BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


Then the boy concealed himself near the trail and watched. He could see his
uncle's house in the distance and he could just see his little sister standing
near it. By and by she took a bucket and came running toward the place
where he was. When she came to the arrow which lie liad left where it fell, she
stopped, took it up, and looked at it. She thought it was strange. Meanwhile
her brother watched her. Then the girl turned the arrow round in her hand
and said to herself, This looks like my brother's arrow." She turned her head
around toward the bank and saw him. Then he called her to him.
 Now the boy asked his sister what she was doing at his uncle's, and she said,
"I am nursing my uncle's child." Ile asked her if her uncle was s ah ad as
before, and she said he was worse. lIe asked what site was doing in the house
at that very time, and she told him she was nursing the baby and cooking the
big hominy (Tunica, kJyllyli'-; French, ros igruac). Then her brother told
her to go back to the house and tease the child so that it would begin to cry.
After that she was to say to it, )on't cry, for if you do I will put you into the
big boiling pot." So the girl went back, took up the balby and began pinching it.
Then it cried out. Her uncle said, What is the matter with the child to-day?
Is your brother coming home perhaps?" He said this several times. Again,
while she was moving about near the pot she pinched the baby until it cried
out, and then said to it, If you cry I will put you into this pot." Well do it,"
said her uncle. You will not live until to-night." At that moment she threw
it into the Ioiling pot.
 Near the girl's uncle sat two men, and he said to them, Come on quickly
 with your clubs," for he wanted them to kill her. So one of the two seized a
 paddle and the other a long, heavy wooden pestle used to ,beat rice [ I1 and they
 ran after her. Her brother had told her to run toward the place where he was
 stationed, so she was not afraid, but laughed as she went. After she had gone
 a short distance she would stop, and say, Is this far enough?" and her uncle
 would answer, Go a little farther. It is too near. She will stink if you kill
 her there." She did this several times, but each I imne lie said, "No; go farther."
 When she got close to the place where her brother was concealed she said. Is
 this far enough?" and now he sa:d, Yes." lut just as the two pursuers were
 about to strike her there came a hlash of lightning. Then the men tried to hide
 their clubs behind them, but the paddle turned into the tail of a buzzard and
 the wooden pestle into the tail of an opossum, into which the men themselves
 were, respectively, transformed.
 After that the girl's brother called her and she went to him. He said to
 her, When I start to go above jump and seize me by the ankle and we will go
 together." When lie started, however, she missed his ankle and caught hold of
 him too high up. Then lie said. You missed me. You will have to stay here
 on this earth, while 1 go above, but every winter you iiust come to me and
 bring the leaf lard (network of fat over the ribs) of a deer. The little girl
 turned into the woodcock (Tunica, ni'kAuctawiitcil; Frenchl, bcomns dc nuit).
 Her brother become the thunder. Every New Year's morning just before day-
 light this bird goes up into the air and you can hear her saying, "Tci tci tci tcf
 Iel tcl." The uncle remained where he was.

 The other version of this story supplements this in several impor-
 tant particulars, but is essentially the same. According to it, the
 dangerous beings in the canebrake were serpents, while the uncle
 finally turned into the panther. Before the eagle gave his feathers
 to the boy he flew over his uncle's town and by crushing pokeweed
 induced the uncle to believe his nephew was dead.


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[BULL. 43