114 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



" No room, no room here, old woman ; go a little 

 further on." And she went on, only to be sent further 

 still, until she had gone all the way round the lake 

 and was back at the spot where she had started where 

 she was received with a shout of laughter and the cry 

 of " No room here, old woman." 



Then in a rage she flung the rod down, and, cursing 

 the people for making a fool of her, she fled from their 

 laughter ; and, arrived back at that very opening 

 through which she had climbed into heaven, she cast 

 herself down on the upper branches of the great tree 

 and began her long descent to earth again. She alone 

 of all the dead who had reached that country turned 

 her back on it and returned to this world, to our ever- 

 lasting sorrow. Arrived at the earth, and mad with 

 rage and the desire of revenge, she turned herself into 

 a huge water-rat, a creature found by that river, a rat 

 as big as a retriever dog, with four great teeth, hard 

 and sharp as steel chisels, two in the upper and two 

 in the lower jaw. Making herself a den at the roots 

 of the mighty tree, she began gnawing the wood, work- 

 ing day and night for many, many days, and for months 

 and years ; and if ever she grew tired of her huge task 

 she thought of the indignity she had suffered and of 

 the mocking laughter of the people by the lake, and was 

 roused to fresh fury and continued exertions. In 

 this way the great roots and lower part of the trunk 

 were riddled through and through and hollowed out. 

 Nor was it known to any one what the malignant old 

 woman was doing, since the vast quantities of wood 



