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At last, when he had come near, they knew him for a man. 
The elder sister called, “Come here! Come fetch us in your canoe; 
if you like, we will marry you,’^ she called to him. 
Exactly as if he did not hear it that Hell-Diver acted, for he it must 
have been. He spat in the direction of the women, and they saw that he 
spat wampum-beads. 
“Goodness, little sister, this must be the Wampum-Man!” said one 
to the other. 
Presently, “Wampum-Man!” she called to him. 
Thus spoke Hell-Diver, as though only now he heard, “Why! What 
is that you say?” 
“Come here, Wampum-Man! Come fetch us in your canoe. If you 
like, we will marry you, is what we said.” 
“Yes, just a moment!” said Hell-Diver. 
He landed there. Those young women were handsome. So he took 
them on board, spitting all the time, and each time wampum-beads fell 
into the water. So he started to take them home. Presently they saw 
some buffalo. 
“Goodness, you ought to take this chance to kill something! The 
fact is, we are hungry!” they said. 
“Yes, yes, my waves! I shall kill some; you shall eat.” 
Then, when he went ashore, “Now, wives, do you keep watch over 
our boat here,” he told them. 
So he went off to kill game. As those young women observed him, 
he shot at the animals; he killed one. They were glad. 
“So now we shall eat! We surely were hungry, little sister!” said the 
elder. 
And so, when that Hell-Diver came back down the bank, “Wives, you 
shall eat; I have killed some game,” he told them. 
Accordingly, they tied fast the canoe and climbed up the bank. They 
saw the buffalo lying there. 
When they got there, “Now then, wives, work as fast as you can, 
gathering faggots. In the meantime I shall skin it and cut it up, so that 
you can make the fire and do the roasting. You said you were hungry!” 
he told them. 
So they were quick about making the fire. 
“I am in a hurry, wives. Over yonder in the camp there is going to 
be a big celebration and a dance, so they must be waiting for me, seeing 
that I am not getting back in time,” he told them. 
Then, as the young women were picking up sticks, “Goodness, little 
sister, surely our husband is an important man!” she said to her. 
“Pshaw!” answered the younger one; “Sister, as for me, he seems to 
me just as if he were crazy! He talks too silly.” 
“Why, do you suppose he would be in demand, then, for a dance? 
Certainly, he is the Wampum-Man.” 
“No,” said the younger one; “I saw the creature taking beads, on 
the sly, and sticking them into his mouth. Then, whenever he thinks we 
are looking at him, he spits, and that is the way he always spits out beads. 
He is no Wampum-Man, not he,” said the younger sister. 
