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the Tribe of Tegumai took to using shark's teeth instead of
flints for their spear-heads. I believe we've found out the big
secret of the world.'

'Why?' said Taffy, and her eyes shone too with incitement.

'I'll show,' said her Daddy. 'What's water in the Tegumai
language?'

'Ya, of course, and it means river too--like Wagai-ya--the Wagai
river.'

'What is bad water that gives you fever if you drink
it--black water--swamp-water?'

'Yo, of course.'

'Now look,' said her Daddy. 'S'pose you saw this scratched by the
side of a pool in the beaver-swamp?' And he drew this. (8.)

'Carp-tail and round egg. Two noises mixed! Yo, bad water,'
said Taffy. ''Course I wouldn't drink that water because I'd
know you said it was bad.'

'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. (9.)

'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. (10.)

'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,

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