The Duck thereupon fled away toward the mountain whence issued the garrulous talking, and thence beyond, spying water, to the lake in its hollow. There she swam to and fro, this way and that, up and down, loudly quacking and calling. Lo! the lights of the Kíwitsin of the Kâ´kâ began to gleam in the waters, and as she gazed she beheld, rising from them, snout foremost, like one of her own kind, the Sálamopia of the north, whom the gods of the Kâ´kâ, the noble and surpassing Páutiwa and the ancient K‘yáu‘hliwa, had dispatched to bid the Duck dive down and lay before them whatsoever message she might bear. The Duck followed down, down, into the great assembly halls. There she told of the far journeys she had made, of her finding and leading the K‘yäk´lu, and how now K‘yäk´lu sat blind of eyes, maimed and hearing naught of her calling, in the plain beyond the mountains.
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."
HOW BY BEHEST OF THE DUCK THE K´YEMÄSHI SOUGHT K‘YÄK´LU TO CONVEY HIM TO THE LAKE OF THE DEAD.
Even so did the Duck, as bidden, even so did the Kâ´yemäshi, one and all, as it had been said they would do as the Duck bade them, and ere the morning came, they with a litter went, singing a quaint and pleasant song, adown the northern plain, bearing their litter. And when they found the K‘yäk´lu, lo! he looked upon them in the starlight and wept; but their father, he who had been the glorious Síweluhsiwa, his youngest brother, stood over him and chanted the soothing yet sad dirge-rite, and he, too, wept and bowed his head; but presently he lifted his face and, as a gleeful child, his children joining, cajoled the silent K‘yäk´lu to sit him down in the great soft litter they did bear for him.
HOW THE K´YEMÄSHI BORE K‘YÄK´LU TO THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS.
Then lifting it on their shoulders, they bore it lightly, singing loudly as they went, to the shores of the deep black lake, where gleamed from the middle the lights of the dead.
Uprose at this point, the Sálamopia Tém‘hlanahna or of all the six regions, led by the leader of them all and taking K‘yäk´lu on their shoulders, they in turn bore him out over the water to the magic ladder of rushes and canes which reared itself high out of the water; and K‘yäk´lu, scattering sacred prayer-meal before him, stepped down the way, slowly, like a blind man, descending a skyhole. No sooner had he taken four steps than the ladder lowered into the deep; and lo! his light was instant darkened.
But when the Sálamopia of the regions entered the central sitting place of the Kâ´kâ with K‘yäk´lu, Shúlawitsi lifted his brand on high and swinging it, lighted the fires anew, so that K‘yäk´lu saw again with fulness of sight and so that they shone on all the gods and soul-beings therein assembled, revealing them. Yea, and through the windows and doorways of all the six chambers encircling, and at each portal, the Sálamopia of the region it pertained and led unto took his station. And Páutiwa, and his warriors the bluehorned Saía‘hliawe, and the tall Sháalako-kwe, yea, and all the god-priests of the regions six, those who are told of without omission in the speech of K‘yäk´lu and in other speeches of our ancient talk, bade K‘yäk´lu welcome, saying, "Comest thou, son?" "Yea," he replied. "Verily then," said Páutiwa—
Sit thee down with us,