“Nénûm, nénûm! Look out again, sister.”
“The water is up to her arms.”
“Nénûm, nénûm! Look now.”
“Oh, it is up to her neck!” He kept singing.
“The water is rising fast now; I can only see mother’s eyes!” cried the girl.
“Nénûm, nénûm! How is it now?”
“Our mother has gone down in the water; I can’t see her!” cried the little girl, and she fell on the ground and screamed. She cried all day, cried herself to sleep.
The boy was singing and fixing his arrows. He was glad that his mother was dead.
The next morning, while his sister was sleeping, the boy shot an arrow into her leg. When she cried, he said: “Get up! You are a young woman now. You must go and hire somebody to sing for you, so you can dance your maturity dance. You must dance five nights without sleeping.” He gave her rattles, and said: “When you get to a spring, stand there till Kówe comes for water. She will see you and take [[278]]you home with her. When the five nights are over, you can come back here. I will stay on the mountains while you are gone.”
The girl started; with each step she took she grew a little taller. When she got to the spring, she was a young woman. She was covered with red bark. She drank water from the spring, then stood in the low grass and waited.