goes straightway to this Cabin, but finds the door closed; he calls, he beats on the door. He is told to wait, and first to pass in his arm, if he wishes to enter; the other one is much astonished to see a living body. He [104] opens to him, and asks him where he was going and what his purpose was, as this country was only for souls. "I know that well," says this Adventurer, "and that is why I came here to seek the soul of my sister." "Oh indeed," replies the other one, "well and good; come, take courage, you will be presently in the Village of souls, where you will find what you desire. All the souls are now gathered in a Cabin, where they are dancing to heal Aataentsic, who is sick. Don't be afraid to enter; stay, there is a pumpkin, you can put into it the soul of your sister." sister." He takes it, and at the same time bids good-bye to his host, very glad of so fortunate a meeting. On his departure he asks the host his name, "Be satisfied," says the other," that I am he who keeps the brains of the dead." So he goes away and reaches the Village of souls. He enters the Cabin of Aataentsic, where he finds that they are indeed dancing for the sake of her health; but he cannot yet see the soul of his sister, for the souls were so startled at the sight of the man that they vanished in a moment, so that he remained [105] all day the master of the Cabin. In the evening, as he was seated by the fire, they returned; but they showed themselves at first only at a distance. Approaching slowly, they began again to dance; he recognized his sister amid the troop, he endeavored even to seize her, but she fled from him. He withdrew some distance, and at last chose his time so well that she could not escape him. Nevertheless, he made certain of

elles fe mirent de rechef à danfer; il recogneut fa fœur parmy la troupe, il s'efforça mefme de la prendre, mais elle s'enfuit de luy, il fe retira à l'écart, & prit enfin si bien fon temps qu'elle ne peût échapper; neantmoins il ne fut pas affeuré de fa proye qu'à bonnes enfeignes; car il luy fallut luiter côtre elle toute la nuict, & dans le combat elle diminua tellement, & deuint fi petite, qu'il la mit fans difficulté dans fa courge: l'ayant bie bouchée, il s'en retourne fur la champ, & repaffe chez son hofte, qui luy donne dans vne autre courge la ceruelle de sa fœur, & l'instruit de tout ce qu'il deuoit faire pour la refusciter. Quand tu feras arriué, luy dit-il, va t'en au cimetiere, prends le corps de ta fœur, porte le en ta Cabane, & fais feftin: tous les conuiez estãs affemblez, charge le fur tes épaules, & fais vn tour par la Cabane, tenant en main les deux courges, tu n'auras pas fi toft repris ta place, que ta fœur resuscitera, [106] pourueu que tu donne ordre que tous tiennent la veuë baiffée, & que pas vn ne regarde ce que tu feras, autrement tout ira mal. Le voila donc retourné dans fort peu de temps à son Village, il prend le corps de fa fœur, fait festin, & execute de point en point, tout ce qui luy auoit efté prescrit; & de fait il fentoit déja du mouuement dans ce cadaure demy pourry; mais comme il eftoit à deux ou trois pas de fa place, il y eut vn curieux qui leua les yeux, & en mefme temps cette ame s'échappa, & ne luy demeura que ce cadaure fur les bras, qu'il fut contrainct de reporter au tombeau d'où il l'auoit tiré.

SI CREDERE FAS EST.

Voicy vne autre de leurs fables de mefme tissure.

his prey only by securing her well; for he had to struggle against her all night, and in the contest she grew so little that he put her without difficulty into his pumpkin. Having corked her in well, he immediately returns by way of the house of his host, who gives him his sister's brains in another pumpkin, and instructs him in all he must do to resuscitate her. "When thou reachest home," he says to him, "go to the cemetery, take the body of thy sister, bear it to thy Cabin, and make a feast. When all thy guests are assembled, carry it on thy shoulders, and take a walk through the Cabin holding the two pumpkins in thy hands; thou wilt no sooner have resumed thy place than thy sister will come to life again, [106] provided thou givest orders that all keep their eyes lowered, and that no one shall look at what thou art doing, else everything will go wrong." Soon the man returns to his Village; he takes the body of his sister, makes a feast, carries out, in due order, all the directions given him,—and, indeed, he already felt motion in the half-decayed corpse; but, when he was two or three steps from his place, one curious person raised his eyes; at that moment the soul escaped, and there remained to him only the corpse in his arms, which he was constrained to bear to the tomb whence he had taken it.14

SI CREDERE FAS EST.

