They traveled for a long time, until they came to a lake. Across it they could see houses, but there was no sign of people. Everything was as still as death.
"Oh! we have come all this way for nothing," wailed Eagle. "They are all dead here. I shall not find my wife."
"Wait until night, Brother Eagle," answered Coyote. "The dead sleep in the daytime. At night they come out. Let us rest until darkness falls." He threw himself down under a cypress tree, and Eagle lay down beside him.
When the sun had passed into the west, Coyote began to sing. He had sung only a short time, when four men came out of the houses across the lake and got into a canoe. Coyote sang on. The men did not touch the oars, but the boat skimmed over the water to the cypress tree.
Coyote and Eagle got into the canoe. Coyote kept on singing. The boat skimmed back over the water toward the houses. As it neared the shore, they heard music and drumming and dancing.
"What a good time the dead must have!" said Coyote. "I shall be glad to see them and their houses."
"You must not enter those houses," cautioned the four men in the boat. "You must not look at the people. This is a sacred place."
