Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/181

Rh 423. They broke camp at last early in the morning, and travelled all day. At night a great wind arose, and the bear would not rest, but ran around the camp all night, uneasy and watchful. The men looked out and saw some of the Kĭltsói trying to approach; but the bear warded them off and they disappeared without doing harm. In the morning it was found that the men of the Kĭltsói who had joined them on their journey had now deserted them, and it was supposed that in some way they were in league with their brethren outside.

424. The second day they journeyed far, and did not make camp until after dark. As on the previous night, the bear was awake, watchful, and uneasy all night. They supposed he was still looking out for lurking Kĭltsói. Not until daybreak did he lie down and take a little sleep while the people were preparing for the day's march.

425. On the third night the bear was again wakeful and on guard, and only lay down in the morning while the people were breaking camp. "My pet, why are you troubled thus every night?" said one of the men to the bear. The latter only grunted in reply, and made a motion with his nose in the direction whence they had come.

426. On the fourth night they camped, for mutual protection, closer together than they had camped before. The bear sat on a neighboring hill, from which he could watch the sleepers, but slept not himself all night. As before, he took a short sleep in the morning. Before the people set out on their march someone said: "Let us look around and see if we can find what has troubled our pet." They sent two couriers to the east and two to the west. The former returned, having found nothing. The latter said they had seen strange footprints, as of people who had approached the camp and then gone back far to the west. Their pursuers, they thought, had returned to their homes.

427. They had now been four days without finding water, and the children were crying with thirst. On the fifth day's march they halted at noon and held a council. "How shall we procure water?" said one. "Let us try the power of our magic wands," said another. A man of the gens who owned the wand of turquoise stuck this wand into the ground, and worked it back and forth and round and round to make a good-sized hole. Water sprang from the hole. A woman of another gens crouched down to taste it. "It is bitter water," she cried. "Let that, then, be your name and the name of your people," said those who heard her; thus did the gens of To'dĭtsíni, Bitter Water People, receive its name.

428. When the people had cooked and eaten food and drunk their fill of the bitter water, they said: "Let us try to reach yonder