Читать книгу Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths - Jeremiah Curtin - Страница 54

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27. The Forsaken Infant and Gaha (the Wind)

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A number of Seneca went hunting. When they had finished their hunting and were ready to return home, they did not know what to do with a little boy whose father and mother had died while they were at the chase. They had so much meat that they could not well carry him, and, owing to his infancy, he could not walk. Finally they decided to leave him in the hunting lodge, with plenty of wood and meat. Learning this, the child cried bitterly.

When the hunters reached home the report went around that a child had been left in the woods, and all feared that it would die. At once the chief sent a trusty man to see whether the child was alive. When he got outside the village the man turned himself into a great bear, so that he could run the faster.

Meanwhile the child kept a good fire and cooked meat and lived fairly well. One cold night he began to cry, for the meat was nearly gone and all the wood had been burned. At last he heard some one come to the door, making a sound as if shaking the snow off his feet, [161]and call out: “Well, little boy, you think you are going to die, but you will not. I am going to help you. The chief has sent a man to see whether you are still alive, but he will not be here for some time yet. I will be your friend. When you want me to aid you all you have to do is to think of me and I will come.” Soon after that the boy fell asleep. In the morning he found a pile of wood at his door, and on a low limb of a near-by tree hung a piece of meat. Now he was happy. Building a fire, he cooked and ate some of the meat.

The next night this strange man came again. Stopping at the door, he shook his feet but he did not come in. He said: “The man who is coming will not help you; he is coming in the form of a great bear; he will be here tomorrow forenoon. In the morning you will find between the roots of the old stump in the dooryard a trusty knife. You must sharpen this knife to kill the bear. When he is near, you must run to the spring where the tall hemlock stands and climb the tree a little way; the great bear will follow you. Then slip down on the other side, and when he is coming down after you, stab him in the forefoot.”

The next morning the boy did as the voice told him. After he had killed the bear, he went to the lodge and was very glad.

The next night he awoke, and the stranger, knocking, said: “My friend, I want to say to you that men are coming for you; you must go with them for they will be fond of you. You must not be proud. The headman of the tribe will want you to stay with him. You will be one of the fastest runners among your people. Do not forget that I am your friend; you will not be able to see me, for I am the one whom you call Gaha. If you are in trouble just think of me and I will come and help you. Tomorrow afternoon four men will be in this lodge. They will ask you about the great bear, and you shall say, ‘I saw no great bear, but a strong wind went through the woods one morning.’”

The next day four men came to the lodge with food; they saw that the boy had wood and meat but no bow nor arrow. They took him home the next day. The chief ordered them to bring him to his lodge for the lad’s relatives were all dead. The chief said, “You shall be my grandson and you shall live with me.” The boy wanted a club instead of a bow and arrows. “What do want a club for?” asked the chief. “To kill deer with,” replied the boy. The chief had a club made for him. Owing to his great speed, the youth used to chase deer, which he struck in the forehead with his club; he also killed birds by striking them before they could rise to fly.

The last word that his friend Gaha said to him was: “Do not think that you are the swiftest runner living. Do not boast of your speed.” But the boy had this idea of running always in his mind; [162]when he saw other boys running, he laughed, thinking, “That running is nothing; I can run faster than any other living man.”

One night he heard some one come and strike the door post near the bed. He did not speak. Then a second knock, and the visitor spoke, saying, “Who is there?” “I am here,” answered the boy. “Well, I challenge you to run a race with me, because you think that you are the swiftest runner living. We will start from the second mountain and run from sunrise to sunset,” declared the stranger.

In the morning the boy asked his grandfather whether he had heard a man talking in the night. “No,” came the answer. “Well, a man challenged me last night to run a race,” said the boy. “Oh! I do not believe it is a man. It is a beast. Perhaps you will get killed,” said the old man. “Well, I must be ready,” said the boy; “we run on the third morning from this.” The youth made ready ten pairs of moccasins, put flint on his arrows, and took prepared parched corn to eat.

On the third morning he went to the appointed place. As he drew near he saw there a great dark mass. When nearer he saw an immense creature, but he did not know what it was. When daylight came, he saw that it was a great bear. When the sun appeared the bear said, “Now, we will start.” At once he leaped straight across the valley to the next hill. The ground sank where he struck. He leaped from hill to hill all the time, but the boy had to run through the valley. At noon the great bear was ahead, and the boy was falling behind. The latter began to think, “I am lost; I wish my friend Gaha would come.” At that moment Gaha came in a whirlwind and carried the boy far ahead of the bear. Gaha threw all the trees down, and the bear was delayed jumping over them. The boy called to the great bear, “You must do better than that.” The great bear then gave up, telling the boy that he might have his life; so the boy killed him. Then he took some burned tobacco to his friend Gaha, and, after doing this, asked to be taken home. His friend, carrying him in a whirlwind, set him down in front of his grandfather’s lodge. The boy said: “I have come, grandfather. I have killed the great bear, and you must send and get his body.” The grandfather sent eight men to get his body. They were twenty days going and twenty days returning. The boy was not one day coming, for Gaha carried him over the woods and under the clouds.