WUS KUMUSH AND TSMUK

[Contents]WUS KUMUSH AND TSMUKCHARACTERSKaiutoisWolfWus KumushNátcaktcókaskĭtWuswelékgăsWus’ Old WomanTsmukDarknessOld man Tsmuk and his wife had three sons and one daughter. The daughter was always thinking about Wus and singing about him.Wus heard her, but he didn’t know how to get to her, for everywhere around Tsmuk’s place it was dark. He tried in all directions, but couldn’t get there. He listened to the girl’s song. At last he thought: “I can do anything I want to; I am Wus. I will make a place where that girl will come, and I can see her.” He burned over ground and made it ready for ges.1Then he thought of ges, and it grew there right away.One day, when the three sons of old man Tsmuk were starting off to hunt deer, they asked their sister: “What will you eat while we are gone?”“I have nothing to eat,” said the girl.“Not far from here,” said the brothers, “there is ges growing; you can dig that.” And they told her where the place was.Wus saw her digging roots and singing, and he thought: “How can I get near her without frightening her?” He turned himself into an old woman, put his bow and arrows and quiver into a basket, tied bark around his legs and head, just as an old woman does, and went to the girl. He talked like a woman, spoke kindly, asked her who she was, and where her home was.The girl was tired; she complained because she had to come so far for roots.“Are you very far from home?” asked Wus.[130]“I have to camp one night on the way back,” said the girl. When she started for home, Wus hurried the sun down, made night come quickly, then he said: “Let us sit down and sing songs.”While they were singing, Wus wished her to sleep. She went to sleep right away. Then he built a brush house over her; he worked all night, and in the morning the house was finished. When the girl woke up, she was in a bright, many-colored house, and she wondered where she was. When she remembered, and looked around for the old woman, she saw a handsome young man; his clothes were covered with beads.The next day Tsmuk’s daughter had a child. It was like any child, except that it had fox ears. The mother cried.“Why do you cry?” asked Wus. “Are you sorry to be here? For a long time I have listened to you. When I have been out hunting, I have heard you singing about me. If you don’t like me, why did you sing that song?”“I am not crying about you, I am crying about my baby; I think my father or brothers will kill it.”“They will not kill the baby. I have power; I can do anything; I am Wus,” said the young man.Wus pushed the sun and made it go down quickly. As soon as the woman was asleep, he fixed the baby’s ears, made them like the ears of a person. He did this by thinking hard and wishing them to be that way.Old Tsmuk and his wife were looking for their daughter. They knew that Wus had been trying to find her and they thought he had caught her. They called to her, and listened for her song, but didn’t hear it.Tsmuk’s daughter wanted to go home; she wanted to see her father and mother. Wus knew her thoughts, and he asked: “Why do you think of such things? What I wish for will be. To-morrow you will go home.”The next morning Wus wrapped up the baby and tied it on a board. The child was bright and beautiful. It looked like a rainbow.Old man Tsmuk sent his youngest son to hunt for his sister. When the young man saw her coming, he didn’t know her, she[131]was so beautiful; she was different from what she had been before. He ran into the house, and said: “There is a beautiful woman coming.” When the second brother saw her, he said: “That is our sister.” The woman was alone, except for the baby on her back. When she went into the house, her father asked: “What man have you found? If Wus is your husband, you can’t stay here!”Wus was a long way off, but he heard what the old man said and he was angry. He thought: “I will find out if old Tsmuk is mad at his daughter.” Then he wished the baby to turn to a little fox. When the young woman took the baby off her back, it was like a baby fox. It was covered with hair.