Note 432 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (continued 3)

Then he set out on his journey. Around the lodge he walked with his pack, murmuring as he went from place to place. Thus he spent the day. In the evening he reentered the lodge, with the words: “Oh, elder sister! I did not start. Tomorrow, I think, I shall surely start.” So saying, he laid his pack down. In the morning he said: “My elder sister, I am about to start. You say that the path leads directly south?” She replied: “That is what I have said. In certain places there are yet visible spots where fires have been kindled and where forked rods or crotched sticks are set in the earth, on which are fixed pieces of bread which are of many degrees of staleness. You also shall affix bread there to such rods. Such is the custom.”432 The lad replied: “So be it. You shall be suddenly startled; the ashes where you have kindled a fire shall be scattered because a measure of tobacco will fall there, causing the ashes to fly up. Then you shall think that I am still alive. I believe this shall come to pass.”