In the morning after preparing and eating some food he started on. In the afternoon when he thought it was about time to stop he looked for a stream. He soon found one and had just finished his camp as it became dark. In the forepart of the night the woman came, saying, “We must now live together as man and wife, for I have been sent to live with you and help you.” The next day the man began to kill all kinds of game. The woman stayed with him all the time and did all the necessary work at the camp.
When the hunting season was over, she said, “There is no hunter in the woods who has killed so much game as you have.” They started for home. “We shall stop,” said she, “at the first lodge, where we met”; and they slept at the lodge that night. The next morning she said: “I shall remain here, but you go on to the village, and when you get there everybody will find out that you have brought all kinds of meat and skins. One will come to you and say, ‘You must marry my daughter.’ An old woman will say, ‘You must marry my granddaughter,’ but do not listen to them. Remain true to me. Come back next year and you shall have the same good luck. [This was at a time when the best hunter was the best man, the most desirable husband.] The next year when getting ready to hunt, a man will try to come with you, do not take him. No one would take you. Come alone. We will meet here.” Before daylight they parted and he went on his journey with a great load of meat on his back.
In the village he found that some of the hunters had got home, while others came soon after. All told how much they had killed. This lone man said, “I will give each man all he wants if he will go to my camp and get it.” Accepting his offer, many went and brought back all they could carry. Still there was much meat left. Everyone who had a daughter or a granddaughter now asked him to come and live with the family. At last the chief came and asked him to marry his daughter. The orphan was afraid if he refused harm would come to him, for the chief was a powerful man. At last he consented and married the chief’s daughter.
The next fall the chief thought he had the best hunter for a son-in-law and a great many wanted to go with him, but the son-in-law said, “I do not think I shall go this year.” All started off, one after another. When all had gone he went alone to the lodge where he was to meet the woman. Arriving there he prepared the bed, and early in the night the woman came in; stopping halfway between [[92]]the door and the couch, she said, “I am sorry you have not done as I told you to do. I can not stay with you, but I decided to come once more and tell you that I know everything you did at home and I can not stay.” She disappeared as suddenly as she came.
Day after day the orphan went hunting, but he saw no game. He ate all his provisions, and had to shoot small game—squirrels and birds—to eat, for he was hungry. Returning home, he told the people that he had seen no game. This woman who had befriended the orphan, it was said, was a ghost woman.
6. Hahnowa (the Turtle) and His Forces on the Warpath
Hahnowa dwelt alone in his own lodge. He was a great warrior and had led many war parties successfully.
One day the thought again came to him that he should go on the warpath. So following the lead of his desire, he made the necessary preparations and then boarded his canoe and paddled away along the river, singing as he went along, “I am on the warpath. I am on the warpath.” When he had gone but a short distance from his lodge he was hailed by a man who came running to the bank of the river calling out, “Hallo, friend! Stop a moment! I will go too. We will go on the warpath together.” So Hahnowa stopped at the landing, and there on the bank stood an elk, which said to Hahnowa, “I should like to go with you on the warpath.” Hahnowa replied: “Before giving my consent, I desire to see you run, for we might be defeated and then we shall have to run for our lives, and unless we can escape through our speed we shall be killed and scalped. Now, therefore, run to that mountain and return.” The elk ran with great swiftness to the mountain and was back again in a very short time. But Hahnowa said, “You can not go, for you do not run fast enough. Only swift runners may go with me.”
Reentering his canoe, Hahnowa started off, singing, “I am on the warpath. I am on the warpath.” In a short time a man hailed him, saying, “Come back to the landing. I should like very much to go with you on the warpath.” So Hahnowa turned and made a landing. Then he said to his friend, “You must run to show me your speed, for you can not go with me unless you can run very swiftly. Therefore run to that second mountain and back at your highest speed.” Then Senon[11] showed his great orenda and started off, but he had not got fairly started before Hahnowa called him back, saying, “Come back; that is enough. You can go.” So they two got into the canoe and started off, the Hahnowa singing, “I am on the warpath. I am on the warpath. But you, brother, smell quite strong.”