A widow who had an only a daughter, but no son, found it very hard to
make a living and was constantly urging upon the young woman that they
ought to have a man in the family, who would be a good hunter and able
to help in the field. One evening a stranger lover came courting to the
house, and when the girl told him that she could marry only one who
was a good worker, he declared that he was exactly that sort of man;
so the girl talked to her mother, and on her advice they were married.
The next morning the widow gave her new son-in-law a hoe and sent
him out to the cornfield. When breakfast was ready she went to call
him, following a sound as of some one hoeing on stony soil, but when
she came to the spot she found only a small circle of hoed ground
and no sign of her son-in-law. Away over in the thicket she heard a
huhu calling.
He did not come in for dinner, either, and when he returned home in
the evening the old woman asked him where he had been all day. "Hard
at work," said he. "But I didn't see you when I came to call you to
breakfast." "I was down in the thicket cutting sticks to mark off
the field," said he. "But why didn't you come in to dinner?" "I was
too busy working," said he. So the old woman was satisfied, and they
had their supper together.
Early next morning he started off with his hoe over his
shoulder. When breakfast was ready the old woman went again to
call him, but found no sign of him, only the hoe lying there and
no work done. And away over in the thicket a huhu was calling,
"Sau-h! sau-h! sau-h! hu! hu! hu! hu! hu! hu! chi! chi! chi!--whew!"
She went back to the house, and when at last he came home in the
evening she asked him again what he had been doing all day. "Working
hard," said he. "But you were not there when I came after you." "O,
I just went over in the thicket a while to see some of my kinsfolk,"
said he. Then the old woman said, "I have lived here a long time and
there is nothing living in the swamp but huhus. My daughter wants a
husband that can work and not a lazy huhu; so you may go." And she
drove him from the house.