eyes and did not speak. Again Gud
addressed her and again she answered not; and Gud concluded that she was
a very dumb ghost.

Thereupon Gud imagined a powerful medicine and poured it out in a
make-believe goblet and gave to the dumb ghost to drink thereof. She
accepted it gratefully and drank copiously; and immediately her mouth
opened so that she spake volubly.

When she had done with her thanks for the miracle, Gud asked her why she
was troubled and why she looked upon the world below with such distress.

"It is quite a long story," she began, as she seated herself upon the
Rock of Ages.

This being the only rock in the neighborhood, Gud was obliged to create
another rock so that he could be seated also, for the story promised
well.

When Gud was comfortably seated, the old ghost of the old woman resumed:
"I was the first lady of the land, that you see below us, and the mother
of the first family on that poor deluded world. I had a very dear
husband who was the father of my children--of that there was no doubt,
for he was never jealous. But I was not his first wife, for he had been
married before to a most loquacious creature who had talked herself into
hysterics and died.

"My husband loved me greatly and in order to escape the sound of women's
voices, he brought me to this world which you now see so full of our
descendants.

"Then it was only inhabited by savage beasts and we were the first
people who trod its wild shores. We settled down in a beautiful cave and
made a happy home there and numerous children came to bless our union.

"My husband loved these children and made many toys to amuse them, for
he was clever with his jack-knife. One day he came home with a great
chunk of dry, soft wood and began to whittle on it, while all the
children stood about and wondered what he was making.

"Day by day they watched him as he shaped and carved the wood until he
had made a most comical and grotesque object with grinning teeth, and
eyes which he blackened with charcoal. The children were afraid of this
ugly, carved wooden creature, and yet they loved it because their father
had made it for them. So when it was all finished, he perched it up on
the mantle over the horsehair sofa and told the children not to touch
it.

"When they asked him what it was he said that it was Bahgung; and he
told them that while they slept Bahgung stole out of the cave and went
on long expeditions and had great adventures. The ch