The magician began to feel uneasy, for he saw that he had been
outwitted. He put on a grave face, however, and entering the lodge,
acted as if nothing unusual had happened.
Some days after this, Mishosha again requested his son-in-law to
accompany him; and Owasso, without hesitation, said "Yes!"
They went out and quickly arrived at a solitary island, which was no
more than a heap of high and craggy rocks.
The magician said to Owasso, "Go on shore, my son, and pick up all the
gulls' eggs you can find."
The rocks were strewn with eggs, and the air resounded with the cry of
the birds as they saw them gathered up by Owasso.
The old magician took the opportunity to speak to the gulls.
"I have long wished," he said, "to offer you something. I now give you
this young man for food."
He then uttered the charm to his canoe, and it shot out of sight,
leaving Owasso to make his peace the best way he could.
The gulls flew in immense numbers around, all ready to devour him, but
Owasso did not lose his presence cf mind. He addressed them and said:
"Gulls, you know you were not formed to eat human flesh, nor was man
made to be the prey of birds. Obey my words. Fly close together, a
sufficient number of you, and carry me on your backs to the magician's
lodge."
[Illustration: 0193]
They listened attentively to what he said, and seeing nothing
unreasonable in his request, they obeyed him, and Owasso soon found
himself sailing swiftly homeward through the air.
Meanwhile the old magician had fallen asleep and allowed his canoe to
come to a standstill. Owasso, in his flight over the lake, saw him lying
on his back in the boat taking a nap, which was quite natural, as the
day was very soft and balmy.
As Owasso, with his convoy of birds, passed over, he let fall a capful
of gulls' eggs directly in the face of the old magician. They broke and
so besmeared Misho-sha's eyes that he could barely see. He jumped up and
exclaimed:
"It is always so with these thoughtless birds. They never consider where
they drop their eggs."
Owasso flew on and reached the lodge in safety, where, excusing himself
for the liberty, he killed two or three of the gulls, as he wished their
feathers to ornament his son's head.
When the magician arrived, soon after, his grandson came out to meet
him, tossing his head about as the feathers danced and struggled with
the wind.
"Where did you get these," asked the Manito, "and who brought them?"
"My father brought them," the boy replied.
The old magician was quite distressed in his mind that he had not
destroyed his son-in-law. He entered his lodge in silence and set his
wits busily at work again to contrive some more successful plan to gain
his purpose.
He could not help saying to himself:
"What manner of boy is this who is ever escaping from my power? But his
guardian spirit shall not save him. I will entrap him to-morrow. Ha, ha,
ha!"
He was painfully aware that he had tried two of his charms without
effect, and that he had only two more left. But he now professed to be
more friendly with his son-in-law than ever, and the very next day he
said to Owasso:
"Come, my son, you must go with me to procure some young eagles. We will
tame them and have them for pets about the lodge. I have discovered an
island where they are in great abundance."
They started on the trip, and after traversing an immense waste of
water, at last reached the island. Mishosha led Owasso inland until they
came to the foot of a tall pine-tree, upon which the nests were to be
found.
"Now, my son," said Mishosha, "climb up this tree and bring down the
birds. I think you will get some fine ones up there."
Owasso obeyed. When he had with great difficulty got near the nest,
Mishosha cried out, addressing himself to the tree, and without much
regard for the wishes of Owasso:
"Now stretch yourself up and he very tall."
The tree, at this bidding, rose up so far that Owasso would have
imperiled his neck by any attempt to get to the ground.
"Listen, ye eagles!" continued Mishosha. "You have long expected a gift
from me. I now present you this boy, who has had the presumption to
climb up to your nests in order to molest your young. Stretch forth your
claws and seize him."
So saying, the old magician turned his back upon Owasso, and going off
in the canoe, left his son-in-law to shift for himself.
But the birds did not seem to be so badly minded as the old magician had
supposed; for a very old bald eagle, quite corpulent and large of limb,
alighted on a branch just opposite, opened conversation with Owasso by
asking what had brought him there.
Owasso replied that he had not mounted the tree of himself, or out of
any disposition to harm the birds, but that his father-in-law, the old
magician who had just left them, had sent him up; that he was constantly
sending him on mischievous errands. In a word, the young man was
enlarging at great length upon the character of the wicked Manito, when
he was interrupted by being darted upon by a hungry-eyed bird, with long
claws.
Owasso, not in the least disconcerted, boldly seized this fierce eagle
by the neck and dashed it against the rocks, crying out:
"Thus will I deal with all who come near me."
