Page:Myths of the Iroquois.djvu/58

92 and set fire to the cabin his mother was in. It burned so fast that she could not get out and she died^. When her head cracked open it shook the ground, and out of the ashes of his mother there rose up a screech owl. His father got well, and they all went to live with the woman and her daughter. The old man married the woman, and the boy the daughter, and so they were happy at last.

An old man brought up his son very quietly in a solitary place. As he grew up, his father sent him daily into the woods and told him to listen and come home and tell what he had heard. So the boy sat on a log .and waited to hear what might come. lie heard a sound at last, "Oh li-Ch,^ so he ran to tell the old man and then thought he would wait till he heard it again. The Ch-R-Ch was repeated, and he ran to his home and cried out, "I have heard it! I have heard it!" " Wait! wait ! said the old man,  till I get my pipe," and when he had lifted it he said, "Now, what did you hear!" "Oh," replied the lad, "I heard Oh-R-Ch ; twice it Wivs repeated." " That," said the father " is not what I wanted you to hear ; that was only a snow-bird." So the boy went, moniing after morning, and heard various sounds from snow-birds, wolves, owls, &c., but still never what the old man expected. One day whilst he was listening he heard quite a new sound and as the sun began to rise, it was like a voice singing. ''That is strange " said he, " I never heard that before." The song was like this :

Hft-Mm-weli HiSrhftm-weh WiVhe-dfiin-Dii SrA-gna he. Ha liftm weh Ha hftm weh. Which means : I beluDg to the wolf clan. I belong to the wolf clan. I am going to marry him, I am going to marry hiii!.

It was a sweet woman's voice. So the boy listened and said to him- self, " Surely this is the song." So he shouted ibr glee, and ran and fell near the door, he was so excite<l. " Now," he cried, " I bring the news"; but the father said, <* Wait! wait! till I get my pipe." " Now," said he, as he smoked, " tell me." So the boy began. "As I listened," said he, " I heard a voice from the west, a woman's voice, so I turned and listened to it singing":

Hil-hftra-weli Wa-he-dftm-na Srft-gua-hi.