"Oh, my sons, I think of you always. I live far away from where you
do, and you have travelled a long road to find me." She spread the mem
terek on the ground, and said: "Sit down here and rest."
"My mother," said the elder son of Olelbis, "my brother is very dry.
We have had no water in Olelpanti for many years. Did you think that
we could live without water?"
"I could not help your loss. What could I do?" said Mem Loimis. "I was
stolen away and carried far north, and from there I came to this
place; but your father is my husband. He knows everything; he can make
anything, do anything, see everything, but he did not know that I was
here. You shall have water, my children; water in plenty."
She held a basket to her breast then and took water from it, as a
nursing mother would take milk, filled the basket, and gave it to the
boys. She gave them plenty to eat, too, and said,--
"You boys are all my children. You are sons of Mem Loimis. I am here
now; but if there should be disturbance, if trouble were to rise, my
husband Kahit would come and take me away. He told me so. Some day my
husband Olelbis will know his son in the north who is living with
Kahit. Some day my husband Olelbis will think of me; he may want me to
come to him, he may wish to see me."
Wokwuk and Kut stayed five days with their mother, then one day, and
after that one day more. Sanihas Yupchi, who was dancing and chanting
in Olelpanti continually, said after the boys had gone:
"Get me a suhi kilo" (a striped basket).
Olelbis got him the suhi kilo, a little basket about two inches
around, and very small inside. Sanihas Yupchi put it in the middle of
the sweat-house. Nine days more passed, and Sanihas Yupchi was dancing
all the time.