Part 39

At length a boy found Gray Squirrel. "This moving one is a gray squirrel," he said. They went in a great uproar. They shot at him. They even hit him with sticks. One boy stood aside. Gray Squirrel attacked him and bit him. They said, "Wonderful! Heretofore the gray squirrel has been very easy to approach, but we have failed. He has bitten us; we have done nothing to him," they said.

"He whom you used to call 'Gray Squirrel' is coming back, having killed one right among them," he called. He told it to Big Turtle.

"Ho! real warrior, act very honestly," said Big Turtle.

"O war chief, it is just so. I have killed one," said he.

"Ho! warrior, you make me thankful," said Big Turtle.

"Ho! warriors," said Big Turtle again. "I, even I, will make a trial. I shall not come back for some time. Beware lest you go homeward. Beware lest you leave me and go homeward."

He arrived there. Some ashes had been poured out. They were extinguished. At length Big Turtle pushed his way through. He went within. He sat within, with his eyes sticking out, looking around. A woman approached when it was morning. She stood very close to where Big Turtle sat.

"You will tread on my shield," he said. The woman looked around. "From what place does he speak?" she thought; therefore she looked around. Again he said to her, "You will tread on my shield. Stand further away." And the woman found him.

"Oh!" she said.

"Stand still. I send you with a message," said Big Turtle. "Go home and say, 'Big Turtle says he has come to war. He says he has come desiring the chief's daughter, whose body has been placed on the bough of a tree.'"

The people came. All the people said, "Break in his skull suddenly." He said, "How is it possible for you to break in my skull suddenly? If you let your weapons slip off suddenly from me each time, you will break your legs with the blows."

They said, "When the water is hot, it will be good to put him in it."

"Fie!" said Big Turtle. "When the water is hot and I scatter it with kicking, many of you will be scalded to death."

"He tells what is probably true," they said.

"And if it be so, it is good to burn him," said the people.

"For shame! If I scatter the fire by kicking, I will cause all the land to blaze. Beware lest many of your children, too, die from the fire," he said.

"He tells what is probably true," they said.

A child begged for water. "O mother, some water," it said. Big Turtle said, "Oh!" He tempted them with reference to water.

"Cause the child to ask for water," said one.

"What do you mean by that?" said others.

"When the child said, 'O mother, some water,' this one, Big Turtle, said 'Oh!'" answered one.

"Wonderful!" they said. "He is fearing the sight of water." They took him to the water, holding him by the tail. Notwithstanding Big Turtle clung to the ground with his forelegs, they held his tail, and reached the water with him. They threw him forcibly right into the water. He walked the water for a while, crying a little, and pretended he did not know how to swim. He said, "Wi! wi! wi!"

"Wonderful! Throw him out into the middle of the stream," they said. Again they sent him headlong. He was wandering around. At length he sank. They said, "He is dead," and went homeward. "You should have done that to him at first," said the people.

When the people went homeward, some boys stood there. Big Turtle approached, floating. He came peeping. Some boys stood looking at the place where the deed was done.

Big Turtle said, "When Big Turtle came in the past to war on you, you said that you killed him. Look here at me."

The boys went homeward to tell it. "You said that you killed Big Turtle, but as this one behind us showed his body, he laughed at us. Big Turtle is he who is alive."

"Ho! We attack him," said the people. They attacked him. They arrived there.

"In what place?" said they.