Their families too, had been depleted. Of those left behind some had been slain by the cold or famine, while others had wandered away. It was a desolate home, therefore, to which the returning warriors came, like Greece when it was regained by the soldiers after the Trojan War. [Illustration: RETURN OF THE AMMI TO COCOANUT HILL.] Pounder discovered that some one had taken possession of his wife in his absence, or of the woman who most nearly corresponded to such personage, and he immediately slew him, and took her back. The two illegitimate lovers had in his absence driven out many of the other Ammi who had remained at home, and taken possession of what was left in their huts. All this Pounder now took charge of, along with the woman. One of their number had been lost, and did not return for many years. He wandered about the Swamp, visiting its many shores, and meeting, like Ulysses, many strange kinds of apes and other beasts. Long did he search for his home, and many times he came near the edge of the Swamp, in sight of Cocoanut Hill; but a perverse mistake each time drove him farther away. He wandered among thickets and vines, crossed streams and hid in marshes. He lived on roots dug from under the snow, and on fish caught under the ice. He suffered many pains and aches and bruises, still seeking his home. Twice he was chased by the mastodon, and four times he fought with catamounts. The stars seemed to wander from their places so that he could not even recognize the heavens; and when he emerged at last from the Swamp it was to look upon an unknown country. Like the Wandering Jew he found no rest for his feet, but went on forever, never finding what he sought. Climbing banks and trees, and walking over ice and rocks, he yet saw nothing familiar, but always something new; and when at last he came within sight of his dwelling it was found to be under a mountain of ice; and as he started to go south, he turned, with his usual fate, to the north, and the traditions of the Ammi say that he is wandering to this day. CHAPTER XLII. [Illustration] As the cold continued and strengthened, and about all the animals had left the Cocoanut Hill region, the Ammi began to consider whether they also should not migrate. They had resisted the change of climate thus far by building mounds, adding to their clothing, and habitually using fire. (For they had given up their superstition about this element, to whom it long since ceased to be a God, and was now not even an animal.)