After a time these two were again hungry, and Blue jay said: “Let us go and visit the Shadows.” His sister said: “We will go to-morrow.” Early next morning they started, and at last they reached the home of the Shadows and went up to the house. It was full of food, and on the beds there were lying ornaments, clothing, coats, blankets of deer skin, of mountain-goat wool, and of ground-hog skin. Blue jay said to his sister: “Where are these people?” His sister answered: “They are here, but you cannot see them.”
Blue jay took up one of the large ear ornaments. “Look out! You are pulling my ear, Bluejay!” cried a person. Bluejay was surprised, [[31]]for he saw no one, and he dropped the ear ornament. Then they heard many people laughing. He took hold of a ground-hog blanket, and pulled at it. “Let go of my ground-hog blanket, Bluejay,” said a person, but he could see no one. He looked under the bed for the one who had spoken, and again they heard people laughing. He took up a coat made of goat wool, and somebody cried out, “Why do you lift my coat, Bluejay?” He took hold of a nose ornament, and a person cried, “Let go of my nose ornament, Bluejay.” Then a basket fell down from above. He lifted it up and put it back. Then he began to look under the bed and all through the house for persons, and again they heard many people laughing. His sister said to him: “Stay here quietly. They are Shadows, and so you cannot see them.” They ate some of the food.
When it got dark Bluejay said, “We will sleep here.” So they slept there during the night, but all through the night they had bad dreams, for so the Shadows punished Bluejay, because he had teased them. Then Bluejay and his sister went home, and his sister said, “Now we have gone visiting enough.” [[33]]
Bluejay Visits the Ghosts
[[35]]
In a certain village there lived Ioí and her younger brother, Bluejay. One night the ghosts went out to buy a wife. They bought Ioí. The presents they gave for her were not sent back; they were kept. So at night she was married, and when day came Ioí was gone from her father’s house. For a long time Bluejay did nothing; but at length he felt lonely, and after a year had passed he said, “I am going to look for my elder sister.” He started for the country of the ghosts, and on his way he began to ask every one whom he saw, “Where does a person go when he dies?” He asked all the trees, but they could not tell him. He asked all the birds, but they could not tell him. At last he asked a Wedge, and the Wedge said, “If you will pay me, I will carry you there.” He [[36]]paid, and the Wedge carried him to the country of the ghosts.
They came to a large village, but no smoke rose from the houses; only from the last house—a big one—they saw smoke rising. Bluejay went into this house, and there he saw his elder sister. She said to him: “Ah, my younger brother, where do you come from? Are you dead?” He answered, “No, I am not dead; the Wedge brought me here on its back.”
After a little Bluejay went out and walked through the village, and began to open the doors of the houses and to look into them; and when he looked into them he did not find people in any of the houses, but only bones. Then he came back to where his elder sister was. On the bed near where his sister was sitting lay a skull and some bones. He asked her, “What are you going to do with that skull and those bones?” She said to him, “That is my husband, your brother-in-law.” Bluejay did not believe her; he said to himself: “Ioí is telling lies. She says a skull and bones is my brother-in-law!”
When it got dark people began to appear, and soon the house was full. It was a large [[37]]house, but there were many people in it. Bluejay said to his elder sister, “Where have all these people come from?” She answered him: “Do you think that they are people? They are ghosts. They are ghosts.” Now these people always spoke in whispers, and Bluejay could not hear what they said, and did not understand them.