The old eagle, who appeared to be the head of the tribe, was so pleased
with this show of spirit that he immediately appointed two tall birds,
uncommonly strong in the wings, to transport Owasso to his lodge. They
were to take turns in conducting him through the air.
Owasso expressed many obligations to the old eagle for his kindness, and
they forthwith set out. It was a high point from which they started,
for the pine-tree had shot far, far up toward the clouds, and they could
even descry from it the enchanted island where the old magician lived,
though it was miles and miles away. For this point they steered their
flight; and in a short time they landed Owasso at the door of the lodge.
With many compliments for their despatch, Owasso dismissed the birds and
stood ready to greet his wicked father-in-law who arrived a few minutes
after. And now when Mishosha espied his son-in-law standing there
unharmed he became very black in the face and raged horribly. But
dissembling his feelings and still professing great friendship he
pondered deeply as to how he might use his one remaining charm to the
best advantage.
While he was still considering this, Owasso and his wife, sitting on the
banks of the lake one evening, heard a song, as if sung by some one at a
great distance. The sound continued for some time and then died away in
perfect stillness.
"Oh, it is the voice of Sheem," cried Owasso. "It is the voice of my
brother! If I could only see him!" And he hung down his head in deep
anguish.
His wife witnessed his distress, and to comfort him she proposed that
they should attempt to make their escape and carry him succor on the
morrow.
When the morning came, and the sun shone warmly into the lodge, the wife
of Owasso offered to comb her father's hair, with the hope that it would
soothe him to sleep. It had that effect; and they no sooner saw him
in deep slumber than they seized the magic canoe, Owasso uttered the
charmed words, "Chemaun Poll!" and they glided away upon the water
without need of oar or sail.
They had nearly reached the land on the opposite side of the lake,
and could distinctly hear the voice of the younger brother singing his
lament as before, when the old magician wakened. Missing his daughter
and her husband, he suspected deception of some kind; he looked for his
magic boat and found it gone. He spoke the magic words, which were more
powerful from him than from any other person in the world, and the canoe
immediately returned; to the sore disappointment of Owasso and his wife.
When they came back to the shore, Mishosha stood upon the beach and
drew up his canoe. He did not utter a word. The son-in-law and daughter
entered the lodge in silence.
The time, walking along in its broad open path, brought the autumn
months to a close, and the winter had set in. Soon after the first fall
of snow, Owasso said:
"Father, I wish to try my skill in hunting. It is said there is plenty
of game not far off, and it can now be easily tracked. Let us go."
The magician consented; they set out, and arriving at a good ground
for their sport, spent the day in hunting. Night coming on, they
built themselves a lodge of pine-branches to sleep in. Although it was
bitterly cold, the young man took off his leggings and moccasins and
hung them up to dry. The old magician did the same, carefully hanging
his own in a separate place, and they lay down to sleep.
Owasso, from a glance he had given, suspected that the magician had a
mind to play him a trick; and to be beforehand with him, he watched an
opportunity to get up and change the moccasins and leggings, putting
his own in the place of Mishosha's, and depending on the darkness of the
lodge to help him through.
Near daylight, the old magician bestirred himself, as if to rekindle the
fire; but he slyly reached down a pair of moccasins and leggings with
a stick, and thinking they were no other than those of Owasso's, he
dropped them into the flames. Then he cast himself down and affected to
be lost in a heavy sleep. The leather leggings and moccasins soon drew
up and were burned.
Instantly jumping up and rubbing his eyes, Misho-sha cried out:
"Son-in-law, your moccasins are burning; I know it by the smell."
Owasso rose up, deliberate and unconcerned.
"No, my friend," said he, "here are mine," at the same time taking them
down and drawing them on. "It is your moccasins that are burning."
Mishosha dropped his head upon his breast. All his tricks were played
out--there was not so much as half a one left to help him ont of the
sorry plight he was in.
"I believe, my grandfather," added Owasso, "that this is the moon in
which fire attracts, and I fear you must have set your foot and leg
garments too near the fire, and they have been drawn in. It is bad that
you have none, but let us go forth to the hunt."
The old magician was compelled to follow him, and they pushed out into a
great storm of snow and hail and wind, which had come on over night; and
neither the wind, the hail, nor the snow had the slightest respect for
the bare limbs of the old magician, for there was not the least virtue
of magic in those parts of old Mishosha's body. After a while they quite
stiffened under him, his body became hard, and his hair bristled in the
cold wind; so that he looked more like a tough old sycamore tree than a
highly gifted magician. But Owasso, remembering, had no compassion and
turned away, leaving the wicked old fellow alone to ponder upon his past
life.
