d here? tell
me." At last his father said, yielding, "Yes, there is a black stone
found in such a place. It is the only thing earthly I am afraid of; for
if it should hit me or any part of my body, it would injure me very
much." He said this as a secret, and in return asked his son the same
question. Knowing each other's power, although the son's was limited,
the father feared him on account of his great strength. Manabozho
answered, "Nothing!" intending to avoid the question, or to refer to
some harmless object as the one of which he was afraid. He was asked
again and again, and answered, "Nothing!" But the West said, "There must
be something you are afraid of." "Well! I will tell you," says
Manabozho, "what it is." But, before he would pronounce the word, he
affected great dread. "_Ie-ee_--_Ie-ee_--it is--it is," said he, "yeo!
yeo![8] I cannot name it; I am seized with a dread." The West told him
to banish his fears. He commenced again, in a strain of mock
sensitiveness repeating the same words; at last he cried out, "It is the
root of the _apukwa_."[9] He appeared to be exhausted by the effort of
pronouncing the word, in all this skilfully acting a studied part.

Some time after he observed, "I will get some of the black rock." The
West said, "Far be it from you; do not do so, my son." He still
persisted. "Well," said the father, "I will also get the apukwa root."
Manabozho immediately cried out, "_Kago! Kago!_"[10] affecting, as
before, to be in great dread of it, but really wishing, by this course,
to urge on the West to procure it, that he might draw him into combat.
He went out and got a large piece of the black rock, and brought it
home. The West also took care to bring the dreaded root.

In the course of conversation he asked his father whether he had been
the cause of his mother's death. The answer was "Yes!" He then took up
the rock and struck him. Blow led to blow, and here commenced an
obstinate and furious combat, which continued several days. Fragments
of the rock, broken off under Manabozho's blows, can be seen in various
places to this day."[11] The root did not prove as mortal a weapon as
his well-acted fears had led his father to expect, although he suffered
severely from the blows. This battle commenced on the mountains. The
West was forced to give ground. Manabozho drove him across rivers, and
over mountains and lakes, and at last he came to the brink of this
world.

"Hold!" cried he, "my son; y