At length he came to a wide plain. As he emerged from the forest the sun was falling in the west, and cast its scarlet and golden shades far over the country. The air was perfectly calm, and the whole prospect had the air of an enchanted land. Fruits and flowers and delicate blossoms lured the eye and delighted the senses.
At a distance he beheld a large village, swarming with people, and as he drew near he discovered women beating corn in silver mortars.
When they saw Kwasynd approaching, they cried out:
"Bokwewa's brother has come to see us."
Throngs of men and women in bright apparel hurried out to meet him.
Having already yielded to temptation by the way, he was soon overcome by their fair looks and soft speeches; and it was not long afterward that he was seen beating corn with the women, having entirely abandoned all further quest for his lost wife.
Meantime, Bokwewa, alone in the lodge, waited patiently his brother's return. After the lapse of several years he set out in search of him, and he arrived in safety among the soft and idle people of the South. He had met the same allurements by the way, and the people gathered around him on his coming just as they had around his brother Kwasynd; but Bokwewa was proof against their flattery. He only grieved in his heart that any should yield.
He shed tears of pity to see that his brother had laid aside the arms of a hunter, and that he was beating corn with the women, indifferent to the fate and the fortune of his lost wife.
Bokwewa ascertained that she had passed on to a country beyond.
After deliberating for a time and spending several days in a severe fast, he set out in the direction in which she had gone.