The next day Hodadeñon went a little farther than before. On seeing a game animal walking along, he said to it, “You must be what they call Dasidowanes.”[70] The game animal, seeing him, jumped, but he said, “Keep still.” It stopped, whereupon, drawing his bow, he shot an arrow into the animal, which rushed through the woods and out of sight. Hodadeñon cried, “Look out! that is my best arrow.” Following, he found the animal dead, with the arrow point sticking out of its body. He said to it, “You are Dasidowanes”; then he ran for his sister. When she came, she said, “This is Ganiagwaihe.”[71] She skinned the bear and cut off the feet. She gave her brother the fore feet to carry, while she herself took half the meat home, and then went for the rest. They had a good supper that night, and the sister got more hair oil.
The next day they went out again, as usual, Hodadeñon to hunt and Yenyentʻhwus to plant. The brother went to the spot where he had killed the bear, but could see no game. Then he traveled in a circle, but could see nothing. As he looked toward the north it seemed very pleasant. There was an opening, or clearing, in front of him, and he thought he would go into it, hoping that he would find game there. In the middle of the clearing was a lodge. On peeping through a crack in the wall he saw a crowd of naked men of the Odjineowa[72] people, dancing. Very soon one of these men said, “Some one is looking at us,” and then another said, “Let us kill him.”
Hodadeñon ran back to the woods, the men chasing him to the edge of the opening, where they turned back. Hodadeñon went a short distance toward home; then, taking a long stick of wood from a pile which his sister had made, he carried it to the edge of the opening, where he stuck it into the ground, saying, “When the men in that lodge run after me with their clubs, do you fight against them to help me.” Then he brought another stick, which he put down by the side of the first, with the same words. He kept on in this way until he had a great many sticks standing in the ground. [[205]]
Then, running to the lodge, he looked in again. The Odjineowa men, seeing him, said, “Let us be sure to kill him this time,” and rushed out with their clubs. The boy escaped, however, to the woods, and when the naked men came to the edge of the woods the sticks of Hodadeñon became people and fought, killing all the men. Thereupon Hodadeñon came, and after dragging the men one after another into their lodge, he set fire to it, burning them all up.
Having taken the sticks back to his sister’s woodpile, Hodadeñon went on until he came to the tall stump of a broken tree on which stood a man, who called out “Ogongaqgeni hiwaden, My eyes have outmatched yours, my nephew,” but the boy thought, “He does not see me,” so he passed by. The uncle did not see him. When the boy walked up, the uncle said: “You have come to me. I am an Hodiadatgon, a great wizard. What would you do if it should rain spears upon you?” “Oh,” said the boy, “I think my sister and I would be very glad, for we have no spears to fish with now.” Then he ran home with all his speed. When near the lodge he saw his sister go into it, whereupon he ran around it, saying, “Let our lodge be stone,” and straightway it was stone. Just then he heard a terrible roar, and a great rain of spears came down; some broke on the roof, others fell on the ground. When the shower of spears was over, his sister said, “You have gone toward the north.” “Yes, but I shall not go again,” replied the boy.
After a while he went out to play. While playing he thought, “I will go to my uncle and be the first to say, ‘Ogongaqgeni, My eyes outmatch yours.’ ” So he went on until he came as near his uncle as he could without being seen. Then he called a mole and, entering his body, he traveled underground up to the roots of the stump on which his uncle was standing. Coming out, he cried, “Ogongaqgeni hawknosen, What would you say if a fire should come and burn up that stump and the woods and all else there is about here?” “Oh, nephew, that is too much,” answered the uncle. “I did not say that is too much,” replied Hodadeñon, “when you sent a rain of darts on my sister and me.” At that moment thick smoke was seen coming, and soon the woods were in a blaze on every side. The fire spread to the spot where Hodadeñon’s uncle was. He fell off the stump, and, his head bursting, an owl came out of it and flew away.
