And now to draw to a close, Maidwa and his friends lived in peace for a time; their town prospered; there was no lack of children; and everything else was in abundance.
But one day the two brothers began to look darkly upon Maidwa. They reproached him for having taken from the medicine-sack their dead father's magic arrows; they upbraided him especially that one was lost.
After listening to them in silence, he said that he would go in search of the lost arrow, and that it should be restored; and the very next day, true to his word, he left them.
After traveling a long way and looking in every direction, almost hopeless of discovering the lost treasure, he came to an opening in the earth. When he descended this, it led him to the abode of departed spirits. The country appeared beautiful, the pastures were greener than his own, the sky bluer than that which hung over the lodge, and the extent of it was utterly lost in a dim distance. Moreover he saw animals of every kind wandering about in great numbers. The first he came to were buffalos; and his surprise was great when they addressed him as human beings.
They asked him what he came for, how he had descended, and why he was so bold as to visit the abode of the dead.
He answered that he was in quest of a magic arrow, to appease the anger of his brothers.
"Very well," said the leader of the buffalos, whose form was nothing but bone. "Yes, we know it," and he and his followers moved off a little space from Maidwa, as if they were afraid of him. "You have come," resumed the buffalo-spirit, "to a place where a living man has never before been. Return immediately to your tribe, for under pretence of recovering one of the magic arrows which belong to you by your father's dying wish, your brothers have sent you off so that they may become possessed of your beautiful wife, the Red Swan. Speed home! You will find the magic arrow at the lodge-door. You will live to a very old age, and die happily. You can go no farther in these abodes of ours."
Maidwa looked, as he thought, to the west, and saw a bright light as if the sun was shining in its splendor, but he saw no sun.
"What light is that yonder?" he asked.
The buffalo whose form was nothing but bone answered—"It is the place where those who were good dwell."