HOW THE STAG CAME TO HAVE ANTLERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 801, 23 October 1929, Page 15

HOW THE STAG CAME TO HAVE ANTLERS

Ij f 3n S ago the stag had no great as he has now, and I shall tell you how his bead, which was once us as a bear’s, cam© to have such horns growing from it. Once upon a time the bravos of a c «rtain tribe left the encampment on A l°ng hunting expedition, so that of the tepees were left unguarded. One day, on© of the squaws a QUced that every time she left food ® any of those tepees it had disap- **** by the morning. •wiring the presence of an evil spirit .P® wishing to humour it, the squaws liir S© quantities of food in each Hie deserted tepees. In tho mornit had all disappeared. -wxt day the braves of the tribe home, and in tear and trembling „ r Womenfolk told them of tho 'range happenings. The chief was “T disturbed at the thought of hav■m an evil spirit near the camp. He .the witch-doctor to wait that snt in one of the vacant huts, and ***** it or drive it away. Slivering with fear the witch-doctor up his position that night. Long midnight he heard the sound of of U footsteps outside. He cowered • against the buckskin wall and th^ ertd as saw a dark body come rough the opening. He closed his 0 * 8 In terror, and when at last he ned them, 10, only a deer was in tepee. In great anger he called down a ,r*® upon the midnight marauder and. n result, long antlers grew on his " ead , SO that he was too tall to pass out Of the tepee. And ever “then stags have had antlers! ■—culver Heel (Daphne Dymock).