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Show ON THE TRAIL OF BEAUTY 27 ugly, daughter-in-law. Whatever you do, if you wake up during the night, don't relight the fire!" The girl tossed and turned. At last she decided to get up because she could not sleep. She wanted the warmth of the fire. During the night, her ankles, knees, and waist had become swollen, and the soles of her feet had become sore. She added a few sticks to the fire, and it blazed right up again. Looking about in the flickering light, she was horrified. She was in a den of coiled rattlesnakes! Terrified, she began to jump around wildly. She tried to avoid any contact with the snakes, but she stepped on many of them. Suddenly one rose up, standing full-length in front of her, warning her with its rattle. Another stood up behind, and one on each side of her, all rattling. Quickly she smothered the fire with handfuls of dirt. Sobbing, she threw herself back down on the ground where she had been lying. There she stayed until morning, silent but wide awake and full of fear. In the morning, the Snake People, now in human form, complained to her. They pointed to the bruises she had made by stepping on them. Younger Sister fell silent. Then she recalled the evening before. She had seen a stranger who looked like Big Snake Man enter the place and pass her by without saying a word. As she was thinking, the Snake People spoke again. They told her, "We shall leave you during the day from now on. While we are gone you must obey all our instructions!" For each of the next four days they left her. Each day they told her not to open a particular water jug. But Younger Sister's curiosity got the best of her, and each day the Snakes came home to a different mess. The first day, she opened the dark water jug, letting out a dust storm that blew through the house on a scorching wind. The second day, she opened the white water jug and let out a storm of Hail and Lightning. The third day, it was the blue water jug she opened. It released dark black clouds filled with heavy Male Rain and Zigzag Lightning. The fourth day, she opened the yellow jar, and all day Female Rain fell steadily in the home of the Snakes. She opened a fifth, glittering, water jug the next day. This filled the house with mist so thick that many of the Snakes wandered out into the darkness and became lost. Still they tested Younger Sister by leaving her alone each day. They told her not to wander off because bad people lived all around them. The next day, however, Younger Sister began to roam about. Walking east, she came to a field of squash plants that attacked her. They trapped her in their vines and leaves so that she had to be cut free with flint knives. The second day, she |