he travelled down the river--saw many beaver villages,
too, but he did not stop, because the lodges were not big, as the old
woman told him they would be in the right village. His feet grew tired
for he travelled day and night without resting, but his heart was brave
and he believed what the old woman had told him.
"It was late on the third day when he came to a mighty beaver village
and here the lodges were greater than any he had ever seen before. In
the centre of the camp was a monstrous lodge built of great sticks and
towering above the rest. All about, the ground was neat and clean and
bare as your hand. The Unlucky-one knew this was the white Beaver's
lodge--knew that at last he had found the chief of all the Beavers in
the world; so he stood still for a long time, and then sang that song.
"Soon a great white Beaver--white as the snows of winter--came to him
and asked: 'Why do you sing that song, my brother? What do you want of
me? I have never heard a man sing that song before. You must be in
trouble.'
"'I am the Unlucky-one,' the young-man replied. 'I can do nothing
well. I can find no woman who will marry me. In the hunt my bow will
often break or my lance is poor. My medicine is bad and I cannot
dream. The people do not love me, and they pity me as they do a sick
child.'
"'I am sorry for you,' said the white Beaver--chief of all the Beavers
in the world--'but you must find my brother the Coyote, who knows where
OLD-man's lodge is. The Coyote will do your bidding if you sing that
song when you see him. Take this stick with you, because you will have
a long journey, and with the stick you may cross any river and not
drown, if you keep it always in your hand. That is all I can do for
you, myself.'
"On down the river the Unlucky-one travelled and the sun was low in the
west on the fourth day, when he saw the Coyote on a hillside near by.
After looking at Coyote for a long time, the young-man commenced to
sing the song the old woman had taught him. When he had finished the
singing, the Coyote came up close and asked:
"'What is the matter? Why do you sing that song? I never heard a man
sing it before. What is it you want of me?'
"Then the Unlucky-one told the Coyote what he had told the white
Beaver, and showed the stick the Beaver-chief had given him, to prove
it.
"'I am hungry, too,' said the Unlucky-one, 'for I have eaten all the
dried meat the old woman gave me.'
"'Wait h
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