It happened that on the young man’s forehead two feathers stuck out, which were set side by side, one red and the other blue. These, which were set side by side, were about so long [indicating with the hand]. The old man said to his nephew: “This ornamentation is very unbecoming”; so he pulled first the one feather and then the other. Then he said: “This is fine. Go over to that place, and there you must stand, facing this way. I will look at you, for I do not know how handsome you are.” The young man went to the place indicated and faced his uncle. The latter eyed him carefully and critically as he stood there under review. Suddenly the old man said: “Come hither. Come back here again. I am not at all satisfied.” When the nephew had come up to him the uncle again poured sunflower oil into the palm of his hand, with which he carefully anointed the face of his nephew. Then he said: “Again go to that place and face me again.” The nephew again went there and faced his uncle. Once more the old man critically eyed his nephew, finally exclaiming, “You are such a fine-looking young man that there is nowhere living another young man as handsome. Now come to me. This is what you shall be named: Doädanegeñ you shall be called; and in all the distant places where people dwell the sound has gone, saying of you, ‘He is the great hunter of all kinds of animals.’ Your name is one which is obeyed, and which is heard in distant places of the land. Again take your seat in yonder place.” So the nephew resumed his seat.
Then one of the two women, the elder, said: “I am exceedingly thankful that our husband is so fine-looking a man.” To this the younger answered: “As to me, I will cherish him. I myself will love him. I will do only whatever it may be that he sees fit to ask me to do.” When night came on they lay down to sleep, the young man lying down between the two women, so that Hatʻhondas had a wife on each side. It now came to pass that the elder one could not fall asleep. Hatʻhondas, however, was fast asleep, and she most of the time kept looking at him as he lay asleep. As to the other wife, she was sound asleep, indeed. Daylight came, and the elder one had not slept at all during the entire night. Then the two sisters set to work preparing their morning meal. So, as soon as the food was cooked they began to eat it; and they took up a share for the old man, who sat on the opposite side of the fire. They themselves ate together on their own side of the fire—Doädanegeñ and his wives.
When all had finished eating the old man said: “Oh, my nephew! you must begin to travel over the earth. You must be very circumspect and careful because there are traveling about many kinds of [[749]]beings which are full of the highest potency of evil orenda. You must go out to hunt for any kind of game animals, it may be. It is possible for you to kill them, it is true, for you are not susceptible to the influence of evil orenda.” So the nephew started out to hunt. He remarked to himself: “I wonder whether what my uncle said is true, indeed. I will begin with raccoons.”
As he went along he saw a standing tree greatly scarred with claw marks. Climbing this tree he found a nest of raccoons. From this he pulled out a raccoon, which he threw down; then taking out another raccoon he threw it also to the ground, and then another and another. Finally he said: “I do think these will do.” He now descended from the tree, and when he reached the ground he said: “I am, perhaps, strong enough to carry these bodies home on my back by means of the forehead strap.” So he set to work packing the bodies into a bundle, by laying down his forehead strap and placing the bodies of the raccoons on it and then binding the ends of the strap around them in such manner as to make a closely bound bundle. When he had completed this task he took up the pack and placed it on his back in such wise that he carried it by means of the forehead strap, as was the custom at that time. Then he started for home. With the bundle on his back he reached his home. Casting the bundle down indoors, he said: “Oh, my uncle! dress these, if you will.”
Then, truly, the old man set to work dressing the raccoons, exclaiming: “Hōʹ, my nephew! All has happened for good. Ever since you were small I have been attending to you. As you were growing up I took care of you and I pitied you. Now, in turn, you have grown to manhood. So it is, I have been accustomed to think that this would come to pass. Now these bodies lie here as a fulfillment of my hopes; so I am very thankful.”
Then the old man skinned the raccoons, and when he had completed his task he said, delightedly: “With these skins I will make for myself a robe. You must go to hunt again. These things are to be cooked in only one way; they must be cooked by being boiled down.” He told this to the two wives of his nephew, asking them whether that was not the right way of cooking raccoons. Then the two women, arising, proceeded to dress the raccoons. When they had dressed them they set the kettle over the fire and started the raccoon meat to cooking. When it was cooked it was indeed boiled down in the manner suggested by the old man. Then the two women placed the meat on bark trays, and all began to eat. The old man kept on saying: “Hōʹ, I am thankful, thankful, thankful.”