“That child smells like a fox!” cried the old man. He snatched it and threw it out of the house. The mother screamed. Wus heard her, and said: “Now I will torment Tsmuk.” That moment Wus’ wife was an old woman. Her youngest brother was so frightened that he lay down and cried. The baby was crying itself to death, but the mother couldn’t do anything; she was bent over and helpless, too old to go out of the house.Wus thought: “Bring in that child!” That minute the young man got up, went out, and brought in the baby and put it by its mother. He said to his sister: “Lie down, and I will cover you up.”Wus thought: “My brother-in-law is going to like me,” and he was glad. He gave his own feelings to the young man.The brother watched his sister, and after a while he saw that she was getting younger; then he said: “Go to the river and swim. Maybe you will be young again. I don’t care if you are old, I love you just the same; but I am sorry for the baby.” He kept the child covered, and it went to sleep. He went to sleep himself, and slept till the middle of the night, then he woke up, but he slept again, and when he woke up the second time it was almost morning. He looked at the baby; it was like a person. He didn’t go to sleep again; he was afraid to; he thought if he did the child would turn into a fox.“Do you know what Wus can do?” asked his sister. “He[132]can do anything. He can make people old in a minute; he can turn them to anything; he can move a house or tear it down by wishing. When I saw Wus, he looked as I do; he was a woman and carried a basket on his back. While I was asleep, he turned to a man and built a house. The house is so bright and has so many colors that it hurts my eyes to look at it. If anything happens to Wus’ child, I think we shall die. When it was thrown out, I got old; now that it is in the house, I am growing young again.”“What are you talking about?” asked Tsmuk. “Old Wus is listening to everything. He listens while he catches mice to eat.”When the brother and sister started to go to Wus’ house, they didn’t tell their father where they were going. Soon they heard Wus blowing on reeds, making music. It was nice and it sounded far off. They followed the music till they came to the house. The brother stood outside; he was afraid to go in.Wus said to the woman: “Why do you let your brother stand outside? Tell him to come and sit here by me.”When the young man went into the house, he couldn’t see, it glittered so; the light was so bright that it hurt his eyes; he had to hold his head down. Wus said: “I know that you like me,” and he called the young man brother-in-law. “Take off your clothes and put on these I give you; then you can look around.”The sister asked: “When do you want to go back to our father and mother?”“In two days I will go,” said the brother.“Will you take blankets and beads with you?”“No,” said the young man, “I shall come back; I don’t like to stay there.”Wus wanted to go to Tsmuk’s house. His brother-in-law said: “I will show you the way; you will get there if I am with you.”They all started; when near the house the young man went ahead. Old Tsmuk spoke cross to him; asked: “Have you been in Wus’ house?” and he called Wus bad names.[133]At last the young man said: “Don’t say such bad things of Wus; if you do, harm will come to you.”“How can Wus harm me?” asked the old man. “I have lived a long time, and nobody has been able to harm me,” and he kept abusing Wus.Old woman Tsmuk cried; she thought Wus was a nice-looking man, and she didn’t want to hear him abused. She spread around mats and blankets, and Wus and his wife went in and sat down.“Why does your mother cry?” asked Wus.Tsmuk heard this and it made him mad. He screamed to his wife: “Put that man off by himself! He smells badly; he will spoil all our seeds and roots!”Wus didn’t listen to his father-in-law. He said: “I wonder if I could find any game if I went hunting?”“My brothers hunt,” said his wife, “but they never catch anything.”Wus didn’t want to hunt; he wanted to torment his father-in-law. As soon as he was a little way from the house, he turned into a fox. One of his brothers-in-law was outside; he saw the fox, and called: “Look! a fox is coming.”Old Tsmuk said: “That is not a fox; that is your brother-in-law. You see what kind of a man he is!” And he scolded the son who had been at Wus’ house.Wus caught a sackful of mice, carried them to the house, and sent his mother-in-law outside to roast them.“What smells so badly?” asked old Tsmuk.“Mother is roasting mice,” said the youngest son.“Are you going to eat mice?” the second brother asked the youngest.“Yes. Are you going to stay with father?”“No,” said the second brother. “I don’t like his way.”“Then you must eat some of those mice.”They ate together. Wus spoke to his father-in-law, but the old man didn’t answer.“Are you going to be mad all the time?” asked Wus.“Yes,” said old Tsmuk. “I don’t want you for a son-in-law. I think you are bad; that you are dirty.”[134]“Why do you think so?”