of the river the children of these gentes were transformed into
tortoises, frogs, snakes, ducks, and dragonflies. The children thus
transformed, while tightly clinging to their mother's necks, began
to bite and pinch. The mothers, trembling with fear, let them fall
into the river. āh-ai-ū-ta and Mā-ā-sē-we, missing the children,
inquired, "Where are the little ones?" The mothers replied, "We were
afraid and dropped them into the water." The war gods then cried out
to the remainder of the people, "Wait, wait until we speak with you,"
and they told the women to be brave and cling tightly to the children
until they crossed the river. Obeying the gods' commands, they carried
the little ones over, though they were transformed just as the others.
Upon reaching the opposite shore, they were again restored to their
natural forms, excepting their hands, which were duck-webbed. These
webs were cut with āh-ai-ū-ta's stone knife and thus restored to
perfect hands.

The mothers whose children fell into the waters were grieved and
refused to be comforted. The Priest Doctor was also grieved, and
said, "Alas, where have the little ones gone?" āh-ai-ū-ta and
Mā-ā-sē-we replied, "We will go and learn something of them," and
upon descending into the lake they found the beautiful kiva, in
which the children were assembled; but again they had been changed;
they were no longer reptiles, but were of a similar type to the
Kō-yē-mē-shi and Kō-mō-kĕt-si, and since that time they have
been worshiped as ancestral gods, bearing the name of Kōk-kō; but
the little war gods knew them, and addressed them as "My children,"
and they replied, "Sit down and tell us of our mothers." When they
told them that their mothers refused to be comforted at their loss,
they said, "Tell our mothers we are not dead, but live and sing in
this beautiful place, which is the home for them when they sleep. They