STORIES 445

newly-born child was erying in one of the houses and, as the mother was
feeding it, she saw by the light of her small fire a smug, with a white patch
on his throat, looking into the house through the doorway-flue. There was
always trouble at this place, so the people used to sleep with their weapons
beside them. The woman cautiously awoke her husband, who reached
for his bow, and shot an obsidian-pointed arrow into the white spot on the
beast’s breast. With a roar the swig vanished from the opening. The
man was afraid to investigate that night, but he and his family built up a
roaring fire as a protection. Next morning with his friends he made a
careful search, but nothing was to be found, even the arrow had disap-
peared.

Near Nusga/st, there was a large stone on the bank of the river which
served as a landmark. A few days after the visit of the smug, a female
of the species took up her position on this stone, where she groaned inces-
santly. No one had the courage to pass the place ina canoe. The son of
a Stux chief, however, wanted to investigate the animal, and he asked a
fellow-villager, a young commoner, to accompany him. The latter was
unwilling to do so, but he was under obligation to the chief’s son, who
pointed out that any evil results would fall upon himself, as leader of the
expedition; so finally the commoner agreed to go.

They set off secretly in a canoe, with the chief’s son as captain in the
stern; when near the rock he reversed the craft so that the aft end
grounded against it. The captain had confidence in his supernatural
power, but for safety he seated himself on the rock with his feet in the
canoe, so that if the swuig made a hostile movement he would be able to
push off and thus give his comrade a chance to escape. The smug con-
tinued to groan so dolorously that the boy was touched and soon he and
the animal were weeping together. The smug told her sad story: how
she had lost both her basket and her child, the animal shot at the entrance
to the underground house. The parent was lonely and had taken up her
position on the rock in order to tell her story to some brave man, but was
disgusted at the cowardice of most people, who avoided her. She drew
out a copper on which she had been sitting, and gave this to the boy,
saying it had belonged to the dead child.

“If you go to my cave on Mount M?’es,”’ she added, ‘‘you will find
many more of the same which I have obtained from the coffins of the
dead.”

Having gained a hearing of her woes, the animal left, saying that she
Was going to Naos, an indefinite spot in the far east. The young man
Went to the animal’s house, invisible to anyone else, and there took pos-
session of many coppers. Later on, the body of the slain smug was found
about six miles above the village. The corpse had brought a blight to the