Note 6 — FICTION

Not far from there he came to the tree on which the entire dried skin of a woman hung. For a moment he stood there and then he said, “Come hither, thou mole; I am hungry (wearied).” Then the mole came forth from out of the ground and the boy said to it, “I am entering your body and I want you to go along beneath the surface of the ground and come out directly under the place where that woman’s skin hangs yonder.” So he entered the body of the mole, which went along at once under the surface of the ground. When it reached the place where stood the tree it came out directly under the woman’s skin. Then the boy came out of the body of the mole and, addressing the dried skin of the woman, said, “You must not tell that I am here. Do me this favor and I will recompense you with wampum.” Then he went into the forest and peeled off some slippery elm bark, which he formed into cylinders resembling wampum; placing these in his pouch he returned to the spot where the woman’s dried skin hung. When he arrived there he said to the dried skin, “Now, I am bringing you a wampum belt,”6 and he attached the belt to the tree beside which she then stood, as he had requested her to descend from her usual position.