“Because you are not a person; you are not a man.”Wus asked again: “Are you going to be mad all the time?”“Yes. You have no sense. I don’t like you; you smell badly.”Wus asked the third time: “Are you going to be mad all the time?”“Yes. I want you to go to your own place; I hate you.”“In which direction can you see farthest?” asked Wus.“I can see far off in any direction I like.”“What do you see when you look straight east?” asked Wus.Old Tsmuk looked toward the east. That moment Wus made a great wind come from the west. The old man’s body melted like snow, and right away he turned into a black cloud, and the wind blew him off toward the east. Wus said: “Hereafter, old man, you will have no sense. You will no longer be a person. You will be darkness, and people will sleep when you come; but I shall never sleep when you are here. I shall sleep in the daytime and travel when you come. People will call you Tsmuk, and will do evil when you are around. They will steal, and will kill one another, for you are bad, and will give them bad thoughts. I asked you three times if you were mad, asked you not to be mad.”The son said to his father: “From quarreling with my brother-in-law you are no longer a person. I thought you had power, but you hadn’t. You were calling Wus what you were yourself. I don’t care for you any longer. I like Wus.”Wus said to his brothers-in-law: “You will come to my country and live with me always.” To his wife he said: “I am taking you from Darkness; now you will change feelings. I will give you the water of life. When we get to the house, you must go in first, drink the water you find there, and give some to each one of your brothers and to your mother; it will change your minds. As you travel, go straight ahead; don’t look back. If the wind comes from the east, you must go around it. Old Tsmuk has tried to beat me in many ways; maybe he will try again.”[135]When they got to Wus’ house, the young woman went in and gave water to her mother and to her brothers. As they drank, they seemed to open their eyes, they had good feelings, felt light.Wus said to his wife: “Off on a high mountain I have an old grandmother; her name is Wuswelékgăs; I am going to see her.” When he started, he began to sing. The old woman heard his song, and said: “My grandson is coming.”Wus traveled fast; he went like a spirit, and right away he was there. He thought: “I will cheat her.” Then he said: “Grandmother, I have lost my mind; this world has made me lose it. When I slept, Gäk woke me up, and I hadn’t my mind.”His grandmother said: “I was afraid Tsmuk would kill you.”“No,” said Wus. “I have turned Tsmuk to a cloud and driven him away. But he may try to beat me yet; that is why I came to tell you to take care of yourself.”“How can I take care of myself? I shall be hungry,” said the old woman.“I will show you where there are mice,” said Wus, and he took her to a field where there were lots of them. She was glad, for she would always have plenty to eat.When Wus started home, he began to sing. His wife said: “Wus is coming,” and she pounded roots for him to eat.When Wus got to the house, his brother-in-law asked: “Will you go with me to hunt deer on the mountain?”Wus said: “I always hunt on the flats; I never go to the mountain.”The brother-in-law went to the top of a high mountain, and when night came he camped there. Wus hunted on the flat and came back with plenty of mice. When he got home, his wife had another child. Wus kept awake for five days and five nights; his brother-in-law didn’t come home.Wus’ wife said: “I feel badly. I am afraid something has happened to my brother.”Wus said: “I know which way he went; I will track him.”He started out and soon found his brother-in-law lying under[136]a tree. “What is the matter?” asked Wus. “Why don’t you come home? Your sister feels badly; she thinks that you are lost.”“My toe nails have fallen out,” said the young man; “I was going to stay longer, but I will go with you.”Wus knew that he had been thinking about his father, and he felt sorry for him. When they got home, Wus said to his wife: “I am going to a swimming pond on the mountain; maybe I will have a good dream about my brother-in-law. Maybe I will find out what is going to happen.”Wus couldn’t forget his brother-in-law; he felt lonesome. He sang all the way up the mountain, then he piled stones and worked till morning. At daylight he fixed a bed of dry grass and lay down and slept. He dreamed that he heard his brother-in-law say: “I am going away from you; I shall never come back. I am going to stay lost.”When Wus