Owasso himself reached home in safety, proof against all kinds of
weather, and the magic canoe became the exclusive property of the young
man and his wife.
Now to go back to the sister who had been left alone with Sheem during
all these years. She knew enough of the arts of the forest to provide
their daily food and labored with good-will to supply the lodge. She
watched her little brother and tended his wants, with all of a good
sister's care. But at last she began to be weary of solitude and of her
charge. No one came to be a witness of her constancy, or to let fall a
single word in her mother-tongue. She could not converse with the birds
and beasts about her, and felt, to the bottom of her heart, that she
was alone. In these thoughts she forgot her younger brother, and almost
wished him dead; for it was he alone that kept her from seeking the
companionship of others.
So one day she collected all the provisions she had been able to reserve
from their daily use and brought a supply of wood to the door. Then she
said to her little brother:
"My brother, you must not stray from the lodge. I am going to seek our
elder brother. I shall be back soon."
She then set the lodge in perfect order and, taking her bundle, set off
in search of habitations. These she soon found, and in the enjoyment of
the pleasures and pastimes of her new acquaintances, she began to think
less and less of her little brother, Sheem. At last she accepted
a proposal of marriage, and from that time she utterly forgot the
abandoned boy.
As for poor little Sheem, he was soon brought to the pinching turn of
his fate. As soon as he had eaten all of the food left in the lodge, he
was obliged to pick berries and live off such roots as could be dug with
his slender hands. As he wandered about in search of the wherewithal to
stay his hunger, he often looked up to heaven and saw the gray clouds
going up and down. And then he looked about upon the wide earth, but he
never saw his sister or brother returning from their long delay.
At last, even the roots and berries gave out. They were blighted by the
frost or hidden out of reach by the snow, for midwinter had come on,
and poor little Sheem was obliged to leave the lodge and wander away in
search of food.
Sometimes he had to pass the night in the clefts of old trees or in
caverns, and to break his fast with the refuse meals of the savage
wolves.
These at last became his only resource, and he grew to be so little
fearful of these animals that he would sit by them while they devoured
their meat, and patiently await his share.
After a while, the wolves took to little Sheem very kindly, and seeming
to understand his outcast condition, they would always leave something
for him to eat. By and by they began to talk with him, and to inquire
into his history. When he told them that he had been forsaken by his
brother and his sister, the wolves turned about to each other, lifted up
their eyes to heaven, and wondered among themselves, with raised paws,
that such a thing should have been.
In this way Sheem lived on till the spring, and as soon as the lake was
free from ice, he followed his new friends to the shore.
It happened on the same day that his elder brother, Owasso, was fishing
in his magic canoe, a considerable distance out upon the lake. Suddenly
he thought he heard the cries of a child upon the shore. He wondered how
any human creature could exist on so bleak and barren a coast.
He listened again with all attention, and he heard the cry distinctly
repeated; and this time it was the well-known cry of his younger brother
that reached his ear. He knew too well the secret of his song, as he
heard him chaunting mournfully:
"My brother! My brother! Since you left me going in the canoe, a-hee-ee,
I am half changed into a wolf, E-wee. I am half changed into a wolf,
E-wee." Owasso made for the shore, and as he approached the lament was
repeated. The sounds were very distinct, and the voice of wailing was
very sorrowful for Owasso to listen to; and it touched him the more that
it died away at the close into a long-drawn howl, like that of the wolf.
In the sand, as he drew closer to the land, he saw the tracks as of an
animal fleeing away; and beside these the prints of human hands. But
what were the pity and astonishment that smote Owasso to the heart when
he espied his poor little brother--poor little forsaken Sheem--half boy
and half wolf, flying along the shore!
Owasso immediately leaped upon the ground and strove to catch him in his
arms, saying soothingly, "My brother! my brother! Come to me."
But the poor wolf-boy avoided his grasp, crying, as he fled, "Neesia,
neesia. Since you left me going in the canoe, a-he-ee, I am half changed
into a wolf, E-wee. I am half changed into a wolf, E-wee!" And he howled
between these words of lament.
The elder brother, sore at heart and feeling all of his brotherly
affection strongly returning, cried out with renewed anguish, "My
brother! my brother! my brother!"
But the nearer he approached to poor Sheem, and the faster Sheem fled,
the more rapidly the change from boy to wolf went on; the boy-wolf
by turns singing and howling, and calling out the name, first of his
brother, next of his sister, till the change was complete. Then he
leaped upon a bank, and looking back, cast upon Owasso a glance of deep
reproach and grief.
"I am a wolf!" he cried and disappeared in the woods.
[Illustration: 0205]