managed to fly
home as best he could, but it was a long time before he could see well,
and his eyes are red to this day. Then the HootingOwl ( WgvJcu') and
the Horned Owl (TskiW) went, but by the time they got to the hollow
tree the tire was burning so fiercely that the smoke nearly blinded
them, and the ashes carried up by the wind made white rings about
their eyes. They had to come home again without the fire, but with
all their rubbing they were never able to get rid of the white rings.
Now no more of the birds would venture, and so the little Uksu'hi
snake, the black racer, said he would go through the water and bring
back some tire. He swam across to the island and crawled through
the grassto the tree, and went in by a small hole at the bottom. The
heat and smoke were too much for him, too, and after dodging about
blindly over the hot ashes until hi' was almost on tire himself he man-
aged by good luck to get out again at the same hole, but his body had
been scorched black, and he has ever since had the habit of darting
and doubling on his track as if trying to escape from close quarters.
He came back, and the great blacksnake, Gule'gi, "The Climber."
offered to go for tire. He swam over to the island and climbed up the
tree on the outside, as the blacksnake always does, but when he put
his head down into the hole the smoke choked him so that he fell into
the burning