The poor younger sister clung to the elder one, and sank moaning by her side, for the smile of Átahsaia was as fearful as the scowl of a triumphant enemy, or the laugh of a rattlesnake when he hears any old man tell a lie and thinks he will poison him for it.
“Why do you run, and why do you weep so?” asked the old demon. “I know you. I am ugly and old, my pretty maidens, but I am your grandfather and mean you no harm at all. I frightened you only because I felt certain you would run away from me if you could.”
“Ah!” faltered the elder sister, immediately getting over her fright. “We did not know you and therefore we were frightened by you. Come, sister, come,” said she to the younger. “Brighten your eyes and thoughts, for our grandfather will not hurt us. Don’t you see?”
But the younger sister only shook her head and sobbed. Then the demon got angry. “What are you blubbering about?” he roared, raising his knife and sweeping it wildly through the air. “Do you see this knife? This day I will cut off the light of your life with it if you do not swallow your whimpers!”
“Get up, oh, do get up, háni!” whispered the elder sister, now again frightened herself. “Surely he will not cut us off just now, if we obey him; and is it not well that even for a little time the light of life shine—though it shine through fear and sadness—than be cut off altogether? For who knows where the trails tend that lead through the darkness of the night of death?”
You know, in the speech of the rulers of the world and of our ancients,23 a man’s light was cut off when his life was taken, and when he died he came to the dividing-place of life.
The háni tried to rally herself and rose to her feet, but she still trembled.
“Now, my pretty maidens, my own granddaughters, even,” said the old demon once more, as gently as at first, “I am most glad I found you. How good are the gods! for I am a poor, lone old man. All my people are gone.” (Here he sighed like the hiss of a wildcat.) “Yonder above is my home” (pointing over his shoulder), “and as I am a great hunter, plenty of venison is baking in my rear room and more sweetbread than I can eat. Lo! it makes me homesick to eat alone, and when I saw you and saw how pretty and gentle you were, I thought that it might be you would throw the light of your favor on me, and go up to my house to share of my abundance and drink from my vessels. Besides, I am so old that only now and then can I get a full jar of water up to my house. So I came as fast as I could to ask you to return and eat with me.”
Reassured by his kind speech, the elder sister hastened to say: “Of course, we will go with our grandfather, and if that is all he may want of us, we can soon fill his water-jars, can’t we, háni?”
“You are a good girl,” said the old demon to the one who had spoken; then, glaring at the younger sister: “Bring that fool along with you and come up; she will not come by herself; she has more bashfulness than sense, and less sense than my knife, because that makes the world more wise by killing off fools.”
He led the way and the elder sister followed, dragging along the shrinking háni.
The old demon kept talking in a loud voice as they went up the pathway, telling all sorts of entertaining stories, until, as they neared the rocks where Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma were waiting, the Two heard him and said to one another: “Ahh, they come!”
Then the elder brother jumped up and began to tighten his bow, but the younger brother muttered: “Sit down, won’t you, you fool! Átahsaia’s ears are like bat-ears, only bigger. Wait now, till I say ready. You know he will not hurt the girls until he gets them out from his house. Look over there in front of his hole. Do you see the flat place that leads along to that deep chasm beyond?”
“Yes,” replied the elder brother. “But what of that?”
“What but that there he cuts the throats of his captives and casts their bones and heads into the depths of the chasm! Do you see the notch in the stone? That’s where he lets their blood flow down, and for that reason no one ever discovers his tracks. Now, stiffen your feet with patience, I say, and we will see what to do when the time comes.”
Again they sat and waited. As the old demon and the girls passed along below, the elder brother again started and would have shot had not Mátsailéma held him back. “You fool of a brother elder, but not wiser. No! Do you not know that your arrow is lightning and will kill the maidens as well as the monster?”
Finally, the demon reached the entrance to his cave, and, going in, asked the girls to follow him, laying out two slabs for them to sit on. “Now, sit down, my pretty girls, and I will soon get something for you to eat. You must be hungry.” Going to the rear of the cave, he broke open a stone oven, and the steam which arose was certainly delicious and meaty. Soon he brought out two great bowls, big enough to feed a whole dance. One contained meat, the other a mess resembling sweetbread pudding. “Now, let us eat,” said the demon, seating himself opposite, and at once diving his horny fingers
