“The cold has made a bridge for us across the waters,” said Koree, “and we can now walk where we before waded.”
“True,” said Oko, “but it has taken away the water, and we shall have no fish, and not even anything to drink.”
“It has turned the water into stone,” observed another, “and the land has all been changed into a white foam, so that we shall hereafter have neither land nor water.”
The situation was critical indeed. The whole earth seemed about to be taken from them, or else turned into a new substance, cold, hard and forbidding.
“What can we do,” asked Oko, “but migrate like the Lali?”
“Splash!” “Splash!” “Splash!”
Such were the sounds now heard in quick succession, and accompanying them were cries, growls and great confusion.
The ice had broken and let some of them into the water. Pounder, Cocoanut-scooper, Abroo, Oko, and others were floundering in the waves, some swimming and others wading to their chins. The whole army was thrown into a panic. The earth seemed to have given way beneath them, or what they supposed to be new formed solid rock.
