are telling,” and placed the basket between his feet. He just kept his eyes on the proceedings while the woman returned to her seat. The uncle uncovered the basket of marriage bread and took from it the 20 loaves of marriage bread, saying with some warmth: “The matter has been fulfilled, for she has given me the marriage bread, which has confirmed the matter. It certainly has been fulfilled according to the custom of marrying.”
Now the head of Hatʻhondas, his nephew, was literally covered with sores and scabs, so the uncle said to him: “Oh, my nephew! come hither. Come!” The nephew went over to where his uncle was sitting, whereupon the old man said: “I am going to attend to you for the purpose of dressing you and cleaning you.” Near at hand hung the bladder of a bear, in which there was a quantity of sunflower oil, or butter. Out of this receptacle he took a quantity of the sunflower oil, or butter, in the palm of his hand and anointed the head of his nephew with it. He repeated this act until he had completely saturated the hair with the sunflower oil. Further, he poured three handfuls of the sunflower oil on his nephew’s head. The two young women, who merely looked on, only marveled at what they saw. All [[748]]at once they saw the uncle remove a cap of scabs from the head of his nephew. No more scabs were left on his head, which now looked clean and handsome.