Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths Thirty-Second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; 1910-1911

It so happened that the elder brother said to the younger, “Now, let us go to the forest to hunt deer.” The younger answered, “So be it. We will take our blowguns.” But the elder said: “As for me, I will not take a blowgun. I will make use of a tomahawk and a knife, for the reason that I am very fleet-footed.” The younger brother rejoined, “Let it be so. I am satisfied with what you suggest,” adding, “Come, now! let us start for the forest.”

So they started for their destination in a distant forest. They encamped on the way three nights before they reached the rendezvous where they knew game animals abounded. Then they erected at once a temporary shelter for their camp.

In the morning the elder said, “Now, early in the day we must go out to do our hunting.” But the younger brother replied, “You must follow me around in the forest, and then you will see how fleet I am on the course.” Then the two started out from their camp to hunt. Carrying only a tomahawk and a hunting knife, the younger brother took the lead, while the elder brother followed him, as requested. Just before starting from their lodge the younger brother said to the elder: “Do not take a blowgun with you, for just as soon as I kill anything you must bring it back to our camp.”

Having gone into the forest some distance, they finally saw a large herd of deer, which at once fled from them, whereupon, then, the younger brother said: “Whenever I kill one I will call out in a loud voice, ʻam, ʻam.” So saying, with loud shouts he pursued the deer into the forest, and by the time the sun marked midday he had overtaken and killed six deer, on account of his great fleetness of foot. Then the two brothers rested from hunting for the day.

When they had retired to their camp, the elder, addressing his younger brother, said, “Do not ever say that you are fleet of foot, because that quality is an essential of your character.” But the hot-headed younger brother answered, “I am fleet-footed, anyway.” At this the elder brother scolded him, saying, “Do not ever say that again, because something sinister will happen to us owing to that.” But the younger, heedless of the advice, rejoined: “Let it be so then. I shall match myself, however, with anything, be it an animal or a human being; it matters not what it may be.”

When night came they lay down to sleep. In the morning, after their morning meal, the two again went forth to hunt. After a long tramp they reached a place in which they saw many deer. At once the younger brother began to shout loudly in order to frighten the deer, so that they would run away from him, and he would have the opportunity of overtaking them. Hearing his outcries, the deer fled from him, and the youth pursued them. By midday he had overtaken and killed six deer.

As he was returning to his camp, he was surprised to hear the voice of a man speaking to him, saying, “Verily, is it not you who are fleet of foot and swift on the course?” Looking around, the now frightened youth saw at one side an opening—a roadway, as it were, through the forest—and standing in this roadway at some distance he saw a man, or what he took to be a man, gazing at him. Boastingly the youth replied, “It is certainly true that I am fleet-footed.” Then the strange man, or what the youth took to be a man, said: “I will run a race with you. You keep saying at all times and places that there is no one able to outfoot you, so let us make an agreement to run a race with certain conditions tomorrow. At midday we shall meet here in this place; right here. And we will agree to wager our lives on the issue of the race. One of the conditions of the race must be that I shall follow you for two days. When we start let us be as far apart as we are now—the distance from the spot where you are standing to this place where I stand. You shall choose the direction that we shall take in the race, whether we shall camp for the night, or not. When you decide that we shall camp for the night, you must say, ‘We will camp for the night’; and where you stop you shall make a mark from which you shall start in the morning, and then you can go aside to camp for the night. And there you may kindle a fire and prepare any food that you may have with you (said sneeringly).”

Then the youth who was swift of foot answered: “I agree to your proposition, and if at the end of two days you do not overtake me, then I shall pursue you.”

Then the strange man rejoined, “We have now come to an agreement on this matter, and you must tell your elder brother of it.” The fleet-footed youth replied, “Let it be so; I will tell it to my elder brother.” Thereupon the strange man admonished the youth, saying, “You must not fail in the least to be here just at midday tomorrow, and we shall stand here again.” Then the youth, answering, said, “So let it be,” and he started for the place where stood the temporary camp of his elder brother and himself.

When he arrived there he found his brother at home. As soon as his elder brother looked at him he said, “You look very dejected; possibly you are ill.” The younger brother said: “I am not at all ill. Perhaps the reason why I am looking as I do is that I saw a strange man, who said to me, ‘Are you the person who keeps on saying “I am swift of foot?”’ I replied that I am the person. Thereupon the stranger said, ‘I will run you a race just to test your words. So tomorrow when the sun will be at midday here in this very place you and I must again stand, and from this place you and I must start.’ Moreover, he told me that I must inform you, my elder brother. So I have now informed you.” And he continued to sit with his head bowed as if in deep trouble.

Then the elder brother said: “Oh! my younger brother, you and I are brothers, and we are about to die because of your doing that which I have frequently forbidden you doing, namely, your continually saying, ‘I am fleet-footed.’ I kept saying to you that your talking thus would bring us misfortune. Now that form of talking has this day severed our minds one from the other.” Thereupon the elder brother began to shed tears of bitter grief, saying between paroxysms of weeping: “Perhaps that thing with which you have made an agreement to run a foot race with your life as a wager is not at all a human being. Verily, no one knows of what abominable species of monsters it comes.”

