The girl would set the young man a task, so
as not to seem too easily won, and to prove if he were the sort of man
she wished for a husband.
"'Only possibly you love me,' said the daughter of the Chief Priest of
the Bow. 'Go out with the light to-morrow to hunt and return with it,
bringing your kill, that I may see how much you can do for my sake.'
"But long before light the girl would go out herself as a puma and scare
the game away. Thus it happened every time that the young man would
return at evening empty-handed, or he would be so mortified that he did
not return at all, and the girl's parents would send the bundle back to
him. The Chief Priest and his wife began to be uneasy lest their
daughter should never marry at all.
"Finally Ho-tai of the pueblo of Matsaki heard of her, and said to his
mother, 'That is the wife for me.'
"'_Shoom_!' said his mother; 'what have you to offer her?' for they were
very poor.
"'_Shoom_ yourself!' said Ho-tai. 'He that is poor in spirit as well as
in appearance, is poor indeed. It is plain she is not looking for a
bundle, but for a man.' So he took what presents he had to the house of
the Chief Priest of the Bow, and everything went as usual; except that
when Ho-tai asked them to help him in, the Chief Priest said, 'Be
yourself within,' for he was growing tired of courtings that came to
nothing.
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