As soon as he got home, his grandmother said: “If you had a dream, you mustn’t tell it; keep it in your head. If it was a good dream, you must stay out of doors and not talk to any one.”
The next morning his grandmother said: “Now you must go to Yomaka, a swimming pond that is always covered with thick ice. If the pond likes the person who comes to it, it will open a place for him to swim.”
Kalaslákkas took his rabbit-skin blanket and started. When he was climbing the mountain, he heard men singing and gambling. He followed the sound till he came to the swimming place; then he listened and heard the singing down under the water and under the ground. That was because the pond was glad to see him. The ice melted, and there was water for swimming. When the boy went into the water, he heard a great noise, like many men shouting. That was because the pond was glad he had come. He looked down in the water, but he saw only stones.
When Kalaslákkas was through swimming, he got out of the water and lay down on the rocks. After a while he fell [[256]]asleep and he dreamed that he saw a man with a long white feather standing up in his hair and heard him say: “I am the chief of gamblers!”
When Kalaslákkas told his grandmother what he had dreamed, she said: “The earth and mountains have taught you many things. You will be a strong man and a great gambler.” Then she told him of another swimming place and said: “When you start from here, don’t look back or look around; look straight at the mountain. If you don’t feel lazy, you will get to the swimming place about dark. When you get there, sit down by the pond and listen; listen till words come to you out of the water. Somebody lives there.”
When the boy got to the pond, he piled up stones and then sat down to listen. Soon he heard some one in the water say: “Why do you feel lonesome? What do you want me to give you? Don’t wait for somebody to put you in; come and swim.”
Kalaslákkas went into the water and began to swim around. Right away he felt something drawing him under. He went down till he came to a beautiful bright house; then he saw that a man was with him. The house was full of all kinds of bright shells. The man opened a skin door, and asked: “Do you want to see a beautiful woman?”
As Kalaslákkas looked at the woman, he felt himself going up to the top of the water again.
The man said: “When you get to the top, dive five times and then go home.”
When Kalaslákkas was near his grandmother’s house, he sat down to rest. She washed herself and went to meet him. She asked: “Was the earth glad to see you, and to have you walk on her? Do you think the earth is satisfied with you?”