anger or in pain, but ever his mother would silence him, saying, "Hush, my son, or the boar will devour us." And the child would forbear to cry, but wondered much what this boar might be whose wrath his mother feared.
It fell upon a day that the lad said to his mother, "Tell me, mother, why do we live in this hole in the earth, and why dost thou fear the light of the sun?" Then said his mother, ' ' It hath not always been so, my son. Thy grandparents and thine uncles and I lived many years in the light of the sun. But a cruel enemy arose and killed and ate many of our people, and I only was left. Therefore I hollowed out this place where we dwell, and it was here thou wast born."
The lad hearkened to his mother's words, and made answer, "It is true, mother," quoth he, "that I could not protect thee while I was a child. But I am now a man, and I will deliver thee from thine enemy."
Whereupon he built a house, and began to make ready to fight with the boar. He cut many saplings, and built little platforms with a small space between each one and its neighbour. And when he gave over building, these platforms reached for half a league, and the last one was built close to the mouth of the boar's den. Then the lad cut and fashioned a great number of spears, which he tied in bundles and laid upon the platforms. Moreover, he made two great spears, and called them Karaganigani and Karakatekate, and these he gave to his mother, and charged
