Note 449 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (continued 5)

There came a night, however, when the ill man had a dream, in which he saw a woman of low stature but of fine appearance, with beautiful long hair. In the dream she said to him: “I have been requested to come to you (do you know it?) to tell you that we will now aid you in your illness. We desire to have you stop thinking that you are about to die and that you are poor and wretched because you have no kindred or friends. Moreover, be of good courage, for you shall be well again before long, and shall again travel much. This, too, shall come to pass: A shower of rain shall come, whereupon you must arise and place some receptacle where the raindrops may fall into it, and all the water that falls into this receptacle you must drink. This shall suffice to cure you of your illness. It is we who are making a repayment of an obligation which is due you from us. We are merely doing our part in aiding you at this time, because you have so many times had compassion on us during the long time you have been traveling over the earth. For it was your wont when you were traveling on whatsoever paths they were, when you saw lying on the trail ‘Corn,’ ‘a Bean,’ or the ‘Seed of the Ancient Squash’—we are of course sisters—to take her up and have pity on her, saying: ‘Thou art lost and forsaken even on the trail.’ It is for these acts of kindness that we shall now, I say, repay thee.449