They met with a hearty welcome and spent a happy day there.  Among the stories Kinnesasis told them, as handed down by his forefathers, the following is perhaps the most interesting: 

“Long ago there were great monsters on this earth.  Some of them were enormous animals and fiercer than any that now exist.  Then there were magicians, and other evil spirits, like windegoos, some of whom were tall, giant cannibals, that filled the people with terror.  They lay in wait and caught the children, and even the grown-up people, as the wild beasts now catch their prey.  Then they kindled up great fires and roasted them and ate them.

“Often, when the parents went to look for their children, they also were caught and eaten.

“The people were rendered very miserable not only by these great monsters in human form, but also by the attacks of the enormous animals that then lived.  Indeed they began to fear that they would all soon be killed, unless help came to them.

“These people were worshipers of the sun, whom they called the great Sun Father, and some tribes still have their sun dances in his honor.  When he saw that the people were in such great trouble and were likely to be all killed by their cruel enemies he resolved to deliver them from their foes.  So he disguised himself and came down to the earth and married a beautiful woman of the Northland.  They had lovely twin boys, whose names were Sesigizit, the older, and Ooseemeeid, the younger.  They grew so rapidly that they were able to walk when only a few days old.  Their sun father disappeared as soon as they were born, going to the far Eastland.

“Strange to say, although these two boys grew so rapidly at first, they as suddenly ceased growing, and so remained quite small.  But they were very intelligent, and were ever asking questions.

“‘Who is our father?’” they inquired of their mother one day.

[Illustration:  Sun dance lodge of the Blood Indians.]

But she ignored the question, and although they kept bothering her it was a long time before she would give them any information at all, and that was very little.  However, she did tell them that they were more than ordinary children and finer than other boys, but then there are lots of mothers who say such things to their own little ones.

“As they were now big enough, she brought out of hiding a couple of bows, and quivers full of arrows, and some magic rabbit sticks, and gave them to the boys.

“‘These were left for you by your father,’ said the mother, ere he went away, and he gave commands that they were to be given to you as soon as you were able to use them.’

“The children were, of course, anxious to try their bows and arrows and these magic sticks.  So very soon after they had received them they resolved to go off on a hunting expedition.

“The mother, who was anxious about them, warned them of the various monsters in human shape, great windegoos and cannibals, that were ever lying in wait to catch and roast and eat little boys.  She also told them of the animals that were so enormously large that they could catch them up and swallow them as easily as a turkey does a grasshopper.