Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/143

Rh that she triumphed notwithstanding). "He lives at Bikehalsĭ′n," she said. Then the brothers held a long council to determine what they should do. They made two cigarette kethawns of a plant called azeladĭltéhe,132 one black and one blue, each three finger-widths long; to these they attached a sunbeam and laid them in a turquoise dish. "I shall go alone to fight Téelgĕt," said Nayénĕzgani, "while you, younger brother, remain at home and watch these kethawns. If they take fire from the sunbeam, you may know that I am in great danger; as long as they do not take fire, you may know that I am safe." This work was finished at sundown.138

331. Nayénĕzgani arose early next morning and set out alone to find Téelgĕt. He came, in time, to the edge of a great plain, and from one of the hills that bordered it he saw the monster lying down a long way off. He paused to think how he could approach nearer to him without attracting his attention, and in the meantime he poised one of his lightning arrows in his hand, thinking how he should throw it. While he stood thus in thought, Nasĭ′zi, the Gopher, came up to him and said: "I greet you, my friend! Why have you come hither?" "Oh, I am just wandering around," said Nayénĕzgani. Four times this question was asked and this answer was given. Then Nasĭ′zi said: "I wonder that you come here; no one but I ever ventures in these parts, for all fear Téelgĕt. There he lies on the plain yonder." "It is him I seek," said Nayénĕzgani; "but I know not how to approach him." "Ah, if that is all you want, I can help you," said Gopher; "and if you slay him, all I ask is his hide. I often go up to him, and I will go now to show you." Having said this, Nasĭ′zi disappeared in a hole in the ground.

332. While he was gone Nayénĕzgani watched Téelgĕt. After a while he saw the great creature rise, walk from the centre in four different directions, as if watching, and lie down again in the spot where he was first seen. He was a great, four-footed beast, with horns like those of a deer. Soon Nasĭ′zi returned and said: "I have dug a tunnel up to Téelgĕt, and at the end I have bored four tunnels for you to hide in, one to the east, one to the south, one to the west, and one to the north. I have made a hole upwards from the tunnel to his heart, and I have gnawed the hair off near his heart. When I was gnawing the hair he spoke to me and said: 'Why do you take my hair?' and I answered, 'I want it to make a bed for my children.' Then it was that he rose and walked around; but he came back and lay down where he lay before, over the hole that leads up to his heart."

333. Nayénĕzgani entered the tunnel and crawled to the end. When he looked up through the ascending shaft of which Nasĭ′zi had told him, he saw the great heart of Téelgĕt beating there. He sped