Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/151

 Rh of the deer that fell to his bow. By a word he could change water into wine; and he liberally invited all to partake freely of the good things he provided in such plenty. Still he was hated by his neighbours, who sought a pretext on which to kill him. He knew this, and thought it about time to leave such ungrateful people, for, among them all, only one old man had ever treated him kindly. He was loth, however, to break the promise made to the girls before open hostility had been shown. One day he gave a feast, and invited all to attend. Having eaten and drunk to their hearts' content, his guests began playing at games. Their host laid a path of deer-skins about 500 yards long, on which he spread peas, and challenged any one to run the whole length without slipping. Several tried and failed, but the challenger ran to the end quite easily, which so enraged the spectators that they openly threatened there and then to make an end of him. On hearing this he carried out all the deer-horns, and made them erect themselves into a ladder, the upper end of which was lost in the clouds. On this he jumped, and began to ascend. His enemies, seeing him escaping, cut at the horns with their axes, but at every blow the axe glanced off and inflicted a wound on the wielder, which soon caused his assailants to desist. When this celestial being got back to his home he was not recognised, and had many hairbreadth escapes from those who pursued him as an interloper; but it would be tedious to continue the relation further; it may suffice to say, that, in common with all romances, everything eventually ended well.

The foregoing may be taken as showing that the aborigines have a notion of some other world inhabited by a superior people, and it is interesting to note that, in keeping with the almost universal belief, they consider the fitting habitation for the good to be above the world, while the bad and mischievous are relegated to the dark caverns under the earth.

Our next tale, besides showing that the dusky maiden need have little to fear from uncongenial attentions, also establishes the fact of a belief in fairies or something akin to these:—

A young Botan became too ardent in his devotion to a young lady