168 GLOOSCAP AND OTHER STORIES

The Badger, dressing himself like a chief, sat opposite the door of the Wigwam, with his eyes closed as if in great state. Then the boy shouted:

“You may enter, and hear what the great chief has to say.”

The birds flew in, and took their seats about their chief in the order of their size. The wild geese came nearest the Badger, and sat down. Then the ducks, and so on to the smallest, who sat nearest the door. Last of all the boy entered, and sat down by the door, and closed it, and held it fast. So all the little birds sat nearest him. Then he said:

“All must close your eyes, and keep them closed for your very lives, until you are told to open them. For unless you do this first, your eyes will be blinded when you behold those of the great chief.” So all the birds, great and small, sat in silence with their eyes tightly closed.

Then the sorcerer, the Badger, stepping about softly, took the birds one by one, and grasped each tight by the wings, and before the bird knew what was happening, his neck had been broken by the Badger’s sharp teeth. Without any noise, or the least fluttering, he killed in this way all the wild geese, the brant, and the wild ducks.

Then the brother began to have pity for the