woke up, he was crying. He was sorry that he had come to the mountain to dream. When he got home, his wife was painted. She said: “We can eat now; the baby is five days old. You must put red paint on your face.”Wus painted his face, then he sat down and ate. When he got up, he said to his brother-in-law: “While I was on the mountain, I had a dream. I heard you say that you were going away, that you would be a person no longer.”The young man was angry; he scolded Wus for going to the mountain.Wus said: “I will go away myself, then you can stay here; I will change to an animal, but I will keep a little of my mind.” Wus left his wife and children and wandered off,—a fox.The wife cried; the brother-in-law felt ashamed; he scolded her, and said: “Throw the children out; I don’t want them around here.” The mother said: “Wus told me to keep the children.”“I won’t have them here,” said her brother, and he threw them out. The mother screamed. Wus heard her and put his head to the ground to listen. Soon he heard his children coming—they were little foxes. He waited for them, and asked: “What is the trouble?”[137]“Our uncle threw us out.”Wus didn’t know what to do; he thought a while then said: “You must live with my grandmother, old Wuswelékgăs; she will take care of you. I am going to the end of the world. You mustn’t tell her where I am.” He took the children part way, then pointed out the old woman’s house and left them.Old Wuswelékgăs was glad to have the boys, for she was lonesome. “Where is your father?” asked she.“We don’t know,” said the elder boy.She didn’t believe him and she kept asking the same question till at last he said: “My father has lost his mind and gone off. He said that we would never see him again.” Then the boy told her how his father went to a swimming pond on the mountain and had a bad dream, and their uncle threw them out.The old woman felt badly; she asked the earth to give her grandson his mind. She roasted mice for the boys and showed them how to play with bows and arrows. One day, when the younger boy was eating, and was crying for his mother, he got choked with a mouse bone. The grandmother tried to get it out of his throat, but she couldn’t, and the child died.The next day old Wuswelékgăs buried the body and covered it with ashes and stones. That night she begged the earth to give her grandson his mind again. She said: “He is off on a mountain at the edge of the world. You used to have power and strength; now bring back my grandson’s mind.”Wus heard his grandmother’s voice and it gave him some strength. He was only bones; there was no flesh on his body. He started, went a little way, then sat down and rested. He was too weak to go far.Every evening old Wuswelékgăs called: “My grandson, my grandson! where are you now?” And she kept asking the earth to give back his mind. She talked to Wus, and said: “When you were a child you went to the great mountain and it gave you power. Now you must go again, and you will get strength. The mountain will give you your mind.”Wus heard this and grew strong. He went to the top of[138]Wewékeni, and lay there five days and five nights. He thought: “I shall get my mind back here. I am lying on the head of Wewékeni. I am lying where all living things get their mind. I shall get my mind from the head of this mountain.” He was glad. He talked loud, and as he talked he looked toward the west, then toward the east, and told how he suffered. He looked north and then south; he talked all the time, asked for power. His mind came back to him a little at a time. Then he asked in the same way for flesh to come on his body. He heard his grandmother say: “Your little boy is dead. You must come and see the only boy you have.” Before he started, Wus spoke to the mountain, and said: “You are my mountain. I thank you for giving me back my mind.”When the boy saw his father, he felt lonesome.The grandmother asked: “Why are you lonesome?”“I am thinking of my little brother.”“Don’t think of him; think of your father,” said the old woman.The next day Wus remembered his first cousin, Kaiutois. He wanted to see him. His grandmother didn’t want him to go; she said: “Why do you leave me? I thought you would stay here always.”Wus said: “I must go; I don’t feel well here.”