refused, Death said, "I will
kill your children." The father did not know what that meant, so he
asked Death, "What is that you will do?" However, in a short time one of
the children fell ill and died, and then another and another. So the man
went to the Lord of Heaven and complained that Death was taking away his
children one by one. The Lord of Heaven said, "Did I not tell you, when
you were going away, to go at once with your wife and not to return if
you had forgotten anything, but you let your wife return to fetch the
grain? Now you have Death living with you. If you had obeyed me, you
would have been free from him and not lost any of your children."

[Sidenote: The hunt for Death.]

However, the man pleaded with him, and the Lord Heaven at last consented
to send Death's brother Kaikuzi to help the woman and to prevent Death
from killing her children. So down came Kaikuzi to earth, and when he
met his brother Death they greeted each other lovingly. Then Kaikuzi
told Death that he had come to fetch him away from earth to heaven.
Death was willing to go, but he said, "Let us take our sister too."
"Nay," said his brother, "that cannot be, for she is a wife and must
stay with her husband." The dispute waxed warm, Death insisting on
carrying off his sister, and his brother refusing to allow him to do so.
At last the brother angrily ordered Death to do as he was bid, and so
saying he made as though he would seize him. But Death slipped from
between his hands and fled into the earth. For a long time after that
there was enmity between the two brothers. Kaikuzi tried in every way to
catch Death, but Death always escaped. At last Kaikuzi told the people
that he would have one final hunt for Death, and while the hunt was
going on they must all stay in their houses; not a man, a woman, a
child, nor even an animal was to be allowed to pass the threshold; and
if they saw Death passing the window, they were not to utter a cry of
terror but to keep still. Well, for some days his orders were obeyed.
Not a living soul, not an animal, stirred abroad. All without was
solitude, all within was silence. Encouraged by the universal stillness
Death emerged from his lair, and his brother was just about to catch
him, when some children, who had ventured out to herd their goats, saw
Death and cried out. Death's good brother rushed to the spot and asked
them why they had cried out. They said, "Because we saw Death." So his
brother was angry