The next day the neighbors’ children returned and demanded more mafi. Intimidated, Mamasilo’s children again allowed them to eat all of the mafi. After the other children left, Mamasilo’s children shut the door and once again asked the bird to refill the pots. And once again the bird refused to make milk unless they opened its cage.

“It is very stuffy up here on this shelf,” the bird told them.

So they turned the milkbird loose for awhile and it made mafi for them. But when it was time to return to the cage, the bird barely let itself be caught again.

The next day, all the children of the village crowded into the hut to lick up the mafi, and son the pots were empty again. This time, when Mamasilo’s children asked the bird to make mafi, it answered firmly: “Not in here. I will make more mafi for you, but not inside the hut. Carry the pots outside into the yard. There I will fill them.” It did, but after fulfilling its promise the bird perched safely on a tree. Whenever the children drew near, it flew to the next tree, and then to the next one. The children cried and begged the milkbird to come back but it flew all the way to the bush and soon disappeared into the thickets.

By then, the children had followed the bird far from home, and they were not sure of the way back. Suddenly a terrible thunderstorm broke out; they had not noticed the clouds coming. The sky grew darker and darker. Then, quite unexpectedly, two mighty talons closed around them and they found themselves soaring up into the air. They were being carried away by a huge bird, whose name was Tlatlasolle. The children cried with fright and they shivered with cold, but the giant bird did not harm them. On the contrary, its wide wings protected them from the rain and the hail. After a long flight, the children were put down, very gently, in a large field of soft grass. There they found a hut with comfortable beds and were soon fast asleep.

At sunrise the next day Tlatlasolle returned and gave them food. They spent the day happily playing in the fields but found that they could not leave the area; the fields were surrounded by mountains on one side and an escarpment on the other.

Every day Tlatlasolle brought the children food and stayed to talk with them, telling them stories and teaching them proverbs and many other things like the names of the plants and fruits on the hills or how to catch animals for food and how to avoid snakes. The children grew prosperously, all the while learning from the big bird.