Legends of Our Nation

Continued from last week.

The old man sat on the floor of his wigwam, gloating over the large heaps of glittering wampum.

“My lovely shells, my beautiful shells,” his bloodless lips murmured, “there are still so few of you.”

He was so engrossed that he failed to notice that a snowstorm had broken outside. It was only when the wind leaned violently against the walls of the wigwam that the old man sat up.

“What’s happening?” he whispered, seized by a feeling of dread.

There came a clap of thunder. The greedy old man ran outside, and there he stood face to face with Hinun. The giant’s face was red anger.

“I have come to punish you for all your misdeeds,” he said threateningly.

‘Ha, ha,” the old man laughed loudly. “You’ve made a mistake, Hinun. The evil spirits are stronger than you.”

Raising his arms above his head he began to wave them about like a pair of wings, muttering some words as he did so.

His face suddenly went black and turned to stone; his arms and legs, his entire body became stone at the same time.

The stone monster stepped forward. The ground trembled beneath him, and in vain did Hinun shoot arrow after arrow at his body.

“Ha, ha, your arrows cannot harm me,” exalted the horrible creature, breaking the arrows in two in his stone fingers.

Hinun turned and fled, pursued by the old man. With one single leap, the giant reached the rock above the waterfall and began to climb. Again, the old man followed him. Hinun stood up on the very top of the cliff, his head touching the dark clouds. But his enemy had caught up with him and began to push him towards the gorge. The giant resisted him with all his might, but gradually he weakened and was forced to the edge. Only when he was actually leaning over the drop, feeling the fiery breath of the stone monster scorching his skin, did he wrestle free of the deadly grip and jump aside. The old man also tried to avoid falling, but the edge of the rock could not bear his weight, and it crumbled into bits under him.

A great roar echoed among the rocks as the old man fell. His stone body breaking into many pieces. The evil spirits who had up untill now protected him, turned tail, lamenting, ‘Oh-weh, one of us, oh-weh.’ And the echo carried their wails all over the countryside. “Oh-weh.’

The girl waiting in the cave also heard the news. She could hardly wait for the giant to come back, and when he arrived, she told him:

“I know that you have defeated the greedy old man, and I shall never forget what you have done for me. Now I think I should return home, but perhaps you would be kind enough to help me get across the waterfall.”

‘Get in the canoe.” Hinun said and, when she had done so, picked the canoe up in one hand and while he stopped the waterfall with the other so that it should not harm her, and he set the boat down gently on the bank.

“You need no longer fear your husband,” he told her in parting. “And should anyone ever wish to hurt you again, let him go and look at the rocks.” Glancing back for the last time, the Giant entered the tumbling waters of the Niagara and vanished in them forever.

The girl looked around her. Perhaps is had all been but a dream, she thought. But no, here was the path leading cack to the camp. There, she failed to find her husband, and when she and the others went out to the rocks they could see with their own eyes what had taken place. Everywhere they scattered large black stones, strangely traces of a human body.

“So this is all that had been left of the wicked old man.” The girl said , recalling the Giant’s words. “Let these stones be a warning to all Indians who might desire riches and great wealth.”