‘Why I could snap those in a moment,’ said he; ‘if you want to make
sure that I cannot escape, better take a line of kelp and bind me with
that.’
‘You are right,’ answered the grandfather; ‘your wisdom is greater than
ours.’ And he bade his servants gather enough kelp from the rocks to
make a line, as they had brought none with them.
‘While the line is being made you might as well let me have one last
dance,’ remarked the mink. And the wolves replied: ‘Very good, you may
have your dance; perhaps it may amuse us as well as you.’ So they
brought two canoes and placed them one beside the other. The mink
stood up on his hind legs and began to dance, first in one canoe and
then in the other; and so graceful was he, that the wolves forgot they
were going to put him to death, and howled with pleasure.
‘Pull the canoes a little apart; they are too close for this new
dance,’ he said, pausing for a moment. And the wolves separated them
while he gave a series of little springs, sometime pirouetting while he
stood with one foot on the prow of both. ‘Now nearer, now further
apart,’ he would cry as the dance went on. ‘No! further still.’ And
springing into the air, amidst howls of applause, he came down
head-foremost, and dived to the bottom. And through the wolves, whose
howls had now changed into those of rage, sought him everywhere, they
never found him, for he hid behind a rock till they were out of sight,
and then made his home in another forest.
[From the Journal of the Anthropological Institute.]
Adventures of an Indian Brave
A long, long way off, right away in the west of America, there once
lived an old man who had one son. The country round was covered with
forests, in which dwelt all kinds of wild beasts, and the young man and
his companions used to spend whole days in hunting them, and he was the
finest hunter of all the tribe.
One morning, when winter was coming on, the youth and his companions
set off as usual to bring back some of the mountain goats and deer to
be salted down, as he was afraid of a snow-storm; and if the wind blew
and the snow drifted the forest might be impassable for some weeks.
The old man and the wife, however, would not go out, but remained in
the wigwam making bows and arrows.
It soon grew so cold in the forest that at last one of the men declared
they could walk no more, unless they could manage to warm themselves.
‘That is easily done,’ said the leader, giving a kick to a large tree.
Flames broke out in the trunk, and before it had burnt up they were as
hot as if it had been summer. Then they started off to the place where
the goats and deer were to be found in the greatest numbers, and soon
had killed as many as they wanted. But the leader killed most, as he
was the best shot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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