Note 463 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (continued 7)

Thereupon the young woman said to her brother: “You and I must now return home. I will lay down bark in strips, and on these you must step to conceal your tracks until you reach the canoe; for you and I shall surely die if my husband should meet us before we reach the canoe. They carried out faithfully this precautionary device for concealing the brother’s footprints. When they reached the shore the brother pushed the canoe into the water and then called out to the wild geese: “Come hither, my servants.” When they arrived he continued: “You must go directly to the place where my racing ground is.” Having said this, the brother and sister boarded the canoe, and the wild geese began to propel it rapidly through the water, making the sounds sŭʻ, sŭʻ, sŭʻ, sŭʻ as they propelled it. Then the young man began to sing his song of triumph: “Now, now, now, I am certain that I am on my way homeward.” Turning to the wild geese he said: “Have courage463; be brave and do your duty, my servants.”