'But I needn't be near the water at all.I might be miles away,hunting,and still--'
'And still it would be just the same as if you stood there and said,"G'way,Taffy,or you'll get fever."All that in a carp-fish-tail and a round egg!O Daddy,we must tell Mummy,quick!'and Taffy danced all round him.
'Not yet,'said Tegumai;'not till we've gone a little further.
Let's see.Yo is bad water,but So is food cooked on the fire,isn't it?'And he drew this.'Yes.Snake and egg,'said Taffy 'So that means dinner's ready.
If you saw that scratched on a tree you'd know it was time to come to the Cave.So'd I.'
'My Winkie!'said Tegumai.'That's true too.But wait a minute.
I see a difficulty.SO means "come and have dinner,"but sho means the drying-poles where we hang our hides.'
'Horrid old drying-poles!'said Taffy.'I hate helping to hang heavy,hot,hairy hides on them.If you drew the snake and egg,and I thought it meant dinner,and I came in from the wood and found that it meant I was to help Mummy hang the two hides on the drying-poles,what would I do?'
'You'd be cross.So'd Mummy.We must make a new picture for sho.
We must draw a spotty snake that hisses sh-sh,and we'll play that the plain snake only hisses ssss.'
'I couldn't be sure how to put in the spots,'said Taffy.'And p'raps if you were in a hurry you might leave them out,and I'd think it was so when it was sho,and then Mummy would catch me just the same.No!I think we'd better draw a picture of the horrid high drying-poles their very selves,and make quite sure.
I'll put them in just after the hissy-snake.Look!'And she drew this.'P'raps that's safest.It's very like our drying-poles,anyhow,'
said her Daddy,laughing.'Now I'll make a new noise with a snake and drying-pole sound in it.I'll say shi.That's Tegumai for spear,Taffy.'And he laughed.
'Don't make fun of me,'said Taffy,as she thought of her picture-letter and the mud in the Stranger-man's hair.'You draw it,Daddy.'
'We won't have beavers or hills this time,eh?'said her Daddy,'I'll just draw a straight line for my spear.'and he drew this.
'Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed.'
'Please don't,Daddy.It makes me uncomfy.Do some more noises.
We're getting on beautifully.'
'Er-hm!'said Tegumai,looking up.'We'll say shu.That means sky.'
Taffy drew the snake and the drying-pole.Then she stopped.'We must make a new picture for that end sound,mustn't we?'
'Shu-shu-u-u-u!'said her Daddy.'Why,it's just like the round-egg-sound made thin.'
'Then s'pose we draw a thin round egg,and pretend it's a frog that hasn't eaten anything for years.'
'N-no,'said her Daddy.'If we drew that in a hurry we might mistake it for the round egg itself.Shu-shu-shu!'I tell you what we'll do.We'll open a little hole at the end of the round egg to show how the O-noise runs out all thin,ooo-oo-oo.Like this.'And he drew this.'Oh,that's lovely !Much better than a thin frog.Go on,'said Taffy,using her shark's tooth.Her Daddy went on drawing,and his hand shook with incitement.He went on till he had drawn this.'Don't look up,Taffy,'he said.'Try if you can make out what that means in the Tegumai language.If you can,we've found the Secret.'
'Snake--pole--broken--egg--carp--tail and carp-mouth,'said Taffy.'Shu-ya.Sky-water (rain).'Just then a drop fell on her hand,for the day had clouded over.'Why,Daddy,it's raining.
Was that what you meant to tell me?'
'Of course,'said her Daddy.'And I told it you without saying a word,didn't I?'
'Well,I think I would have known it in a minute,but that raindrop made me quite sure.I'll always remember now.Shu-ya means rain,or "it is going to rain."Why,Daddy!'She gotup and danced round him.'S'pose you went out before I was awake,and drawed shu-ya in the smoke on the wall,I'd know it was going to rain and I'd take my beaver-skin hood.Wouldn't Mummy be surprised?'
Tegumai got up and danced.(Daddies didn't mind doing those things in those days.)'More than that!More than that!'he said.
'S'pose I wanted to tell you it wasn't going to rain much and you must come down to the river,what would we draw?Say the words in Tegumai-talk first.'
'Shu-ya-las,ya maru.(Sky-water ending.River come to.)what a lot of new sounds!I don't see how we can draw them.'
'But I do--but I do!'said Tegumai.'Just attend a minute,Taffy,and we won't do any more to-day.We've got shu-ya all right,haven't we?But this las is a teaser.La-la-la'and he waved his shark-tooth.
'There's the hissy-snake at the end and the carp-mouth before the snake--as-as-as.We only want la-la,'said Taffy.
'I know it,but we have to make la-la.And we're the first people in all the world who've ever tried to do it,Taffimai!'
'Well,'said Taffy,yawning,for she was rather tired.'Las means breaking or finishing as well as ending,doesn't it?'
'So it does,'said Tegumai.'To-las means that there's no water in the tank for Mummy to cook with--just when I'm going hunting,too.'
'And shi-las means that your spear is broken.If I'd only thought of that instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for the Stranger!'
'La!La!La!'said Tegumai,waiving his stick and frowning.'Oh bother!'