Here is another of their fables, of like tissue. A young man of the highest standing among them, being ill, after much entreaty finally answered that his dream showed a bow rolled in bark; that if any one wanted to go with him as an escort, there was but one man on earth who had one of the sort. A com

Vn ieune homme des plus qualifiez d'entr'eux apres s'eftre bien fait prier, répondit enfin estant malade, que fon fonge portoit vn arc roulé en écorce, que si on vouloit luy faire escorte, il n'y auoit qu'vn feul homme fur terre qui en euft vn. Vne troupe de deliberez fe mettent en chemin auec luy; mais au bout de dix iours il ne luy refta que fix compagnons, le refte rebrouffa à caufe de la faim qui les preffoit: les fix vont auec luy [107] à grandes iournées, & fur les piftes d'vne petite beste noire rencontrent la Cabane de leur homme, qui les aduertit de ne manger rien de ce qu'vne femme qui alloit reuenir leur appresteroit pour la premiere fois; à quoy ayant obeï, & renuerfé les plats par terre, ils s'apperceurent, que ce n'eftoient que beftes venimeufes, qu'elle leur auoit prefenté. S'éftans refaits du fecond feruice, il fut queftion de bander l'arc roulé, dont pas vn n'ayant pû venir à bout, que le ieune home, pour qui le voyage auoit efté entrepris: il le receut en don de fon hofte, qui l'inuita de fuer auec luy, & au fortir de la fuerie metamorphofa vn de fes compagnons en Pin. Delà ils aborderent au Village des ames, d'où ils ne reuindrent que trois en vie, & tous effarez chez leur hofte, qui les encouragea de retourner chez eux, à la faueur d'vn peu de farine, telle que les ames la mangent, & qui fuftente les corps à merueilles. Qu'au refte ils alloient paffer à trauers des bois, où les Cerfs, les Ours, les Orignacs eftoient auffi communs que les fueilles des arbres; & qu'eftans pourueus d'vn arc fi merueilleux, ils n'auoient rien à craindre, que [108] leur chaffe feroit des meilleures. Les voila de retour en leur Village, & tout le monde à l'entour d'eux, à fe réiour & apprendre leurs diuerfes rencontres.

pany of resolute men put themselves on the road with him; but at the end of ten days there remained to him only six companions, the rest turning back on account of the hunger which pressed them. The six go with him [107] many a day's journey, and in following the tracks of a little black beast, come upon the Cabin of their man, who warns them not to partake of what a woman who was to be present should offer them for the first time. Having obeyed him, and having upset the dishes upon the ground, they perceived it was only venomous reptiles she had presented to them. Having refreshed themselves with the second course, it was a question of bending the rolled bow, which not one of them succeeded in doing, except the young man in whose behalf the journey had been undertaken. He received it as a gift from his host, who invited him to take a sweat with him, and, upon emerging from the sweat-box, metamorphosed one of his companions. into a Pine tree. From there they advanced to the Village of souls, whence only three returned alive, and all frightened, to the house of their host; he encouraged them to return home with the help of a little meal, such as the souls eat, and which sustains the body wonderfully. He told them, moreover, that they were going to pass through woods where Deer, Bears, and Moose were as common as the leaves on the trees; but that, being provided with so marvelous a bow, they had nothing to fear, that [108] they would be very successful in the chase. Behold them returned to their Village, with every one around them rejoicing, and learning their different adventures.

Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit, when these