148 GLOOSCAP AND OTHER STORIES

for your father would have but little love for me.”

The young man tried to persuade her to go with them but she only answered sorrowfully:

“No, it cannot be.”

So they went home without her.

Now the elder brother was so proud of their great luck in hunting that he must tell all that had befallen them, and about the young maiden who had come to be their housekeeper.

Then the father became very angry, and said:

“All my life I have feared this. This woman, I may tell you, is a devil of the woods, a witch of the Mitche—hcmt, a sister of the .00rnahgamess, the goblins, and of the Ke’tahks, the ghosts.”

He spoke so earnestly and so long of this thing that they were afraid, and the elder, urged on by his father, went forth to slay the maiden. And the younger brother fol- lowed him afar of.

They sought her by a stream, and found her bathing. When she saw them coming, she ran up a little hill. And, as she ran, the elder brother shot an arrow after her. It struck her back, and they saw that there was a strange flurry about her, and a scattering, as of feathers; and then they saw a little grey bird arise from the ground and fly away.