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The Red Swan
by
When Maidwa advanced, the watchman pointed to the lodge of the chief. “It is there you must go in,” he said, and left him.
“Come in, come in,” said the chief; “take a seat there;” pointing to the side of the lodge where his daughter sat. “It is there you must sit.”
They gave him something to eat, and, being a stranger, very few questions were put to him; it was only when he spoke that the others answered him.
“Daughter,” said the chief, as soon as the night had set in, “take our son-in-law’s moccasins and see if they be torn; if so, mend them for him, and bring in his bundle.”
Maidwa thought it strange that he should be so warmly received, and married instantly against his own wishes, although he could not help noticing that the chief’s daughter was pretty.
It was some time before she would take the moccasins which he had laid off. It displeased him to see her loth to do so; and when at last she did reach them, he snatched them from her hand and hung them up himself. He lay down and thought of the swan, and made up his mind to be off with the dawn. He wakened early, and finding the chief’s daughter looking forth at the door, he spoke to her, but she gave no answer. He touched her lightly.
“What do you want?” she said, and turned her face away from him.
“Tell me,” said Maidwa, “what time the swan passed. I am following it; come out, and point the way.”
“Do you think you can overtake it?” she said.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Naubesah–fool!” retorted the chief’s pretty daughter.
She, however, went out, and pointed in the direction he should go. The young man paced slowly along till the sun arose, when he commenced traveling at his accustomed speed. He passed the day in running, and although he could not see anywhere on the horizon the Red Swan, he thought that he discerned a faint red light far over in the west.
When night came, he was pleased to find himself near another village; and when at a distance he heard the watchman crying out, “We are visited;” and soon the men of the village stood out to see the stranger.
He was again told to enter the lodge of the chief, and his reception was in every respect the same as on the previous night; except that the young woman was more beautiful, and that she entertained him very kindly. Although urged to stay with them, the mind of Maidwa was fixed on the object of his journey.
Before daybreak he asked the young woman at what time the Red Swan passed, and to point out the way. She marked against the sky with her finger the course it had taken, and told him that it had passed yesterday when the sun was between mid-day and its falling-place.
Maidwa again set out rather slowly, but when the sun had risen, he tried his speed by shooting an arrow ahead, and running after it; but it fell behind him, and he knew that he had lost nothing of his quickness of foot.
Nothing remarkable happened through the day, and he went on leisurely. Some time after dark, as he was peering around the country for a shelter, he saw a light emitted from a small low lodge. He went up to it very slyly, and, peeping through the door, he discovered an old man alone, with his head down upon his breast, warming his back before the fire.
Maidwa thought that the old man did not know that he was standing near the door; but in this he was mistaken; for, without turning his eyes to look at him, the old man said, “Walk in, my grandchild; take a seat opposite to me, and take off your things and dry them, for you must be fatigued; and I will prepare you something to eat; you shall have something very delicate.”