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 k** 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 k**ed," he said. "Very good this is, (but) they might see me," he said. "If I stay here, mortal men, seeing me, will k** 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.