“There will be many bad places along the road,” said the old woman. “You will meet Wekómpmas. He carries great stones on his back; he has dug deep holes around his house, and when a man falls into one of them, he throws stones on to him and kills him.”Wus wouldn’t stay; he wasn’t afraid. He started off and soon he met Wekómpmas, a big, old man. In his house he had five yans2hung up; they were his medicine, and he didn’t let any one touch or go near them. Just as Wus met him, Wekómpmas turned and ran home; he felt that some one had touched his medicine.Two men went to Wekómpmas’ house; one was a fool. He talked smart and felt smart, but always did foolish things. Those men saw the yans, and the foolish one said: “Let’s[139]eat them. Old Wekómpmas says they are medicine. I don’t believe it. If we eat them and they make us vomit blood, we shall know.”Wekómpmas’ sister tried to stop them, but couldn’t. As soon as they had eaten one yan, she climbed a tree near the house and drew up her child. Then she listened for her brother.When he came he called out: “Where are my yans? Where are my yans?” He killed the two men, then he scratched his arms with his nails and sucked his own blood. Right away he was a man-eater. He killed all the people around and ate them. Then he started off to find others to kill and eat. As he traveled he looked in at every smoke hole, but he found only empty houses, for everybody had heard of him and had run away. In only one house did he find a living person. In the house at the edge of a village was a woman with but one leg. She sat inside making a basket. When Wekómpmas looked down the smoke hole, he was glad, and said: “She doesn’t see me! Now I will have something to eat!”But Nátcaktcókaskĭt had seen him, for she had an eye on the top of her head. Just as he was going to throw a stone down and kill her, she took her cane, and, with one hop, went far away, turned into a bug as small as a louse, and crawled under the rocks.Wekómpmas tried to get her; he punched the ground with a stick, turned everything over; but Nátcaktcókaskĭt was a medicine woman, and he couldn’t find her.As Wus traveled around, he came to a village where all the people were crying. “Why are you crying?” asked Wus.“There is a terrible man-eater in this country; he destroys whole villages. He will kill and eat us.”“I will meet him,” said Wus. “Give me strings to tie back my hair, and don’t make any noise.”Women gave him bark strings; as he tied his hair back with them, they turned into beaded bands.Old Wekómpmas was coming along through a low place at the foot of a hill. Wus took off his own skin, filled it with grass, and put his mind in the end of the nose. He left his body in a damp place where it wouldn’t dry up, then his skin[140]and mind ran off to meet Wekómpmas. As he got near, the old man put down his stone, and asked: “Where are you going?”“I am just traveling around,” said Wus. “Where are you going?”“I am going around the world,” said the old man, and he began sucking the blood out of his arms, he was so glad that he was going to have something to eat.Wus asked: “What are you doing?”“Come and lie down on this hole,” said Wekómpmas.“Why should I do that?” asked Wus.“It’s a game.”“Will you lie down when I get up?” asked Wus.“Yes.”Wus stretched himself across the hole, and said: “I think you will hit me!”“No, this is the way we are going to play.” The old man raised his stone and struck Wus on the back, but it didn’t hurt him, for his body wasn’t there. He jumped up, and said: “Now lie down here, old man. I am in a hurry; I want to go.”Wekómpmas lay down and Wus struck him a terrible blow, smashed him to pieces, then he said: “Hereafter people will pound roots and dried meat with you. You will no longer be a person; you will be a stone pounder (pestle).”Wus went to his body, sprinkled his skin with water, got it moist and soft, and put it on; then he went to the house of the one-legged woman. He sat on one side of the fire, she sat on the other side. Wus and Nátcaktcókaskĭt were the only people left in that village. She fed him roots and seeds. While he was eating, he cried, for he had no home, and he was thinking where he could go. While he was crying, he fell asleep.The woman fixed him a nice place, then she woke him up and said: “You must sleep here where I have fixed you a place. Why do you think about leaving me? Whoever comes to me can never go away.”Wus said: “When I came here I didn’t think I would find anybody alive.”[141]“What do you think now?” asked the woman.“I think that I shall have to stay here.” Nátcaktcókaskĭt was glad; she said: “We will raise many children.”The next morning Wus said: “I will go to the mountain and bring home some dried deer meat I left there.”