The next morning Doädanegeñ again went forth to hunt. As he traveled through the forest he finally came to a tree all over the outside of which he saw many claw marks. Hence he decided to climb [[750]]it to see whether there was any game in the hollow of the trunk. As on the former trip, he found raccoons in the hollow of the tree, which he proceeded to drag out. He would put his arm into the hollow of the rotten old tree, drag out a raccoon, and throw it to the ground, repeating this process until he had thus dragged forth six or seven raccoons. Then exclaiming “I believe that I have now killed a sufficient number,” he again descended the tree to the ground. Again he laid out his forehead strap, whereon he placed the bodies of the raccoons which he had killed. They made a large load. He bound the bodies into a bundle ready to carry. Placing this on his back so that he could carry it by means of his forehead strap, he again started for the lodge of his family. Having returned home, he laid his pack down indoors, before the place where sat his uncle, who could only exclaim: “Hōʹ! I am so thankful; hōʹ! I am so thankful. Perhaps, now, I can complete my robe with these eight skins.” Then the old man skinned them, and when he had completed this task he proceeded to stretch and dry the skins in the usual manner on frames of wooden sticks. As soon as they were dried he made himself a robe, which was very beautiful when he had completed it. So it came to pass that he had a raccoon-skin robe with which to cover himself.
Continually, indeed, did the two women cook and prepare food for the family, and all lived in the greatest contentment. It came to pass that the elder sister said to the younger: “Let us go to fetch wood, for it is the custom for those who are living in their husband’s lodge to gather wood.” They two then went forth from the lodge toward the neighboring forest. There they saw a standing tree which appeared to be fit for their purpose. The elder carried with her a round, hard, white stone, which she struck against the tree, making a sound which was heard everywhere, and the tree fell into a heap of firewood. The two women proceeded to make themselves loads by laying together the strips of wood. They placed thus in two heaps the whole of that great tree. When they had finished their packs, placing them on their backs, they started for home. When they reached the doorway they separated, and standing on opposite sides of the lodge, they untied their forehead straps, whereupon their packs fell to the ground, growing into such great heaps that the lodge was quite surrounded with firewood. Then the two reentered the lodge, and the elder said: “One who is in the lodge of her husband’s family is customarily expert in preparing wood.” This she said to the old man, the uncle of her husband. The old man replied: “Hōʹ! I am very thankful.”
At this time some women who lived in a distant place learned that Doädanegeñ had grown to manhood. There were four persons in this family of women—a mother and her three daughters. [[751]]The mother, addressing her daughters, said: “Now, my children, you must go after him to secure him for a husband. And you, the eldest, shall be the first to go in quest of him.” Then the three daughters commenced to make the marriage bread (deganahoñdyăʼgoⁿ). They began their task by preparing the flour corn by boiling in ashes to loosen the husk of the grains, afterwards washing the grains in clean water and pounding the corn into meal in a wooden mortar with pestles of wood. The three sisters united their labors in the preparation of this bread. The sounds made by the pestles were tuʻ, tuʻ, tuʻ, tuʻ, tuʻ. It was not long before they had prepared the needed 20 cakes of marriage bread.
When the bread was ready it was placed in a basket made for carrying by means of the forehead strap. Then the mother said to the eldest daughter: “Come to me.” The daughter obeyed her, and the mother began to comb her hair; she also anointed it with oil of a fine smell. Then she braided her hair, tying it so close with a string that the eyebrows were drawn up to the extent that the eye-sockets had quite disappeared. Then the mother said to her daughter affectionately: “Now, go you to that distant place where Doädanegeñ moves, and I expect that by all means you will bring him back with you. Have courage. Very certainly it is safe, that by which you shall cross this lake.” Then she placed the basket of bread on her daughter’s back so that it might be carried by means of the forehead strap.