The visit to the sky

Then the wood was taken away, the red hot stones were piled up, and, after the man had been placed on top, a blanket was spread over him. Then the ashes were placed on top of the blanket, and a new fire was built over the whole pile. This was kept burning for a whole day. In the evening the chief said to the giant: “I think he is done.” The fire and the ashes were removed, and the man was found to be red hot, but not steamed. He was taken from the pile of stones with wooden tongs and placed on a plank, which was supported at each end.

The girl was crying all day, because she believed him dead. Early the next morning the chief sent the giant to see if the visitor was still alive. He lifted the blanket which had been spread over the red hot body. Then the plank, which had been burned by contact with the body of the stranger, gave way, and he fell down. But he arose at once hale and well. Then the chief had a mat spread for him in the rear of the house and said: “I burned you in order to make your body as hard as stone. Sit down with my daughter. She shall be your wife.” He married her, and the young woman was glad. The chief said: “If you so desire, you may take her down to the earth. She shall see what the people are doing.” The chief’s lodge was full of many kinds of food, which, however, were not known to the visitor.

When they prepared to descend to the earth, the chief gave his daughter a pot and a black tube, through which she drank of the liquid contained in the pot. Nobody except herself was allowed to use these, and she herself did not partake of any other kind of food. The chief ordered the giant to open the road that led to the earth. He opened a hole in the ground, took the rainbow at its one end, and placed the other end on the earth. Before they parted the chief forbade the man ever to tell where he had been and what he had seen and to talk to any woman except his present wife. They departed, and reached the earth not far away from the village where the man had formerly lived. He did not recognize the country, but his wife showed him the way and told him that they would reach the village in the evening. When they approached the camp the people recognized him. All assembled and asked him where he came from. He told them that he had been in the sky, and that his new wife was a daughter of the chief of the sky. He was invited to return to his former wife and to his children, but he did not go. He built a lodge outside the camp. He took a girl into his lodge to be a servant to his wife. Every day he himself had to fetch water for his wife in the pot which her father had given to her. This she drank through her tube. The latter had the property of swimming on the water as long as her husband was true to her. It went down when he had spoken to any other woman but her.

One day when he returned bringing the water his young wife asked him if he would like to talk to his former wife. He did not reply, thus intimating that he did not care for her. But when the young woman placed the tube into the water it sank. She knew at once that her husband had spoken to his former wife. Then she said: “I came to take pity on you and on your friends; but since you do not obey my father’s commands I must go back.” She wept, and embracing her servant she said: “Hide in the woods under the roots of a large tree where the rays of the sun will not strike you, else you will perish with all the rest of the people.” The girl did as she was bidden. Then the rainbow appeared. She climbed up and disappeared from view.

On the following day the man went hunting. Then the sun began to shine hotter and hotter. There was no cloud in the sky. The camp grew quiet, even the dogs ceased to howl. The rays of the sun had burned the whole camp. Only the man and the servant girl had escaped destruction. The man, when the sun was shining so fiercely, had cooled himself with the snow and the water of the mountains, while the servant girl was protected by the roots of the tree. When the sun set the fire went out and the girl returned to her friends, to whom she told what had happened. Nobody knows about the further fate of the man.

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