nded down in the tradition of our
forefathers. Great and terrible were they, and the people of those times
lived in great terror of them, for the bows and arrows and even the stone
war clubs of the strongest warriors were powerless to kill or even
dangerously wound such monsters. It was well for the inhabitants of the
earth in those days that these great monsters were few in number and that
they were constantly fighting among themselves, for so large and terrible
were they that only animals as big and fierce of other kinds could battle
with them.

"But there was one great monster that lived in the water, and as he had no
enemies big enough to attack him he lived on, even long after the other
great animals were all killed off.

"Shuniou said that the tradition was that a great rush of waters caused
many of the last of the great monsters that had tusks of ivory to be
carried to the far Northland, and there, as the terribly cold winter set
in, they were all frozen to death.

"This must be true," added Souwanas, "for it was not many years ago that
the Hudson Bay Company sent their men there to get this ivory, which they
intended to ship to England. They came back with word that some of the dead
bodies had been seen where the ice broke up. But this great monster in the
water, as I have said, lived on after the rest were all supposed to have
died off or been killed. He was a terrible scourge to those Indians whose
wigwams were on the shores of the great sea in which he lived. They were
in mortal terror when they ventured out in their canoes to fish. This they
had to do, as they depended almost entirely on fish for their living, and
there were times when the fish left the shallow waters near the shore and
went out far from land. There the Indians had to follow and catch them or
they and their families would starve.

"Happily for them, sometimes for months together no one would hear or see
anything of this great sea monster. Then, perhaps, suddenly he would rise
up right under a canoe in which were several Indians, whom he would easily
catch and swallow one by one. He would sometimes rush after a herd of deer
that had gone out swimming in the waters. He would catch and easily swallow
several of them."

"Well, I should think that the big horns of a moose or reindeer would give
him some trouble to swallow," said Sagastao.

"He was so large," said Souwanas, "that the horns or body of the largest
deer did not seem to bother h