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It has been a long time since he came to see us, not since you were four years old, but mother is always looking for him." The children gazed earnestly seaward at a fleet of canoes which were making for the shore. "Do you think it is uncle?" asked Cleeta. "Yes," replied her sister, uncertainly, "I think it may be."
And this was what she sang: "Pah-high-nui-veve, veve, veve, shumeh, veve, veve, veve, shumeh, Pah-high-nui-veve," and so on, repeating these words over and over until Cleeta and Nakin were sound asleep. Then she laid them on their tule mats, which were spread on the floor of the jacal, where baby Nahal, close wrapped in his cocoon-shaped cradle, had been a long time sleeping.
Then it sank slowly over upon its side; but it struck so fiercely at the hunter who ran up to kill it with his horn knife that he drew back and shot it again. "Where is the third elk?" asked Cleeta, looking around. "Over there," said Gesnip, pointing across the plain. "Then they have lost it," said the child, with disappointment. "No, I think not. It is wounded.
"Thank you, mother," said Gesnip. "If Titas's mother had made a black diamond basket, maybe the snake would not have bitten her." "While you work tell us how the first baby basket was made," begged Cleeta. The mother nodded; and as she wound and pressed closely the moist chippa, and the cactus needle flew in and out with the creamy kah-hoom or the black tsuwish, she told the story.
Instead of the usual breakfast of acorn meal mush, the children had a plentiful meal of fish which their mother had saved from the feast of the night before. "I didn't think any one could catch so many fish as uncle brought last night," said Cleeta, as she helped herself to a piece of yellowtail. "Yes, they do, though," said Payuchi. "Last night, after supper, uncle told the men some fine stories.
One sat in the stern and steered, the others knelt in pairs, each man helping propel the boat by means of a stick some four feet long, more like a pole than a paddle, which he worked with great energy over the gunwale. "I am afraid of them," said Cleeta, drawing close to her sister. "They do not look like the people I have seen.
"Yes, we got some clams, more than I could carry; but Nopal was running races with the other boys and would not come, so I left him to bring them. He will lose his fish dinner if he doesn't hurry." "Mother," said Cleeta, "may we stay up to the fish bake?" "No," answered her mother. "You and Nakin must go to bed, but I will save some for your breakfast. You are tired, Cleeta."
"You have seen the rabbits running to hide in a bunch of grass and cactus when you go with mother to the mountains for acorns, haven't you?" Cleeta nodded. "Not this winter, though. We saw only two to-day," she said. "That is because of the drive," said her brother.
As they neared the top of the hill, Sholoc, who was ahead, lifted his hand and motioned them to stop. "Hush," he said softly, "elk." Swiftly the men slipped off their loads and with bows in hand each one crept flat on his belly over the hill crest. Gesnip and Cleeta peeped through the high grass.
I saw the blood on its side," said the sister. "See, one of the men is following it, and it is half a mile behind the herd. I am sure he will get it." "This has been a lucky day," said Gesnip. "So much food. Our stomachs will not ache with hunger for a long time." "That is because mother wove a game basket to Chinigchinich so he would send food," said Cleeta.