in they saw an old woman sitting by the fire.  She spoke kindly to them, and asked them where they were travelling; and they told her that the camp had moved on and left them, and that they were trying to find their people, that they had nothing to eat, and were tired and hungry.  The old woman fed them and told them to sleep there to-night, and to-morrow they could go on and find their people.  “The camp,” she said, “passed here to-day when the sun was low.  They have not gone far.  To-morrow you will overtake them.”  She spread some robes on the ground and said:  “Now lie here and sleep.  Lie side by side with your heads towards the fire, and when morning comes you can go on your journey.”  The children lay down and soon slept.

In the middle of the night the old woman got up and built a big fire, and put on it a big stone kettle full of water.  Then she took a big knife, and, commencing at one end of the row, began to cut off the heads of the children, and to throw them into the pot.  The little girl with the baby brother lay at the other end of the row, and while the old woman was doing this she awoke and saw what was taking place.  When the old woman came near to her she jumped up and began to beg that she would not kill her.  “I am strong,” she said.  “I will work hard for you.  I can bring your wood and water, and tan your skins.  Do not kill my little brother and me.  Take pity on us and save us alive.  Everybody has left us, but do you have pity.  You shall see how quickly I will work, how you will always have plenty of wood.  I can work quickly and well.”  The old woman thought for a little while, then she said:  “Well, I will let you live for a time, anyhow.  You shall sleep safely to-night.”

The next day, early, the little girl took her brother on her back, and went out and gathered a big pile of wood, and brought it to the lodge before the old woman was awake.  When she got up she called to the girl, “Go to the river and get a bucket of water.”  The girl put her brother on her back, and took the bucket to go.  The old woman said to her:  “Why do you carry that child everywhere?  Leave him here.”  The little girl said:  “Not so.  He is always with me, and if I leave him he will cry and make a great noise, and you will not like that.”  The old woman grumbled, but the girl went on down to the river.

When she got there, just as she was going to fill her bucket, she saw a great bull standing by her.  It was a mountain buffalo, one of those which live in the timber; and the long hair of its head was all full of pine needles and sticks and branches, and matted together. (It was a Su-ye-stu-mik, a water-bull.) When the girl saw him, she prayed him to take her across the river, and so to save her and her little brother from the bad old woman.  The bull said, “I will take you across, but first you must take some of the sticks out of my head.”  The girl begged him to start at