Soon Kówe came to get water. As she was starting away, she saw a shadow in the water and stopped to look at it. “Oh,” said she, “I didn’t know I was so nice! I’m glad!” She looked a long time, then turned to go away, but she came back and looked a second time. She looked a third time, then she saw a beautiful girl dressed in red. She jumped at her, caught hold of her arm, and said: “Oh, my grandchild, where did you come from?”
She wrapped her blanket around the girl, took her under her arm, and carried her home.
That night she called to Tohós and all the Kówe people to come and sing for her grandchild to dance.—She called the girl grandchild, but she was no kin to her.—When they came and began to sing, Kówe danced with the girl to show her how.
Not far from old Kówe’s house there was a village where all kinds of people lived. They heard Tohós and the Kówes singing and came to see what young girl was dancing. Kówe hid the girl under her dress, wouldn’t let them see her. Wámanik tried to peek at her; Kówe scolded him and drove him away. Other men came, but they couldn’t see the girl. Kówe hid her under her clothes, and Tohós and the Kówes stopped singing as soon as they knew that some one was around.
The third night the Wámanik people tried hard to see the girl, but Kówe hid her in the straw of the house and put the fire out.
Kówe always knew when people were near. She heard Blaiwas as he went up high in the air and looked down. Right away the singing stopped, and the fire went out.
Tskel tried to steal up and look at the girl, but Kówe heard [[279]]him and hid her. Gäk said: “I shall see that girl!” But he talked so loud that Kówe heard him as soon as he started from home. When he got to her house, nobody was singing, and it was dark all around.
The fourth night Wisnik went to Kówe’s house. He went under the ground and stuck out his head near her fireplace. It was early, and the Kówes hadn’t begun to sing. He saw the girl and looked at her till his eyes got dim. He couldn’t look enough. When he went home, he said: “There is a beautiful girl in old Kówe’s house; I have spoiled my eyes looking at her.”
Kówe knew that somebody had been in her house. The girl said: “I saw a man, but I thought that you knew he was here.”
That morning they held a council in Wámanik’s village, to decide who should go to Kówe’s house and get the girl for a wife.