Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/144

118 his arrow of chain-lightning and fled into the eastern tunnel. The monster rose, stuck one of his horns into the ground, and ripped the tunnel open. Nayénĕzgani fled into the south tunnel; Téelgĕt then tore the south tunnel open with his horns, and the hero fled into the west tunnel. When the west tunnel was torn up he fled into the north tunnel. The anáye put his horn into the north tunnel to tear it up, but before he had half uncovered it he fell and lay still. Nayénĕzgani, not knowing that his enemy was dead, and still fearing him, crept back through the long tunnel to the place where he first met Nasĭ′zi, and there he stood gazing at the distant form of Téelgĕt.

334. While he was standing there in thought, he observed approaching him a little old man dressed in tight leggings and a tight shirt, with a cap and feather on his head; this was Hazaí, the Ground Squirrel. "What do you want here, my grandchild?" said Hazaí. "Nothing; I am only walking around," replied the warrior. Four times this question was asked and four times a similar answer given, when Ground Squirrel spoke again and inquired: "Do you not fear the anáye that dwells on yonder plain?" "I do not know," replied Nayénĕzgani; "I think I have killed him, but I am not certain." "Then I can find out for you," said Hazaí. "He never minds me. I can approach him any time without danger. If he is dead I will climb up on his horns and dance and sing." Nayénĕzgani had not watched long when he saw Hazaí climbing one of the horns and dancing on it. When he approached his dead enemy he found that Hazaí had streaked his own face with the blood of the slain (the streaks remain on the ground squirrel's face to this day), and that Nasĭ′zi had already begun to remove the skin by gnawing on the insides of the fore-legs. When Gopher had removed the skin, he put it on his own back and said: "I shall wear this in order that, in the days to come, when the people increase, they may know what sort of a skin Téelgĕt wore." He had a skin like that which covers the Gopher to-day. Hazaí cut out a piece of the bowel, filled it with blood, and tied the ends; he cut out also a piece of one of the lungs, and he gave these to Nayénĕzgani for his trophies.134

335. When Nayénĕzgani came home again, he was received with great rejoicing, for his mother had again begun to fear he would never more return. "Where have you been, my son, and what have you done since you have been gone?" she queried. "I have been to Bikehalzĭ′n and I have slain Téelgĕt," he replied. "Ah, speak not thus, my son," she said; "he is too powerful for you to talk thus lightly about him. If he knew what you said he might seek you out and kill you." "I have no fear of him," said her son. "Here is his blood, and here is a piece of his liver. Do you not now believe I have slain him?" Then he said: "Mother, grandmother, tell me,