“There is a great chief come to seek a wife in my tribe. His magic is so strong that no one can see him except the maiden whom he chooses to marry.”
Then the eldest daughter got up, snatched the red cloth out of her youngest sister’s hand, wrapped it round her, smeared red clay over her face, and ran to the new lodge and called to the great chief to come and look at her.
“I am looking at you now,” said a voice close beside her; “and you are very ugly; you have been dipping your face in the mud. And you are very lazy, for your embroidery is not finished.”
“Great chief,” said she, “I will wash the clay from my face, and I will go and finish the embroidery and make a robe fit for a maiden who is to marry the great chief.”
Then the voice said, “How can you marry a man you cannot see?”
“Oh,” she said, “I can see you as plainly as the lodge and the fire. I can see you quite plainly, sitting beside the fire.”
“Then tell me what I am like,” said he.
“You are the handsomest of men,” she said, “straight of back and brown of skin.”
“Go home,” said the voice, “and learn to speak truth.”
When she came back to the lodge, she flung the red cloth down on the ground without speaking.