id: "How, you have done me a good deed."
Then with quick decision he gave command to a fleet horseman to meet the
avenger. "Clothe him in these my best buckskins," said he, pointing to a
bundle within the wigwam.

In the meanwhile strong men seized Iktomi and dragged him by his long
hair to the hilltop. There upon a mock-pillared grave they bound him
hand and feet. Grown-ups and children sneered and hooted at Iktomi's
disgrace. For a half-day he lay there, the laughing-stock of the people.
Upon the arrival of the real avenger, Iktomi was released and chased
away beyond the outer limits of the camp ground.

On the following morning at daybreak, peeped the people out of half-open
door-flaps.

There again in the midst of the large camp ground was a man in beaded
buckskins. In his hand was a strong bow and red-tipped arrow. Again the
big red eagle appeared on the edge of the bluff. He plumed his feathers
and flapped his huge wings.

The young man crouched low to the ground. He placed the arrow on the
bow, drawing a poisoned flint for the eagle.

The bird rose into the air. He moved his outspread wings one, two, three
times and lo! the eagle tumbled from the great height and fell heavily
to the earth. An arrow stuck in his breast! He was dead!

So quick was the hand of the avenger, so sure his sight, that no one had
seen the arrow fly from his long bent bow.

In awe and amazement the village was dumb. And when the avenger,
plucking a red eagle feather, placed it in his black hair, a loud shout
of the people went up to the sky. Then hither and thither ran singing
men and women making a great feast for the avenger.

Thus he won the beautiful Indian princess who never tired of telling to
her children the story of the big red eagle.

IKTOMI AND THE TURTLE

THE huntsman Patkasa (turtle) stood bent over a newly slain deer.

The red-tipped arrow he drew from the wounded deer was unlike the arrows
in his own quiver. Another's stray shot had killed the deer. Patkasa had
hunted all the morning without so much as spying an ordinary blackbird.

At last returning homeward, tired and heavy-hearted that he had no meat
for the hungry mouths in his wigwam, he walked slowly with downcast
eyes. Kind ghosts pitied the unhappy hunter and led him to the newly
slain deer, that his children should not cry for food.

When Patkasa stumbled upon the deer in his path, he exclaimed: "Good
spirits have pushed me hither!"

Thus he