THE WIFE WHO RETURNED FROM SPIRIT LAND. 129 
from the village where your people are you began to cry. We knew 
what you were crying about. You were poor in spirit because this girl 
had died. All of us agreed that we would send the girl back. You 
can see her now, but she is not real. You must be careful and not 
make her angry or you will lose her. You have been a brave man to 
stay with the girl when we came in, but this is the way we are. You 
can not see us, but some time we can turn into people and you can see 
us, though we are not real. We are spirits. There is one thing you 
must do before this girl can stay with you. We have now smoked.” 
They then went out. Then the girl said: ‘‘These people who were in 
here are all my relatives. They are anxious to help you to take me back, 
for they feel sorry for you. They have given you permission to talk 
with me and to be close to me, but we can not be together yet.” 
There was no more dancing, and no more affrights for the young man. 
Every day the young man went into the corn-fields of the people and 
- found corn. He brought the corn up and they ate of the corn. The 
woman dished out meat to the young man. The young man began to 
gain flesh. One day while they were sitting in the lodge the girl said: 
‘“‘The people have decided to return to the village. They have started 
back. My uncles have started on ahead. Each of my uncles, four in 
number, has a little piece of buffalo meat and a piece of fat to place on 
my grave. They are now on the way.” 
Every day after that the girl would tell the young man where her 
uncles were and at what place they were now camped. One day she 
told the young man that her uncles were close to the village; that the 
next day they would arrive; that in the afternoon they would walk up 
to the grave to place the buffalo meat in the grave. “My uncles are 
now crying every day, for they are near my grave.’’ The next day the 
woman said: ‘‘You remember what the leader of the dancers said about 
one more hard thing for you to do. To-morrow is the time when you 
shall have to do that thing.”’ The next day the woman told the young 
man that he must use all his strength; that when the uncles should walk 
up the hill to the grave, they would go outside of the village and there 
they were to stand. When she gave command for him to take hold of 
her he must use all his strength to hold her, for when she saw her uncles 
she was going to try to disappear and to go from him. ‘‘Four times this 
shall happen and if I get away from you every time then you shall lose 
me. When we are out there and you get hold of me, you must call as 
loud as you can so that my uncles will hear you and they will come down 
and help you.” The next day the girl told the boy to rise, that her 
uncles were now coming to the grave. They went outside of the village 
