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28. The Old Man and the Boy

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In the past an old man and a small boy lived together in a lodge by themselves. With great affection they passed the time. Each called the other “friend.” They were not blood relatives, only cousins. [163]

One day the old man dressed himself richly—sticking new feathers in his headdress, trimming his hair, and painting his face, and putting on new moccasins. The little boy, watching him, asked, “What are you going to do, my friend?” “Oh, I am going to see the world. I shall be gone a good while. I shall make a long journey,” the old man answered. “Can I not go with you?” asked the boy. “Well, if your father and mother will let you go, I will take you along,” said the old man.

Going to his mother, the boy asked her if he might go. After thinking a minute, she said, “Yes; you may go,” and gave him a new pair of moccasins to wear on the journey.

He returned to his friend, who washed him, trimmed his hair, painted his face, put new feathers in his headdress, and gave him a fine new bow and arrows. Then both set out together. They traveled until night, when they stopped and made their fire in the woods; then they ate their evening meal and slept.

They traveled in this way for five days, until they came to a lake so broad that they could not see the other shore. “How can we get across?” asked the boy. “Oh! we shall have to make a canoe,” said the old man. “Will it take long?” asked the boy. “About one day,” the old man replied. He looked around in the woods until he found a large bitternut hickory tree; stripping off the bark he made a large canoe.

The next morning the old man and the boy, putting their bows, arrows, and fur robes into the canoe, started across the lake. The boy was seated in front and the old man, who paddled, in the stern. In the evening they came in sight of a low island, and without landing they fastened their canoe to the bullrushes that grew around the shore. “How can we sleep here? Is it safe? Are there not things in the water that might kill us?” were some of the anxious queries of the boy. “Oh!” said the old man, “there are fish in the water, and there are in the world evil things reaching from the bottom of the water up to the home of the Master of Life.”47 “If the wind blows we shall be carried off into the lake,” said the boy. “Oh, no! we are safe,” said the old man. So both lay down and soon fell asleep.

About midnight the boy heard a rushing sound as of swiftly moving water, and it seemed to him that the canoe was moving rapidly. He thought that the wind must be blowing hard. On sitting up in the canoe he found that the weather was calm. Then he thought that the water must be running very fast, and putting his hand overboard he found this to be true. He roused the old man at once by shaking his feet and saying: “Get up, friend, and see what the trouble is. The water is running by very fast. Where is the lake going? What are we to do?” “Lie down,” said the old man, “no harm will come to you or me.” [164]

The boy then lay down, but he could not sleep. Just at daybreak a voice spoke to him. Opening his eyes, he saw a fine-looking, middle-aged man, beautifully decorated with paint and feathers, standing at the bow of the boat. The boy saw, too, that the canoe was on dry land. Now the stranger roused the old man saying, “Come with me.” Taking up their bows and arrows and other equipage, they followed the man, who took them to a long lodge. They entered it. There were, they saw, many persons inside, some asleep, some awake. When the old man of the lodge met them he said to the guide, “Oh! you have brought them,” and then, turning to the two friends, he said: “I am glad that you have come. I know you have heard of us before. We are the people whom you call Hinon in your home. We bring rain to make corn and beans and squashes grow. We sent our young man to the island for you. It is we who put it into your mind to come east. We want you to help us, for you are more powerful in orenda than is anything else. The world was made for you. You are more powerful in orenda in some respects than we are, and we want you to help us to kill some of your and our enemies.”

Then they ate their morning meal. There were all kinds of food—corn, beans, squashes. “We have these things. We take a little from a great many fields,” said the old man. “When you see a small row of corn, or a withered squash, or bad kernels of corn on an ear, or dried-up beans in a pod, then you may know that we have taken our part from these. We have taken our part—that part is the spirit of these things—and we have left the shells, or husks. If you should see a whole field blasted and withered, then you would know that we had taken the whole field. But we seldom or never do that. We take only a little from each field.”

