Character
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NOSGWAIS |
Toad |
TWO brothers lived together. The elder hunted but never brought home any game. The younger noticed that his brother's back was always bloody, as though he had been carrying freshly killed game. He couldn't understand this, so one day he followed his brother, saw him kill a deer, throw it over his shoulder and start for home, but he hadn't gone far when a woman approached from one side, took the deer and carried it off.
The next day the younger brother went in the direction the woman had taken. He soon came to a house and going in found a young woman. She laughed and began to talk to him. After talking a while, he started for home. When he had gone some distance, he found that he was going back to the house he had just left.
As be turned to go in the opposite direction his brother came up behind him, and said, "Don't you know that there is a fishhook in your neck?"
The elder brother took out the fishhook, stuck it in a bush and said "Your safety depends upon getting away from here as quickly as you can." He made his brother small, put him in his arrow, and saying, "When the arrow comes to the ground, get out of it and run for your life," he shot the arrow into the air.
When the woman pulled on the hook and couldn't move it, she followed the line and found the hook in a bush. She was angry, and said, "You cannot escape from me in this way."
She went to the young man's cabin. He wasn't there. She tracked him to her own house and then back to the bush and looking up she saw the trail of the arrow and she followed it till she came to the place where the arrow fell, then she ran on quickly.
As the woman approached, the young man heard her steps and pulling off his moccasins he told them to run to the end of the world. And there, where he stood, he became a stump.
The woman came to the stump, halted, and looking at it said, "This stump is like a man. But the tracks go on," and she hurried away.
The woman reached the end of the world and there stood the moccasins. She rushed back to where she had seen the stump. It wasn't there, but she found fresh tracks and followed them.
When the young man heard the woman coming he took up a stone, threw it behind him, and said, "Let there be a high rock from one end of the world to the other." That minute the rock was there.
The woman came to the rock and could neither go through it nor over it, nor could she crawl under it.
"I never heard of this rock," said she. "It can't go across the world, I'll go around it."
She ran to the end of the world, went back and ran to the opposite end but she couldn't get around the rock. Then going to the place she started from she tried to break the rock by striking her head against it. The rock didn't break, but she struck her head such a blow that she fell back apparently dead. After a long time she opened her eyes and looked up; the rock had disappeared, only a little stone lay there.
"Oh, he is using his power," said the woman, and again she hurried after him.
When the young man heard her coming, he took a pigeon feather out of his pocket, and said, as he threw it behind him, "Let there be a pigeon roost across the world and so many pigeons on it that their droppings will be so deep and high that nothing can get through or over them."
The woman came to the roost and when she couldn't get through the droppings, she said, "I never heard of a
pigeon roost that went across the world. I'll go around it."
She went to one end of the world, then to the other, but couldn't go around the roost. Going back to the place she started from she tried to break through with her head, but fell back apparently dead. After a long time she opened her eyes and saw a small feather on the ground; the roost had disappeared. She was angrier than ever and ran on with greater speed.
The young man came to a lake and saw people in the water playing tag. He halted, and said, "Let one of those men become just like me. Let me become a stump."
The woman came to the stump but hearing the laughter of the people playing tag she looked at them and saw that the man far out in the lake was the man she was following.
The people, seeing the woman, called out, "Come and help us catch this man who outswims us."
She sprang into the water, chased the man and at last caught hold of him. That instant he took his own form. Then she knew that she had been fooled. She hurried back to the shore; the stump had disappeared.
Again the woman followed the young man's tracks. As he heard her coming, a man stood in front of him and asked, "What is the trouble?"
"A woman is chasing me."
"I will help you. Get on to my back," said the stranger, stooping down, "I'll throw you on to the side of a hill. Run along the hill till you are forced to descend."
The stranger was NOSGWAIS (Toad). The young man sat on his back. NOSGWAIS stretched till his legs were of enormous length, then he threw the young man off a great distance.
The woman came to where the man met NOSGWAIS. The ground was soft and springy. As she tried to go forward it rose up and threw her back. Looking around she found that she was on the back of an enormous toad. She got off and, running in circles, hunted for the young man's tracks, and after a long time she reached the hill.
When the young man struck the hill, he jumped up and ran on, ran till he' fell and, unable to get up, rolled down
the hill, going so fast that he didn't realize anything till he struck a house and a voice inside of it said, "Something is in our trap!"
A young woman came, lifted him out of the trap and led him into the house.
"What is the trouble?" asked an old woman who was there.
"A woman is chasing me," said the young man.
"I will help you." She filled a kettle with bear oil and put it over the fire. When the oil began to boil, she said, "Let this man's face look up from the bottom of the kettle."
There was a noise outside, the door opened and the woman came in. "Where is the man I am following?" asked she.
"He ran into this kettle," said the old woman, "that's the last we saw of him."
The woman looked into the kettle, saw the man, and saying, "I knew that I should overtake you!" she plunged into the kettle to seize him. The boiling oil killed her.
The old woman called to the man, and said, "The person who was chasing you is dead."
Her daughter said, "This man will be my husband."
After a time the young man became the father of twin boys. When the boys began to run around, their father said to them, "You must go for your uncle."
They started and after traveling a long time came to a house; in the house was an old man.
One of the boys said to him, "Uncle, we have come for you."
The man got ready and went with them. When they reached home the younger brother greeted the elder, and said, "Now you will always live with us."
And so it was.