“I will go with you,” said the woman.Wus looked at her leg, and asked: “How can you go?”That made her laugh. She said: “I have traveled all my life on one leg. You must go ahead; I always travel alone. As soon as you are on the mountain and ready to pick up the meat, I will be there.”Wus ran all the way. When Nátcaktcókaskĭt thought he was there, she took her cane, and with one hop came down at his side. Wus was scared, but right away he thought: “How shall we carry all this meat?”Nátcaktcókaskĭt knew his thoughts; she said: “You must make a big bundle of the meat; then go home as fast as you can. I will take care of the bundle.”She put the bundle on her back and with one hop was at home.The next morning Wus killed a deer and made himself a cap out of the skin of its head. He looked far off around the country, but he couldn’t see any one. The world seemed empty, and he felt lonesome. He went home, and lay down by the fire.His wife said: “I told you not to think of anything, not to be lonesome. You have been feeling sorry for the world because so many are dead. You are lonesome.”The next day Wus killed five deer and brought them all home on his back. Nátcaktcókaskĭt had made them light. He thought: “Where shall I put them; there is no room in the house.”The woman said: “Put them down; there will be plenty of room.” And there was.That day Nátcaktcókaskĭt had two children, a boy and a girl. She washed them, then took ashes from the fire, and rubbed them. While she rubbed the children they grew fast. In a few days they were running around.[142]Wus made the boy a bow and arrows out of big blades of dried grass. The mother said: “That is not right; there are bad thoughts in those things.”The next day the woman had two more children, and not long after two more. She had children every few days, and always two at a time. Soon the house was full of children. They played together and were happy, but the mother was sorry that their father had made them arrows for playthings. She knew that trouble would come from them; that the children would get to quarreling and fighting.The house was crowded. Wus had to hunt all the time to get meat enough. He scolded, but his wife said: “I told you that we would have many children. If there are too many, you must build another house.”The mother took no care of the children; they grew up by themselves, and grew very fast. Soon they began to quarrel and fight with one another. Wus was unhappy; he wanted to go away from a house where there was nothing but fighting.The woman knew his thoughts; she said: “Why don’t you try to find other people?”Wus was glad to go. When he started, he said: “Hereafter one half of the people in this world will fight with the other half. There will be no peace.”After traveling a long time, Wus came to a village. A fool lived in that village; as soon as he saw Wus, he called out: “There is the father of many children! Look at him!” He followed Wus, and wouldn’t leave him; he kept calling out: “Look at him! Look at him!” At last Wus got mad and slashed him with his knife. The fool screamed and ran around. Every man kept his house closed, no one would let him in. At last he died.Wus said: “I didn’t want to hurt you, but you made me mad.” He was sorry and he sent for Gäk to come and step over the body.Gäk came, stepped five times over the body, and the man stood up. He had a good mind now, and was thankful for what Wus had done.[143]When Wus went home, he found his children quarreling. He lay down without eating. His wife said: “We won’t have any more children; they are bad.”Wus divided the country between his children, gave each twelve of them a place by themselves. To the first twelve he said: “You will stay here, you will be called Modocs.” To the second twelve he said: “You will be near the big mountain and will be called Klamaths.” So he divided his children into tribes, and made each tribe speak a different language. Most of the tribes of the west come from that division of Wus’ family, and Wus named each tribe. To the first twelve children, the Modocs, he said: “You will be the strongest of all the tribes and the greatest warriors.”Wus kept five of the youngest children.He felt badly about his children, he blamed himself. He said: “Somebody must have given me the thought to make those arrows; I did wrong.”Now Wus and Nátcaktcókaskĭt and their five youngest children traveled north toward the end of the world. When they came to a large river Wus saw little fish in the water. “I am hungry,” said he. “I don’t want little fish; I want salmon.” That moment the river was full of salmon. He caught a good many and took their heads off. Then he