After they had eaten, the youngest warrior of the long lodge said: “Now we will go and try to kill the great porcupine. Off there on the hill stands an immense hemlock tree, the largest tree in the whole country. On that tree dwells a terrible porcupine, of such size that his quills are as large as long darts. These he hurls in all directions, killing all who approach him. We Hinon can not kill him, and we are afraid to go near the tree.” So they all agreed to go together.

As they went toward the tree the boy marched ahead with his little bow and arrows. The old man, his friend, and the Hinon laughed to see him, and the old man said in fun: “I think that our little friend might try his luck first.” “All right,” said the Hinon. The little boy was pleased with the suggestion. They stopped at a good distance from the great hemlock tree. No one would venture nearer. [165]

Then, the little boy going down into the ground, went forward until he was directly under the tree in which the porcupine lived. Putting his head and arms out of the ground, and taking aim, he sent an arrow into the porcupine’s body. It moved a little. Then he sent another and still another arrow in quick succession. Feeling something hit him, the porcupine, raising his quills, shot them in every direction. To avoid them the boy hid under the ground. Then the porcupine groaned and, rolling from the tree, fell to the ground dead. Thereupon all the Hinon with the old man came up. Cutting open the great porcupine, which was very fat, they took out his entrails, and then dragged his body home; they saved his quills and ate his flesh. All wondered at the orenda of the little boy.

Old Hinon was delighted. “Now,” said he, “we have another enemy—a great and terrible sunfish, which lives in our river here and which lets no one come near for water; he devours everything, and he even springs up out of the water and catches birds as they fly over the river. The little boy said, “I can kill him without trouble, for he is in the water.”

The next day the Hinon and the old man went near enough to show him where the sunfish lived. The trunk of a great tree had fallen into the river, and it was under this that the sunfish used to lie in wait. He was in his lurking place when they arrived there. The little fellow at once saw him; he shot his arrow straight into the heart of the sunfish, which came to the surface and died. Springing into the water, the whole party of Hinon pulled the sunfish to land and dragged him off to the lodge of old Hinon, who was overjoyed at seeing his second enemy dead. “He is good eating,” said old Hinon, and they feasted on him that day.

The third day old Hinon said: “Now comes the turn of our last enemy. Every other day there flies past here an enormous butterfly, as big as a cloud. He brings sickness, and many of our people die because of him. If we could kill this butterfly, we should have good health and very few of us would die. He passes over here from the west early in the morning and goes back in the evening. Wherever he goes he carries sickness. He will come tomorrow morning.”

The next morning very early they went out in the high grass, where they waited. Soon the great butterfly appeared, flying toward them. He was almost over the place where they were concealed when the little boy, drawing his bow, let an arrow fly. This struck the butterfly, whereupon the hind part of his body immediately dropped, hanging toward the ground. All expected to see him fall. Instead of that he turned and flew back slowly in the direction from which he came. Hinon said: “I am very glad. I do not think that he will come again to this place. Our last enemy is destroyed.” [166]

They then went back to the lodge and ate. As the day passed, the old man said to the two friends, “You may stay and live with us or go home, as you choose.” The old man said: “I am old and can not help you, but my young friend—the little boy—may stay. He is very powerful in orenda. He can do anything, and will be of great assistance to you.” “Well,” said the Hinon, “we are going to your place this evening. There will be a great dance there tonight. We will all go and have some sport, and will carry you as we pass along in the clouds.”

After dark, when the council lodge was full of men and women dancing, the old man, the boy, and the Hinon went in. As the Hinon entered, they began to dance. When they shook their heads the lightnings began to play around the lodge. The chiefs said, “Our grandfathers are here tonight. They should behave themselves or they may do us harm.” Then for a little while the Hinon quieted down. Later, again becoming excited in the dance, they shook their heads until the lightning flashed everywhere and the people were afraid.

After dancing as much as they wished the Hinon went home, leaving the old man but taking the boy with them, and today the little boy goes with them everywhere. “And after the great peals of thunder we hear the little fellow with his boyish voice, and we say, ‘That is the boy.’ We burn tobacco to him, saying, ‘This is all we have to give you,’ and we thank him for the rain that he and the Hinon bring,” say the Seneca.