"
So the boy came out from behind the pine tree and spoke to the
manito,
"I have been sent with my bow and arrows to hunt for food for my
mother to cook," he said, "but I can go no farther in the forest. I am
afraid of Hoots, the great bear, who lives in it."
"You should be afraid of nothing, my son, not even of Hoots, the
bear," warned the manito.
"But I can't help being afraid of Hoots; I think that he may eat me,"
said the boy, and at that he began crying again, "Boo-hoo, boo-hoo."
"There shall be no coward among the Indians," said the manito. "And I
see that you will always be afraid. I shall change your form into that
of a bird. Whenever any one looks at you, he will say, 'There is the
bird that is the most timid of all.'"
As the manito finished speaking, the Indian boy's deerskin cloak fell
to the ground; his bow and arrows dropped too, for he had no longer
any hands with which to hold them. He was suddenly completely covered
with a coat of soft gray feathers. His moccasins fell off, and his
feet turned into the wee feet of a bird. He wanted to call his mother,
but his voice had changed to the plaintive call of a dove, and the
only sound he was able to make was, "Hoo, hoo!"
"You are now the dove," said the manito, "and you will be a dove as
long as you live.
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