This happened a long, long time ago, when the cedar, the fir, and the pine still had needles that yellowed and dropped in the autumn instead of staying green all winter. One day, in those olden times, a hunter went out into the woods to catch something for his tribe. He was the cleverest and bravest hunter of his tribe, but game was scarce, and so he walked and walked. He went farther than any hunter had ever dared to go, until he saw a bog so vast that no beast could have crossed it, no bird could have frown across it, only the frogs would be able to see what was on the other side, and they weren't telling. The hunter thought to himself: If the animals here can't cross this bog, what kinds of animals might live on the other side? The more he thought about it, the more curious he became. "I must find out," he said to himself. "Whatever happens, I must get to the other side." And so he took a good running start, and leapt clear across the bog. He looked around in excitement, but everything looked the same: the same earth, the same grass, the same trees. "Silly me!" he said. "There was no need to risk my life." Suddenly his mouth dropped open with wonder. In a little clearing stood seven rabbits. They were standing quietly, waiting, but they were harnessed like horses. Suddenly seven people came out of seven burrows in the earth, exactly like all people, only they were tiny, miniature people. In fact, only when the rabbits flattened their ears, were these little people taller than the rabbits, but when the rabbits ears stood up, the people were smaller than the rabbits. "Who are you?" asked the hunter. "A terrible, huge beast has come into our land. We don't know where it came from. The other day it caught one of our people and killed him. We are immortal, we never die ourselves, but this beast killed one of us. You are a hunter---can you help us in this trouble? Can you hunt down the beast? "I don't see why not." answered the hunter, but to himself he wondered: "Will I be able to kill such a frightful beast?" However, he was a hunter, the best of his tribe, and so he went out to track the beast. He looked and he looked, but could find nothing except the footprints of rabbit. Just as he was about to give up, suddenly, among the rabbit prints, he noticed the track of a sable. "Oh, that's too fine a quarry to miss" he said. "First I will trap the sable, and then I'll go on looking for this terrible, huge beast. "He found the sables track, set a trap and killed it. Then he skinned it and went on with his search. He walked the length and breadth of the little people's land, but could not find any track of the beast. Disappointed he came back to the little people and said to them: "I could not find your terrible, huge beast. All I have found was this sable." And he showed them the little sable skin. "We are the people," said the tiny men. "We are immortal. We wash ourselves in living water, and we never die. And who are you?" I am a hunter." The little men clapped their hands with joy. "Oh, good! Oh, good!" they cried in chorus.