"You are too late," responded the Water-god. "Had you come before he had eaten of my food he might safely have returned with you. But he wished to eat, and he has eaten, and now, alas! he would die if he were taken out of the water."[[1]]
[[1]] See p. [129], "The Soul's Journey."
Sorrowfully the men rose to the surface and carried the tidings to the father.
"Alas!" they said, "he has eaten in the palace of the Water-god. He will die if we bring him home."
Nevertheless the father persisted in his desire to see the child.
"I must see him," he said, and the two men prepared for a second journey, saying: "If you get him back, the Water-god will require a white dog in payment."
The Indian promised to supply the dog. The two men painted themselves again, the one black, the other yellow. Once more they dived through the limpid water to the palace of the god.
"The father must have his child," they said. "This time we dare not return without him."
So the deity gave up the little boy, who was placed in his father's arms, dead. At the sight the grief of his kindred burst out afresh. However, they did not omit to cast a white dog into the river, nor to pay the men lavishly, as they had promised.
Later the parents lost a daughter in the same manner, but as she had eaten nothing of the food offered her under the water she was brought back alive, on payment by her relatives of a tribute to the Water-god of four white-haired dogs.