No one in Timpoochee’s clan nor town had ever actually seen the creature, Uktena, but neither did anyone take it for granted.
To guard against an attack, hunters and travelers always carried a Medicine bundle which contained what was said to be shavings from the horns of Uktena mixed with sprigs of cedar and button snakeroot.
The trip toward the white man’s village was mostly toward the north but also bending toward the west, the direction of the moon, the blackness or death.
Tired of his worry and his travels Timpoochee settled into Yufala’s canoe and became drowsy and they moved slowly along Long Man.
He remembered a prayer he’d learned in the study of the Medicine and desperately wanting to rid himself of the confusion in his soul he began chanting the prayer, quietly.
“Thunder, I obey you and you love me for it.
“You feed upon my soul.
“All night long I am filled with your spirit which is like life itself. No evil can come to me.
“Make my consciousness weightless and free, like the movements of the agile insect, the water strider.
“You know I have a duty to perform; to find out something you know of me”
He chanted the prayer and relaxed. Soon he was asleep.