It was in midwinter. She had a great yearning for
green corn. He put a dish on the ground, and there fell from above ears
of fresh-boiled green corn into it. 'There,' said he, 'as I promised,
you have it.'
She had a silver cross and beads. One day she lost it, and grieved
very much. He said, 'Put that wooden dish upside down, near the fire.'
It was done, and when she turned it up the cross was under the dish.
And he said the Ketawks, or Spirits, had brought it."
The following legend, told me by Tomah Josephs, sets forth another
manner by which _m'teoulin_ may be acquired.
"There were two Indian families camped away at some distance from the
main village. In one lived a young man, and every night he would go to
the other wigwams to see some girls. His mother warned him that he
would come to harm, for there was danger abroad, but he never minded
her.
Now, one night at the end of winter, when the ground was bare of snow,
as he was walking along he heard something come after. It had a very
heavy, steady tramp. He stopped, and saw a long figure, white, but
without arms or legs. It looked like a corpse rolled up. He was
horribly frightened, but when it attacked him he grew angry. The
object, though it had no arms, fought madly. It twined round him; it
struck itself against him, and thrashed itself, bending like a fish all
about.
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