Chapter IX: The Wizard’s Hunting

[_Abenaki_]

_Noñwat mʾzi mʾdaulinowak nadialoldowak._[55]

In ancient days when wizard power was great
There were two mighty men who knew these arts
And understood full well unholy skill.
Once on a time it chanced that these great twain
Did quarrel for a certain hunting ground.
The one had set up deadfalls in the paths
Where run the timid deer, all ignorant
Of man, and man’s desire to slaughter them.
The other wizard straightway came along
And, ruthless, snapped these deadfalls every one,
To irritate his fellow wizard’s heart.
Twice did the mischief-maker do this deed,
Till, finally, the injured man bethought
Him that he must consult the secret powers
How he should catch and punish well the foe.
So crawling into _petegwîgun′s_ shade--
This was the magic round-house where the gods
Give wisdom unto man--he lay in trance
Until he saw a cruel wolverine,
Which he at once knew well to be the foe.
Then, leaping from the house of magic arts,
He followed fast the trail of Wolverine
Who was the evil-hearted enemy.
This mischief-making wizard straightway knew
That he was being followed, so he changed
Himself into a hooting, snowy owl
That wakes the echoes of the forest night.
Thus he escaped and forthwith went again
And full of glee the other’s deadfalls broke.
At last the injured wizard in despair
Went to consult his uncle in the glade
Where hang the alders drooping by the stream.
“O Uncle, aid me in my direst need
And find for me this rascal foe,” he cried,
“Who changes into every living thing,
And thus escapes my burning righteous wrath.”
His uncle was a wizard full of power,
So he at once departed for a time
And then, returning, said: “I’ve found thy foe,
He lives within thy shanty in the woods,
He’s taken his abode within the cracks
Where thou hast sewn the bark upon thy roof.”
“How then shall I be able to outwit
A foe so wily and so full of skill?”
The nephew asked. The uncle told him all.
And then the injured wizard went his way
Unto his barken shanty in the woods.

When he was sitting by the fire that night
An evil bat of monstrous size flew forth
From underneath the shanty’s sloping roof.
Straightway the wizard seized and held the bat
So close unto the glowing fiery coals
That all his filthy, vermin-reeking hair
Was clean consumed--then let him fly away,
Feeling that vengeance had been wreaked full well.
No more thereafter was there mischief wrought
And all his hunting met with fortune fair.
Then later in the year the wizard came
Home to the village laden down with spoils
And trophies of the chase, and there he saw
A man he knew with skin all scarred and burned.
Quoth this one to the wizard: “O my friend
I have been duly punished for my sin.
Do thou now heal me quickly and forgive
That I have caused thee trouble in the chase.”
The wizard then took pity on his foe
And healed his burns and made him whole again. P.

FOOTNOTES:

[55] Long ago all the wizards used to hunt.