It was in the olden times, and two Choctaw hunters were spending the night by their watch fire near a bend of the river Alabama. The game and the fish of their country was, with every new moon, be- coming less abundant, and all that they had to satisfy their hunger on that night was the tough flesh of a black hawk.

They were very tired, as they mused upon their unfortunate condition. They were unhappy, as they thought of their hungry children back in the village. They talked despondently. But they roasted the bird before the fire, and proceeded to enjoy as comfortable a meal as they could.

Hardly had they commenced eating before they were startled by a noise resembling the cooing of a dove. They quickly stood and looked around them. In one direction they saw nothing but the moon rising just above the forest trees on the opposite side of the river. They looked up and down the river, but saw nothing but the sandy shores and the dark waters. They listened, but nothing could they hear except the murmur of the flowing stream.

They then turned their eyes in the direction opposite the moon, and to their astonishment they discovered, standing upon the summit of a grassy mound, the form of a beautiful woman. They hastened to her side. She told them she was very hungry, whereupon they retrieved their roasted hawk and placed it all into her soft hands.

She barely tasted of the food, but told the hunters that their kindness had preserved her from death, and that she would not forget them when she returned to the happy grounds of her father, who was the Hosh-tah-li, Great Spirit of the Choctaws. She had but one request to make, and this was that when the next moon of midsummer should arrive, they should visit the spot where now she stood.

And then a pleasant breeze swept among the forest leaves, and the strange woman suddenly vanished. The hunters were astonished, but they returned to their families, keeping all that they had seen and heard, hidden in their hearts.

When the next moon of midsummer came, the hunters once more visited the mound on the banks of the Alabama. They found it covered with a tall new plant whose leaves were like the knives of the white-man. It yielded a delicious food which has since become known among the Choctaws as the sweet Ton-cha - Indian maze.