HOW THE GODS OF THE K´K COUNSELLED THE DUCK.
"Yea, him know we well!" replied the gods. "Of our sacred breath breathed his father and his mother when days were new and of us shall be numbered they, when time is full. Lo! therefore because changed violently of his grief and sore hardships whilst yet but k‘yaíyuna, he hath become ‘hlímna, and yet unchanging, since finished so; yea, and unceasing, as one of ourselves, thus shall he remain. True also is this, of his brother and sister who dwell with their uncouth offspring in the mountain hard by. Go upward, now, and with thy tinkling shells entice these children to the lake shore. Loudly will they talk of the marvel as in their wilder moments they ever talk of anything new to hap. And they will give no peace to the old ones until these come down also to see thee! Thou wearest the sacred shells and strands of K‘yäk´lu wherewith he was ever wont to count his talks in other days when days were new to men. When these they see, lo! instant grave will become they and listen to thy words, for they will know the things they watched him wear and coveted when they were still little, all in the days that were new to men. Bid them make forthwith of poles and reeds, a litter, and bear it away, the father of them all with his children (nay not the sister-mother, to sore hurt the love of a brother eldest for a sister youngest, wherefore so pitiably he mourneth even now) to where, in the far plain, K‘yäk´lu sits so mourning. Bid them greet him, and bring him hence. They may not enter, but they may point the way and tell him how, fearlessly, to win into our presence, for as one even of ourselves is he become; yea, and they also, save that they stayed themselves for the ages, midway betwixt the living and the dead, by their own rash acts did they stay themselves so, wherefore it is become their office to point the way of the again living to the newly dead, for aye. Tell the grandchild, thy father withal, K‘yäk´lu, to mourn not any longer, neither tarry, but to get him straightway hither, that he may learn from us of his people of the meanings of past times, and of how it shall be in times to come."