When they got to the lake the wild duck dived and stayed under water for three minutes, but then it had to come up to breathe. Then the eldest brother dived, and turned into a frog, and stayed under water so long that they were sure he was drowned; but just as they were going home, singing for joy to be rid of him, he came running after them, and said: “Now I have had my bath and we can go and get married.”
“Wait till the evening,” said the chief, “and then you can get married.”
When the evening came, the Northern Lights were dancing and leaping in the sky, and the chief said: “The Northern Lights would be angry if you got married without running them a race. Run your best and win, and there will be no more delay.”
The Northern Lights darted away at once to the west, and the eldest brother ran after them; and the chief said to his daughter: “They will lead him right down to the other side of the world, and he will be an old man before he can get back, so he won’t trouble us any more.” But just as the chief finished speaking, here came the Algonquin running up from the east. He had turned himself into lightning and gone right round the world; and the night was nearly gone before the Northern Lights came up after him, panting and sputtering.
“Yes, my son,” said the chief; “you have won the race; so now we can go on with the wedding. The place where we have our weddings is down by the river at the bottom of the valley, and we will go there on our toboggans.”
Now the hillside was rough with rocks and trees, and the river flowed between steep precipices, so nobody could toboggan down there without being broken to pieces. But the eldest brother said he was ready, and asked the chief to come on the same toboggan.
“No,” said the chief, “but as soon as you have started I will.”
Then the Algonquin gave his toboggan a push, and jumped on, and didn’t even take the trouble to sit down. The chief waited to see him dashed to pieces; but the toboggan skimmed down the mountain side without touching a rock or a tree, and flew across the ravine at the bottom, and up the hillside opposite; and the Algonquin was standing straight up the whole time. When he got to the top of the mountain opposite he turned his toboggan round and coasted back as he had come. And when the chief saw him coming near and standing up on his toboggan, he lost his temper and let fly an arrow straight at the young man’s heart; but the arrow stuck in Goose-cap’s bead, and the Algonquin left it sticking there and took no notice. Only when he got to the top he said to the chief, “Now it’s your turn,” and put him on the toboggan and sent him spinning down into the valley. And whether the chief ever came up again we don’t know; but at any rate his daughter married the Algonquin without any more fuss, and went home with him.