HOW A HUNTER ENCOUNTERED BMULE´, VISITED HIS COUNTRY AND OBTAINED A BOON65 FREE TRANSLATION
Reading edition
HOW A HUNTER ENCOUNTERED BMULE´, VISITED HIS COUNTRY AND OBTAINED A BOON65 FREE TRANSLATION
Once there was a man who went hunting but he could not find anything. Soon he came to a river and as he had become thirsty, he sat down and after he had sat down, he was about to drink. While he stooped down toward the water, there in the water he saw some one’s reflection really resembling a human being, but one whom he did not know but of whom he had heard. Behold he was like Bmulε´, and at once the man got up and hid himself and after he had hidden, he watched to see what the other, his friend Bmulε´, would do. Then he climbed into a tree. Then the other, whose reflection he had seen in the water while lying on his face, that one in his turn was about to come down and drink. He had a piece of gold in his mouth and he took it out and laid it on the ground. Then the man, when he saw where Bmulε´ had hidden it after taking it from his mouth, thought that he would go and steal it. Accordingly, the man started to crawl flat on his belly so that his friend would not see him, and when he came near, crawling slyly along, he took the gold.
Then when Bmulε´ had finished drinking, returning for his gold, behold he could not find it and, thinking about it, he reached a conclusion. “So it is evidently stolen from me.” Now that Bmulε´ was a sorcerer, and so right there he spoke aloud into the air and said, “My friend, please do give me back that, my gold, for you can not make any use of it. That is my life. Moreover, I can not stay long in any one place. Pray do give it back to me quickly and if you give it to me you will have good luck, for that you will always have an abundance of money and you will not lack in hunting.” Then the man spoke to him and said, “Then I will give you back your gold, but then don’t cheat me.” And he, Bmulε´, said, “I can not cheat you. If you are afraid of me so now mount upon my back and hold tight to me for very fast we shall go.” Accordingly the man mounted upon the back of Bmulε´ and the great magician started off traveling so fast, because that Bmulε´ could even rise in the air, and then they came to the end where he brought him, Bmulε´’s country, as it is called. Great magicians lived there. Just at noon time these magicians assembled at that place and slept together. Then this Bmulε´ bringing him right to this country put him down and said to him, “Here you may hunt beavers and otters. So hurry and get ready. Just until 1 o’clock you can stay, and after you have hunted, skin your game quickly and bundle up your hides. Until then I must go somewheres. It shall not be for a long time and I shall come back before the great magicians wake up, and carry you back again to the place where I got you.” Accordingly at once the man did as his friend told him and he hurried on with it and he hunted beavers and otters and after he had killed them he cut off some meat and skinned them, quickly he proceeded with haste and then bundled up his hides, and after he was ready he thought to himself, “It must now be about 1 o’clock surely.” And he thought again, “My friend said what was true.” But he did not know how far his friend had to come from, forasmuch as he could not stop anywhere since he was always traveling in the air. Suddenly then a great trembling he heard arise from the earth and he thought on account of so much disturbance that the world was about to come to an end. But behold it was this his friend coming along. Then Bmulε´ came bounding up and Bmulε´ said, “Quickly jump upon my back, it is already time for the magicians to wake up.” Accordingly then the man jumped upon his friend’s back with his hides that he had secured, and Bmulε´ started off going so fast that one could only imagine it. Then he brought him to where he had been formerly. After he had warmed up his belly and his head, he said, “Never again will we see each other, but nevertheless you will forever have good fortune and besides you will live long.” And here my story is ended.