“Though we are off on the mountains we always see you,” [[319]]said her brother. “Nobody has been near you. There are two more plains to dig over; then we will go away from here. Sometimes I see a smoke on a mountain, but it is far off.”
Pitoíois dug all the roots and pounded them up. Then the brothers moved to a new place. They made a brush house and went to look for a deer.
The next morning Pitoíois began to dig roots in a place where her brothers could watch her. The elder brother had such powerful eyes that he could count all the trees, all the brush, and all the plants; he could count everything. He looked far off in the east and saw somebody dodge behind a tree. It was Wus. When he saw him, though the sun wasn’t in the middle of the sky, he went to his sister and took her home.
“I don’t know why I am so afraid,” said Pitoíois. “I feel worse every day, but I never see anybody.”
“To-day I saw somebody off on the mountain,” said her brother.
“That’s what I thought!” said Pitoíois. “Every day I feel that somebody is looking at me; to-day I was frightened.”
Wus camped on the top of the mountain. He thought: “I wonder why those men never leave their sister? I can do anything I like; I am Wus. I will make them forget her.” He began singing, sang a beautiful song. All day and all night he sang, to draw their minds out of them, and make them forget Pitoíois.
The girl was uneasy; she wanted to finish her work. In two days all the fields were dug up. She packed the roots without waiting to clean them, and her brothers moved to a place not far from where the five Wûlkûtska brothers lived. The father of those brothers was a great eater; he could never get enough to satisfy him.
Wus followed Pitoíois. He said to himself: “This time they will forget her.” The girl went to dig roots and her brothers started off to hunt. The flat was square, but Wus made it long, and he multiplied the roots. It took Pitoíois all day to dig them. Wus talked and sang; the brothers couldn’t hear the song, but they felt it and forgot all about their sister. [[320]]
“I am losing my mind,” said the elder brother. “I feel as I did when I was a little child.”