“Thanks for the drink which I thirsty one received,” said the ghost. “Thus I was wont to drink when I lived on earth.” And then it went out.
Now the boy heard his fellow-villagers coming up and gathering outside the house, and then they began to crawl in through the passage way.
“Qalagánguasê is not here,” they said, when they came inside.
“Yes, he is,” said the boy. “I hid in here because a ghost came in. It drank from the water tub there.”
And when they went to look at the water tub, they saw that something had been drinking from it.
Then some time after, it happened again that the people were all out hunting, and Qalagánguasê alone in the place. And there he sat in the house all alone, when suddenly the walls and frame of the house began to shake, and next moment a crowd of ghosts came tumbling into the house, one after the other, and the last was one whom he knew, for it was his sister, who had died but a little time before.
And now the ghosts sat about on the floor and began playing; they wrestled, and told stories, and laughed all the time.
At first Qalagánguasê was afraid of them, but at last he found it a pleasant thing to make the night pass. And not until the villagers could be heard returning did they hasten away.
“Now mind you do not tell tales,” said the ghost, “for if you do as we say, then you will gain strength again, and there will be nothing you cannot do.” And one by one they tumbled out of the passage way. Only Qalagánguasê’s sister could hardly get out, and that was because her brother had been minding her little child, and his touch stayed her. And the hunters were coming back, and quite close, when she slipped out. One could just see the shadow of a pair of feet.
“What was that,” said one. “It looked like a pair of feet vanishing away.”