Seemingly undismayed, the younger brother replied, “Oh! my elder brother, now you must make me two pairs of moccasins, and I shall take with me also two ears of parched corn, which I shall place in my bosom.” So the elder brother sat up the entire night to make the two pairs of moccasins which his younger brother required in his race on the morrow.

In the morning the two brothers conversed together. The elder said: “When you start away I shall go to notify our friends in their encampment; for perhaps the person with whom you are to run a foot race is not a human being. Perhaps, too, you are about to die, so you and I may be now talking together for the last time.” Then they parted there.

The younger brother went to the place where he had agreed to be at midday for the beginning of the two days’ foot race. In due time he arrived at the spot, and he was surprised to see standing there the strange man who had challenged him to the race, and who now addressing him said, “Now, truly, you have arrived on time.” In reply Hayanowe (“He-the-Fleet-footed”) said, “I have arrived all right, and I am ready for the race.” To this the stranger answered, “Come, now, which way shall we go?” The youth then said, “So let it be. We will go toward the east—toward the sunrise.” The strange man replied, “Come on then. Get ready; and when you are ready you must say, ‘Come now; I am ready.’”

In a short time the youth said, “Come on now; I am ready.” Then the two started on a run. The youth Hayanowe struck a steady gait. When the sun was at the meridian, and again when it was midway between noon and sunset, the strange man urged his youthful competitor, saying, “Exert yourself, my friend.” These admonitions caused the youth some perturbations of spirit; he even feared for his life; so he put forth his topmost speed and ran swiftly until nearly sunset, when the standing trees gave out loud sounds, which seemed to come as the result of a force which struck them hard. Thereupon the youth heard the strange man shout to him, “Exert yourself, my friend; I will overtake you indeed.”

Then it became night, and the youth, remembering one of the provisions of his agreement with the stranger, although he somewhat doubted the stranger’s sincerity in making it, said in a loud voice, “Let us two camp for the night, as we have agreed to do.” The stranger replied, “So be it. Have you marked the end of your run for the day, too?” The youth answered, “I have marked it, indeed.” To this the stranger rejoined, “So be it. You may eat your food now, and so will I. You also must kindle a fire if you need it.” So the youth kindled a fire, and so the strange man did likewise. The youth could plainly see the fire of the stranger, for it was not far away at all, indicating that his opponent was close at his heels in the race. He then took out his parched corn and ate it, after warming it at the fire. Hayanowe was ill at ease, for he fully realized that he had unexpectedly met his match, perhaps more than his match. While he was eating his parched corn the strange man said to him, “In the morning, just as soon as you are ready to take up the race again, you must say aloud, ‘I have now taken my stand on the scratch.’” The youth, answering him, said, “Let it be as you say.” But he could not sleep during the entire night. He spent the time in devising some plan by which he might win the race from the unknown stranger, whether man or beast. He thought of many things, finally deciding that he would choose deep thickets as the course of the race, to see whether they would not retard the fleetness of his antagonist.

The next morning very early he made his usual preparations and then went to the scratch. Standing there, he shouted to his antagonist, “I am now ready.” The stranger answered, “So be it. And you must also say as you start, ‘Come now.’” The young man, giving the required verbal notice of his start, leaped forward with a bound, as did his antagonist and challenger.

The youth exerted himself to the utmost, indeed, running at his topmost speed. Finally he came to a dense thicket, which was large in extent, which he entered at once. Stopping for a moment, he listened intently for sounds made by his pursuer. It was not long before he heard the sounds in the distance made by the stranger as he, too, entered the thicket. The crackling of sticks and boughs sounded to him as if the object pursuing him possessed great weight and strength.

In resuming his race for life, the youth said in his mind: “So now it is again my turn to flee. I shall go back to the place where abide my kinsfolk and my elder brother.” He then changed his course from the east to the southwest. Running at top speed, he came to a mountain, which he ascended and passed over. Then, not knowing whether his challenger was still on his track, he listened for any sounds which might indicate that he was being pursued. He had not been standing there long when he heard the voice of his pursuer in the distance say, “Exert yourself, my friend.” Again the youth put forth all his power, running as swiftly as it was possible for him to do. He was directing his course for the place where abode his kinsfolk and his elder brother, for he had repassed their temporary camp in the forest, but his brother had already fled. So he kept on thinking, “He has gone back to the place where dwell my kinsfolk.” Having arrived there, he found that they, too, had left their settlement, because his dear elder brother had informed them of the conditions of the foot race, whereupon they decided at once that their kinsman’s antagonist was not a human being. They had fled because the elder brother had said: “We shall all die if we remain here. I really do not know what kind of a being it is that has challenged my younger brother to this foot race. Come, then, let us flee from here.”