Hodadeñon thought, “Now, I will go farther.” He had not traveled far through the woods before he came to another clearing, in which there was a lodge. Peeping through a crack, he saw within an old man with both eyes closed. All at once he called, “Come in, nephew! come in!” When the boy went in the old man said. “I always play a game of dice with people who come here. If I win, I shall have your head; if you win, you shall have mine.” The old man brought out six night owls’ eyes (hihi ogasʻhoon) for dice, saying, [[206]]“If they all turn up the same color, the throw will count five; if not, it will count one.” The uncle wanted the boy to play first, but he refused; the uncle insisted, but the boy would not. At last the old man agreed. Putting the six eyes into a bowl of wood, he shook it, throwing them up; they went out through the smoke-hole into the air. When they returned, they counted but one. “Now,” said the nephew, “take your dice out of the bowl. I have dice of my own.” The uncle did not wish to take out his dice, but the boy insisted, so he had to do so. Then Hodadeñon put in his dice, which were woodcocks’ eyes, and threw them up. They went high in the air and came down, calling out, “I think she is not setting, Nondjoqgwen.”[73] The boy said, “Let them all come one color,” but the uncle said, “No, let them come in different colors.” All came alike in color, so the old man lost. “Now, nephew,” said he, “let me have one smoke more.” “Oh, no!” said Hodadeñon, “I can not do that.” Thereupon he cut off the old man’s head and went on farther.
“This is good sport,” said Hodadeñon, “I shall find another uncle, perhaps.” He traveled through the woods for a while until he came to a third opening. Far ahead in the center of it was a great rock, on which sat a Dagwanoenyent. Near the opposite side of the opening was a lodge. As Hodadeñon went up to the rock, the Dagwanoenyent called out, “Oh! you are my nephew. I have been wishing for a long time that you would come to see me; now we will play hide and seek.” Hodadeñon was to hide first. Dagwanoenyent faced the other way, and at that moment Hodadeñon, making himself into a flea (dewaqsentwus), jumped into the long bushy hair of Dagwanoenyent, where he hid. Then he called out, “You can not find me, uncle; you can not find me.” Dagwanoenyent looked all around—up in the air, in the trees, everywhere. At last, noticing a weed with a knot on its stem, he said, “Nephew, you are in that knot;” but the nephew was not there. Looking around a second time, he saw a knot on one of the trees. “You are in the knot on that tree, nephew.” “I am not,” answered Hodadeñon. When Dagwanoenyent saw that he had not found the boy he was terribly frightened. “There is danger,” said he, flying far away from the rock. Rising above the clouds, he sat on them. Then Hodadeñon called out from the long shaggy hair, “You can not see me, uncle; you can not see me.” “Oh!” said the uncle to himself, “I have come just by accident on the place where he is.” Then, flying off to an island in the sea, the old man stood there. Again Hodadeñon called out, “You can not see me, uncle; you can not see me.” He could not indeed see the boy, so he flew back to his place in the opening in the forest. Once more Hodadeñon cried, “You can not see me, uncle.” Dagwanoenyent replied: “I have [[207]]lost the game, but I did not bet my head. Now, you may have control of these three witches,” pointing to three women who were pounding corn outside the lodge at the edge of the clearing. The women, who were man-eaters, were very angry when they heard the words of Dagwanoenyent, their servant, and ran to strike him with their clubs. They had the clubs raised to give the blow, when Hodadeñon willed their death, and they dropped lifeless. The boy and his uncle cut their heads off and burned their lodge. Now Dagwanoenyent and Hodadeñon became friends, and the uncle said, “Nephew, if ever you get into trouble, all you have to do is to think of me, and I will come and help you.”
The boy thought, “I have had sport enough, and shall now go to my sister.” After he had come in and sat down he began to laugh. His sister asked, “Why do you laugh?” “Oh, I laugh about what I have seen,” he said. “I have put an end to my uncle on the stump and my uncle who played dice; I have beaten my uncle Dagwanoenyent and frightened him terribly; and I have killed the three witches and cut off their heads and burned their lodge. This is why I laugh.” “Now,” said the sister, “I thank you, my brother, for many people have been deceived and killed by these persons.”
That night he said to his sister, “Make me parched corn meal and two dumplings with bear’s fat in them. Tomorrow I am going to get the chestnuts.” She did all that he wished. Setting out the next morning, he kept on his way until he came to the river over which the tree was thrown. When halfway across on the tree, two rattlesnakes began to rattle. Thereupon, going back, he caught two Tsohoqgwais.[74] Returning by way of the tree again, when he came to the snakes, he gave a chipmunk to each, saying, “You are free now. I shall kill you unless you leave this place.” The snakes ran away.