"No,"replied Old Woman. "Let’s not do it that way. Let’s put the eyes and mouths in the face like you said, but let’s put them crosswise."
"Well," said the Old Man, "the people will have ten fingers on each hand."
"No, no, no!" Old Woman cried. "That’s way too many. They’d just get in the way. They should have four fingers and one thumb on each hand."
And so the two went on like this until they’d decided everything for how the people would live when they came to the Earth.
"What should we do about life and death?" asked Old Woman. "Should the people live forever,
or are they going to die sometime?"
Old Woman and Old Man had difficulty agreeing about this one. But finally, Old Man said," I’ll tell you what, I’ll throw a buffalo chip in the water. If it floats, the people will die for four days and then come back to life again; if it sinks, they’ll die and stay dead."
So, he threw a buffalo chip into the water, and it floated.
"No,"said Old Woman, "We won’t decide it that way, since buffalo chips always float. I’ll throw this rock into the water. If it floats, the people will die for four days and come back, and if it sinks they will die forever."
So, she threw the rock in the water, and it sank quickly. "There," said she. "It is better for people to die forever. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t feel sorry for each other, and there’d be no sympathy in the world."
"Well," answered Old Man, "let it be that way, then."
After a while, Old Woman had a daughter, who soon became sick and then died. Old Woman was then very sorry that they’d agreed that people should die forever. "Let’s talk this over again!" she pleaded.
"No," answered Old Man, "We’re not changing what we agreed upon."
And so, to this day, when people die, they stay dead.
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