BuszEL] THE INITIATION 987 



Kaklo said, "No, you must not go. You can not go there. You 

 are too old. And all our young ones look so pretty. You \vill dis- 

 grace them. We do not want you to go with all the pretty young 

 ones." But she did not want her child to go without her. She is 

 the nurse of Kolowisi, and so she wanted to go with him. So they 

 sent her into the back room where Pautiwa and Saiyataca were sit- 

 ting. They left her there to stay at home. Then the Koyemci and 

 the Salimobiya took Kolowisi out of the lake and the two Muluktakia 

 came along with the tree. They told Kolowisi not to cry out lest 

 she shoidd hear him and want to come along. So they came out 

 quietly. But as they left there was a great deal of confusion and 

 they all asked one another, "Have you forgotten anything?" "Have 

 you got your rattle?" "Have you got your seeds?" "Are you 

 ready?" After they had gone it was very quiet so Hemokatsiki 

 asked, "Are my children still here?" and she looked around. Then 

 Pautiwa and Saiyataca told her, "Yes, they are still here. They are 

 not going to have the initiation after all. They thought that you 

 were going to follow them and so they postponed it." 



Then they sat with her for a while, and after a while they became 

 tired. Then they went out to practice their prayers. Saiyataca 

 went out to pray and Pautiwa went into the other room where the 

 people were all dancing. Then she got up and went out. She looked 

 for Kolowisi and could not find him, so she knew that they had gone. 

 Then she said, "I am going anyway. I don't care how poor and old 

 I am, I am going. They have treated me badly, mj' grandchildren, 

 but I shall not be angry with them. I am going after them." 



Then Pautiwa came back to his room again and she was gone. He 

 said, "Our great-great-grandmother has gone after the grandchildren. 

 Please go after her and bring her back. Do not let her go there. We 

 do not want her to show herself at the initiation." Pautiwa said 

 that to the young dancers like the little Hehe'a and the little Nawico 

 and the people in the mixed dance. 



So they went after her. She had only gone a little way when they 

 caught up with her, and they tried to bring her back. But she ran 

 away and went along holding her laiees. Then the yoimg ones got 

 tired and said, "Oh, let her go!" So they came back and told Pau- 

 tiwa, "She went. We tried to catch her, but she ran away and would 

 not come. So she has gone." Then Pautiwa said, "Well, all right. 

 I have changed my mind. She will go there and give my people 

 long life, so that they may grow old as she is. I do not want my peo- 

 ple to die young. She shall go and wait on her great-grandchildren 

 so that they may grow to be old." 



As she went along she was saying, "Oh dear, oh dear! Ahe'a, ahe'a! 

 I am the one to bring long life to my people. I shall cause them all 

 to grow old. They shall live to take care of their great-grandchildren 



