One of the old ones stood up into the morning light and spoke to those who had come back to the river:

"Now we have come again to this place; it is a good thing. My life apart from you is not as strong.

"Yes, I have danced and I have told the stories at my own fire and I have sung to all the six directions.

"But when I am with you, my friends, I know better who it is in me that sings."