the
people who came to the river.

As soon as it was daylight, the women began to come for water. _Tum, tum,
tum, tum_, he could hear their footsteps as they came down the path, and he
looked eagerly at every one. All day long the people came and went,--the
young and old; and the children played about near him. He saw many strange
people that day. It was now almost sunset, and he began to think that he
would not see his wife there. _Tum, tum, tum, tum_, another woman came
down the steps, and stopped at the water's edge. Her dress was strange, but
he thought he knew the form. She turned her head and looked down the river,
and he saw her face. It was his wife. He pushed away the dirt, crawled
out, went to her and kissed her. "_Kyi_," he said, "hurry, and let us swim
across the river. Five of your relations and your own young brother are
waiting for us in that piece of timber."

"Wait," replied his wife. "These people have given me a great many pretty
things. Let me go back. When it is night I will gather them up, steal a
horse, and cross over to you."

"No, no," cried the man. "Let the pretty things go; come, let us cross at
once."

"Pity me," said the woman. "Let me go and get my things. I will surely come
to-night. I speak the truth."

"How do you speak the truth?"[1] asked her husband.

[Footnote 1: Blackfoot--_Tsa-ki-an-ist-o-man-i?_ i.e., How you like truth?]

"That my relations there across the river may be safe and live long, I
speak the truth."

"Go then," said the man, "and get your things. I will cross the river now."
He went up on the bank and walked down the river, keeping his face
hidden. No one noticed him, or if they did, they thought he belonged to the
camp. As soon as he had passed the first bend, he swam across the river,
and soon joined his relations.

"I have seen my wife," he said to them. "She will come over as soon as it
is dark. I let her go back to get some things that were given her."

"You are crazy," said one of the men, "very crazy. She already loves this
new man she has, or she would not have wanted to go back."

"Stop that," said the husband; "do not talk bad of her. She will surely
come."

III

The woman went back to her lodge with the water, and, sitting down near the
fireplace, she began to act very strangely. She took up pieces of charred
wood, dirt, and ashes in her hands and ate them, and made queer noises.

"What is it?" asked the man who had taken her for a wife.