quickly. One of the men said to the other, "I will leap through the
cleft when it opens, and if I am caught you can follow and try to find
the origin of thunder." The first one passed through the cleft before
it closed, and the second one was caught. The one that went through
saw, in a large plain below, a group of wigwams, and a number of
Indians playing ball. After a little while these players said to each
other, "It is time to go." They went to their wigwams and put on
wings, and took their bows and arrows and flew away over the mountains
to the south. The old men said to the Indian, "What do you want? Who
are you?" He told his mission, and they deliberated what to do.
Finally they took him and put him in a mortar and pounded him up so
that all his bones were broken. Then they took him out and gave him
wings and a bow and arrows, and sent him away. They told him he must
not go near the trees, for if he did he would go so fast that he could
not stop, but would get caught in the crotch of a tree.

[Footnote 7: The Zuñi folk-tales always begin with a similar
introduction, which may be translated, "In the time of the ancients."
The Passamaquoddies often end a story by the words which, being
translated, mean "this is the end." The same occurs in other Indian
stories.]

He could not get to his home because the bird Wochowsen blew so hard
that he could make no progress against it. As the Thunder-Bird is an
Indian, the lightning from him never strikes one of his kind.[8]

[Footnote 8: The wind (Wochowsen) is represented as resisting the
Thunder-Bird. According to Chamberlain and Leland, "thunder beings are
always trying to kill a big bird in the south." It is said by the
Passamaquoddies that Wochowsen is the great bird which overspreads all