A woman was washing at a creek with her baby lying close by her. While she was dipping up water a Tiger, 1 which had been watching her, ran up and carried off her child. She did not know at first what had happened to it. The Tiger took the child, which was a boy, to its den, and with its mate raised him. When he had grown to be of some size the Tigers gave him a bow. The boy would go out and on coming back tell the Tiger that be had seen something that scared him, which was in fact a bird. Then the Tiger would explain that these birds were to be killed and eaten. So he got into the habit of going out hunting, killing these birds, and bringing them in. By and by he said, "Some baldheaded things scared me." "Those are to kill and eat," said the Tigers. They were turkeys. When be became a young man he saw something else which scared him and said, "I saw something with small legs which scared me." "They are to be killed and eaten," said the Tigers. So he went out and killed them. They were deer.
Some distance away was a mountain which looked blue in the distance. The Tigers said, "You must never go to that mountain." By and by the Tigers went off somewhere to make a visit, and the boy thought, "Why is it that they do not want me to go to that mountain?" So he decided to go there, and after he had climbed to the top he found a crowd of people playing ball. He saw his
So the youth started off, and, as had been foretold to him, he passed a house and met a person beyond it. This was Rabbit. Rabbit stopped him and said, "Where are you going?" "I am going to my mother's. Where are you going?" "I am going to the creek to catch turtles. Your mother lives close to this place. Let us go back and catch turtles, and then go to her house together." Upon this the boy turned back with Rabbit, and, when they reached the creek, he pulled off his clothing and said, "How do you catch these turtles?" "I always take a hickory bark rope, dive into the deep water, catch and tie them, and drag them out." So the two took hickory bark cords and waded into the water. Rabbit said, "When I say 'Now!' we will dive into the water at the same time." When Rabbit said this word the boy dived in, but Rabbit jumped back on the bank, seized the boy's clothes, and ran off with them. The youth caught a turtle and, coming out and looking round, saw that his clothes were gone. Then he hung his head and began to think, "What shall I do?" Then he began looking around, and he spied a persimmon tree loaded with fruit. He shook this tree and rubbed the fruit all over himself. Then he started on toward his mother's house, dragging the turtle after him. When he reached his mother's house he stopped in the yard. His mother was cutting up raccoon meat. He said "Mother," but his mother answered, "I don't know whether I have a child." Then the boy started off again, saying, "If you have a child let the raccoon bite you," and the raccoon bit her. He went along while his mother cried out from the biting of the raccoon. He came to a number of houses, but he looked so filthy they would give him something to eat out in the yard and turn him away. Finally he came to a house where an old woman lived with her granddaughter. There was a hole in a clay bank out in the yard of this house, and the young man put his turtle into it. Then the women By and by the young man said, "Let us go to the creek." He stripped off his clothing and began diving back and forth under water from one side of the creek to the other. Then the fish became addled (or drunk), and the youth said, "Go and tell your relations and let them kill the fish." The young woman did so, and they came and killed some of the fish. When Rabbit heard what the youth had done he determined that he would do the same. After he did so there were a lot of minnows floating about which he told the people to kill, but they soon found that the minnows were floating about of their own accord, and they scolded Rabbit. When the young man had jumped into the creek he had gotten the persimmon stains washed off of him and appeared as a fine youth. Presently he asked his wife to comb her hair well and part it in the middle in the usual manner. She did so, and he said, "Give me that broad ax and a grindstone." "I will give them to you," she said. As he sat there a short distance away from her he said, "I am hungry." So his wife went into the house and brought out different kinds of food. "Where shall I put the food?" she said. Then the young man got up quickly, and, swinging his broad ax, struck his wife in the middle of her head where her hair was parted, thereby making two persons out of her, who laughed and smiled at each other. When Rabbit heard what had taken place he had his wife comb her hair, and afterwards asked her to give him the ax and grindstone. Then he sat down and sharpened his ax. Then he said, "I am hungry," and his wife went in and brought out different kinds of food for him. "Where shall I put it?" she said, upon which he stood up, struck her on the head, and killed her. When this happened the different animals and other creatures went to the youth and arrested him, saying that he was the cause of Rabbit having killed his wife. They tried him and sentenced him
