BRITISH NORTH AMERICA
THE GIANTESS AND THE INDIAN
ONCE there were three men along a river making a canoe. As they had just finished the canoe, they heard a Stredu approaching. She was a giantess. Two of the men fled at once, without warning their friend, who sat with his back to them in the canoe. The Stredu said to the man in the canoe, "Now I have got you! He swiftly launched his canoe, and paddled across the river, saying unconcernedly, "Now I will see how good it is."
The Stredu said, as if speaking to herself, "Try your canoe if you wish to, but there is more than one way of crossing a river." She at once started across, walking on the river bottom. The water was far over her head, and the Indian could see her on the bottom. He was now returning in his canoe.
When the Stredu reached the other side, she was surprised still to see the Indian on the other side. But she thought, "This will not prevent me from walking back. But perhaps he has supernatural power." So she started back, walking on the bottom of the river
207
