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“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 here,’ said the Coyote, ‘my brother the Wolf has just killed a fat Doe, and perhaps he will give me a little of the meat when I tell him about you and your troubles.’

“Away went the Coyote to beg for meat, and while he was gone the young-man bathed his tired feet in a cool creek. Soon the Coyote came back with meat, and young-man built a fire and ate some of it, even before it was warm, for he was starving. When he had finished the Coyote said:

“‘Now I shall take you to OLD-man’s lodge, come.’

“They started, even though it was getting dark. Long they travelled without stopping–over plains and mountains–through great forests and across rivers, until they came to a cave in the rough rocks on the side of a mighty mountain.

“‘In there,’ said the Coyote, ‘you will find OLD-man and he can tell you what you want to know.’

“The Unlucky-one stood before the black hole in the rocks for a long time, because he was afraid; but when he turned to speak to the Coyote he found himself to be alone. The Coyote had gone about his own business–had silently slipped away in the night.

“Slowly and carefully the young-man began to creep into the cave, feeling his way in the darkness. His heart was beating like a tom-tom at a dance. Finally he saw a fire away back in the cave.

“The shadows danced about the stone sides of the cave as men say the ghosts do; and they frightened him. But looking, he saw a man sitting on the far side of the fire. The man’s hair was like the snow and very long. His face was wrinkled with the seams left by many years of life and he was naked in the firelight that played about him.