The next day when she had again gone after wood for fuel the boy went to the forbidden room and beat the drum, whose sound was so pleasing that he was delighted. Taking a ball and a lacrosse club he went out of doors and began to play ball—that is, lacrosse. He threw the ball with the club and it flew far away toward the east. So he ran after the ball until he found it in a large clearing. And this place was so pleasant that he was very glad to be there. But he soon started for home, arriving there before the grandmother had returned with the wood to the lodge.
On the following day, while his grandmother was absent in the forest, the little grandson again visited the mysterious room and played around in it; but he did not forget to be home before his grandmother returned. He did likewise for several days. But finally he beat the drum so heavily that the old woman heard him far away in the forest. She hastened home at once and scolded the lad for his disobedience, saying, “Why did you go into that room when I told you not to go there nor to touch any of the things?” “Oh, grandmother,” he replied, “do not talk about that, but tell me where are all our friends—my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and my cousins?” The grandmother said deprecatingly: “Oh, you can [[136]]never see them. There is a man dwelling far away in the east who carries off people and devours them. His name is Deadoeñdjadases, and it is he who has eaten all our friends and relations.” The lad with impatience replied: “Make me four pairs of moccasins. I will fetch them back.” His grandmother, weeping, refused his request, yet she prepared him for the journey.
When he was ready he went eastward, traveling many days and nights until he arrived at a broad clearing in the forest. In the middle of it he saw a long lodge and a person who looked like the inflated skin of a man, watching this clearing, which was occupied by a large strawberry patch.[37] This sentinel guarded the field night and day. Oddly enough, the long lodge extended from north to south instead of from east to west.
The lad, standing concealed within the edge of the woods and calling a mole, said to it, “I want to borrow your skin for a while.” The mole agreed to his request, and then the lad removed his own garments and laid them back of a tree. Then, after reducing his size sufficiently, he crawled into the skin of the mole. Making his way under the leaves and underground until he came to the spot above which was the skin man, he shouted to the sentinel: “Come down, my friend! I want to talk with you.”
After the lad had promised to liberate the skin man, Hadjoqda, and to give him back his flesh body, Hadjoqda related to him all the secrets of this mysterious clearing and of the people who lived in it. He told him: “The man who dwells in that long lodge is called Deadoeñdjadases. He goes around the world every day, seizing and killing people, whose bodies he brings home to eat. Living in the lodge with him are three sisters, who are all great witches. Every day they are engaged in preparing human flesh and pounded green corn, for their ferocious brother will eat nothing else. When not so occupied, the three sisters spend their time driving elks out of the clearing, which is covered with the most beautiful strawberries.” Hadjoqda continued: “Neither Deadoeñdjadases (nor his sisters, for that matter) has a heart in his body; and no one can kill them by beating or cutting them up, for their lives are in another place. In the corner of the lodge is a bed; under this bed is a lake; in this lake a loon swims about; and under the right wing of this loon are the four hearts (the lives) of Deadoeñdjadases and his sisters. The largest heart is his own, the next in size is that of his eldest sister, and the smallest is that of his youngest sister. If you squeeze these hearts their owners will faint away; but if you crush them they will die.”[38]
The lad gave Hadjoqda a piece of false wampum which he had made from a small reed and colored with strawberry juice, saying: “The sisters are calling you now. You must tell them that you [[137]]were making this wampum as the reason why you have remained away so long. I shall become in person just like their brother and shall return home ill, as it were, and expectorate blood. When I am in their lodge I shall cause the elks to run into the strawberry patch, and you must give the usual alarm. While the sisters are out driving the elk I shall have time to take their hearts from under the wing of the loon.”
The sisters, missing Hadjoqda, called to him many times. When he reached the lodge they angrily asked him: “Where have you been? What have you been doing?” “I have been making this piece of wampum,” said he. All three sisters wanted it, and they were satisfied, for he gave it to them. They pardoned him for his absence. Then he told them that their brother had come home earlier than usual, and that he was ill and spitting up blood.
Now, the lad, going back to the mole, returned its coat and donned his own garments. Then, assuming the exact form and manner of Deadoeñdjadases, he walked through the clearing toward the lodge, spitting blood.
When he entered the lodge none of the sisters except the youngest suspected any deceit. She looked at him sharply, saying, “This is not our brother.” Then they tried him with different kinds of food, but he would eat nothing until they brought him human flesh and pounded green corn, which he ate heartily. This satisfied them that there was no deception.
While he was eating, the alarm came that the elks were in the strawberry patch, and the three sisters, armed with their war clubs, ran out to drive away the elks. The lad lost no time in going to the bed and raising its cover. There he saw a lake in which a loon was swimming. He called it to him and asked for the hearts. The loon raised its left wing, for it was in doubt whether to give up the hearts or not. “Oh, no,” declared the lad; “the hearts are under your right wing. So raise that wing.” Being satisfied as to his right to ask for the hearts, the loon did so; and the lad, seizing them, rushed out of the lodge just as the sisters returned from chasing the elks.