Note 416 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS

One day when weary with playing he went up to his old grandfather, with the words, “Come now, just tell me the exact direction to take to go to the lair of the great animal of which you have told me such awful things.” The old man replied, “So be it.” Going out of the lodge he stood there. As soon as he had taken a suitable position he said to the youth: “Here it is; it is just here. As soon as you start and have gone quite a distance, then verily you will see that this pathway has the habit of shrinking back.416 This will be taking place continually, and this is the reason that it will require seven years to reach the place where is the spring which you are seeking. This path is one, too, of great danger and difficulty, for in that place dwell female beings which feed on human flesh, and it is they who devoured all the kinsfolk we had.”