One day, when the children were grown, Tlatlasolle announced that it was time to return them to their parents. It took them under its wings, where they held tightly to the big feathers. Whoosh! Away they flew up into the air and down from the mountains into the valley. Herdsmen ran terrified when they saw the enormous bird whirring overhead like a thundercloud. Tlatlasolle sang songs for the children as it flew toward their village. At last, they recognized the trees and houses, and there the birds swooped down and alighted in the middle of the village. The people had all run away, of course, but gradually the braver ones came back and asked the children who they were.

“We are Mamasilo’s children,” they responded.

The village people called Mamasilo. And when she came out of her hut, very much aged and sad with loneliness, she could not believe her eyes. But she recognized her children even though they were now quite big.

That night the village chief ordered a feast to celebrate the engagement of his eldest son, who had immediately fallen in love with Mamasilo’s daughter. She looked so big and healthy and well shaped and she had learned so many things during her life in the mountains that the chief decided it would be a good idea to marry them. The big bird Tlatlasolle magically provided all the food for the party. Of course, you can guess how happy Mamasilo and her husband were!

Swayed by their sweet words, the horned man agreed to give his daughters to the hyenamen. But supper was on their minds, not marriage.

The foolish father’s mistake

When anybody asks you to tell a story, tell them: “Tonight.” Never tell stories in the daytime, for that would be very dangerous. Do you now know the story of the man who foolishly agreed to tell a story in broad daylight, and do you know what happened to him? He grew horns, big black horns.

Now this man had two beautiful daughters, and from time to time young men would come to ask for the girls’ hands in marriage. But as soon as they would see the man’s horns, they would burst out in roaring laughter and, shrieking, make remarks to one another such as: “Look, above the ears he is a billy goat!” or “Have you got hooves as well?”