“Iagoo told my grandfather this story of the mosquitoes that lived on the marsh. His tribe had their teepees by this marsh.
“Iagoo said that he heard one day a great roaring. It was like ten bears, but he was the only brave who dared to go out to see what the roaring was. He saw mosquitoes flying in the tamarack trees in the swamp, but he could not tell the trees from the mosquitoes, they were both so big.
“He killed three mosquitoes with his war club. He shot them first with his arrows. Iagoo tore off the left wing of one, and he made a sail for his birch-bark canoe from that wing.
“He called to his wife. His wife heard, for his voice and his war club drove away the mosquitoes. His wife came out to see the battle, but they were gone. She tore off the bill of one of the slain mosquitoes and used it to dig with, and she used it twelve moons.”
“Ugh! It is good,” said the oldest boy.
“Another time Iagoo was on a trail. The trail was a creek with no water. It went through the land of the river where the buffaloes feed when it is wet.
“The trail was wide and full of sand. The dry grass was on the side of it. Iagoo saw on the sand of the trail a new animal. It was far from him, but it was large. He could see it. It was long as a wildcat, but it [[84]]had no hair like the wildcat. It had two horns like the buffalo. It had many legs, and its eyes were like fire.
“Iagoo took his war club with his two hands. He walked like a brave in battle. He ran on the trail to kill the strange beast. He raised his war club to strike it, but it was nothing but a big ant dragging a rabbit to its hole in the trail. Iagoo sat down in the sand and laughed, while the ant pulled the rabbit into the ant-hole. The rabbit was killed by the ant. Iagoo said so, and he knew it. The ant killed the rabbit with its horns.”
“Ugh! ugh! ugh!” said the boys around the fire.