Atondido Stories
your head." And Owl-man gladly agreed. So they filled a great
bark tub with water and heated it by placing at the bottom of it
many red-hot stones, after the fashion of Indians in those old
days. But the old man put so many hot stones in the water that it
was soon almost boiling with the heat, and when they put Owl-
man into the tub he was almost scalded to death and he yelled
loudly in pain. Then the old man said, "Now I will take venge-
ance. You will trouble me no more. You have broken my house.
Henceforth you will be not a man but an Owl, and you will
dwell alone in the forest with few friends, and you will live al-
ways on frogs and toads and field-mice, and people will hear
you at night crying for your wife all over the land, but you shall
never find her." Then with his magic power he changed him to
an Owl and sent him on his way.
He said to the girl, "You have done me much harm too, and
you have brought all this trouble upon me. Henceforth you will
be not a girl but a Fish-Hawk, and you will always cry and fret
and scream as you have done before, and you will never be satis-
fied." And with his magic power he changed her into a Fish-
Hawk, and sent her out to the ocean. And there she screams al-
ways, and she is a great glutton, for she can never get enough to
eat. And since that time, Owl and Fish-Hawk have not dwelt to-
gether and have not been on friendly terms. They live far apart,
and Owl keeps to the forest and the mountains, while the other
keeps to the sea. Thus was the old man avenged, and thus was
the weeping maiden punished for her tears. And the cries of Owl
and Fish-Hawk are still heard in many places, one calling for his
wife, the other screaming unsatisfied for something she cannot
get.
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