18. MOUSE-MAN.
Mouse-Man was seeking an abiding-place to be his home. "In what country, I wonder, might I stay, living safely!" he said. "My country! when winter comes, where may I survive?" he said. And then he went off. "I shall find it," he said. "I shall find my future home," he said.
As he went he saw a rotten log. "Here I think I may stay," he said. Then he crawled in, and, having crawled in, his back was visible. So he said, "If I do in such manner, mortal men, seeing me, (will say,) 'What, now, is that?' they will say. Then, seizing me, they will drag me away. Then they will kill me," he said. "That will not be well," he said. "Here I shall not die," he said. "Elsewhere, I think, safer by far a house I may find," he said.
So, crawling out, he went off, kept travelling, continually hunting, as he went, for a house. He saw a house. "Well, perhaps I shall stay here," he said. This, perhaps, is it. No one will see," he said. Then he crawled down in. Having crawled down in, his tail stuck out. "Well, if I do thus, mortal men, seeing (me), 'What, now, is this?' they will say," he said. "Then, seizing me by the tail and dragging me out, I shall be killed," he said. "Very good this is, (but) they might see me," he said. "If I stay here, mortal men, seeing me, will kill me," he said.
Then he crawled out, he stood about. "Where, I wonder, shall I find my dwelling!" he said. "Where shall I go, I wonder, to find my future permanent home!" he said. And then he went off, kept going and looking about, kept travelling. He came to where a great tree had fallen, where it had been pulled up by the roots. Then he crawled in. "This is it," he said. "Here I think I shall stay," he said. He set things to rights. "A very good house I have found," he said. "Here perhaps I shall stay," he said.
When he had put everything in good order, just then he remembered. "Well, truly, I was thinking wrong," he said. "Here, if I make a home thus, the young women, building menstrual huts at puberty, must find me," he said. "That is not good," he said. "If dancing-women see me, it is not good," he said. "Well, it is very bad," he said. "They would see me everywhere. Yet in some way I must live," he said. "I shall stay anywhere. As for them, let them find me!" he said. And so he staid.