said to his wife: “Cook these fish a long time, for if we eat them raw, we shall get sick and die. So it will be hereafter; people who eat this kind of fish raw will get thin and die.”Nátcaktcókaskĭt said: “I saw deer tracks near the river; I want some deer meat to eat.” The next morning Wus went to Pakol Keni to hunt deer. Soon he saw a big stag. As he got near it, the stag hallooed like a person. Wus thought: “Who can be ahead of me?” The stag hallooed again. That time Wus heard the words, and he said: “I know who you are; I know all about you. I used to kill your people to get sinews out of their backs and strings out of their legs.”Wus killed the stag and carried it to his camp. When he told his wife that the stag had hallooed at him, she said: “Something bad is going to happen to you.” She was angry at him for killing the deer.[144]Wus wanted her to eat some of the meat, but she wouldn’t and they began to quarrel.Wus said: “Give me one of the children and I will go away.”“No!” screamed the woman, “I will keep them all!” And jumping up, she said: “Hereafter you will be a black crow! You will no longer be a person. You will only be good to tell people where dead things are!”Wus said: “You are like the wind that never stops blowing; you are always talking. Hereafter you will be a Dó-dó-la and sing all the time. You will watch for daylight so you can begin to sing, and you will sing till night comes, and your children will be like you!” And so it was.[145]1A certain root. English name unknown.↑2A vegetable like an onion.↑

CHARACTERSKaiutoisWolfWus KumushNátcaktcókaskĭtWuswelékgăsWus’ Old WomanTsmukDarknessOld man Tsmuk and his wife had three sons and one daughter. The daughter was always thinking about Wus and singing about him.Wus heard her, but he didn’t know how to get to her, for everywhere around Tsmuk’s place it was dark. He tried in all directions, but couldn’t get there. He listened to the girl’s song. At last he thought: “I can do anything I want to; I am Wus. I will make a place where that girl will come, and I can see her.” He burned over ground and made it ready for ges.1Then he thought of ges, and it grew there right away.One day, when the three sons of old man Tsmuk were starting off to hunt deer, they asked their sister: “What will you eat while we are gone?”“I have nothing to eat,” said the girl.“Not far from here,” said the brothers, “there is ges growing; you can dig that.” And they told her where the place was.Wus saw her digging roots and singing, and he thought: “How can I get near her without frightening her?” He turned himself into an old woman, put his bow and arrows and quiver into a basket, tied bark around his legs and head, just as an old woman does, and went to the girl. He talked like a woman, spoke kindly, asked her who she was, and where her home was.The girl was tired; she complained because she had to come so far for roots.“Are you very far from home?” asked Wus.[130]“I have to camp one night on the way back,” said the girl. When she started for home, Wus hurried the sun down, made night come quickly, then he said: “Let us sit down and sing songs.”While they were singing, Wus wished her to sleep. She went to sleep right away. Then he built a brush house over her; he worked all night, and in the morning the house was finished. When the girl woke up, she was in a bright, many-colored house, and she wondered where she was. When she remembered, and looked around for the old woman, she saw a handsome young man; his clothes were covered with beads.The next day Tsmuk’s daughter had a child. It was like any child, except that it had fox ears. The mother cried.“Why do you cry?” asked Wus. “Are you sorry to be here? For a long time I have listened to you. When I have been out hunting, I have heard you singing about me. If you don’t like me, why did you sing that song?”“I am not crying about you, I am crying about my baby; I think my father or brothers will kill it.”“They will not kill the baby. I have power; I can do anything; I am Wus,” said the young man.Wus pushed the sun and made it go down quickly. As soon as the woman was asleep, he fixed the baby’s ears, made them like the ears of a person. He did this by thinking hard and wishing them to be that way.Old Tsmuk and his wife were looking for their daughter. They knew that Wus had been trying to find her and they thought he had caught her. They called to her, and listened for her song, but didn’t hear it.Tsmuk’s daughter wanted to go home; she wanted to see her father and mother. Wus knew her thoughts, and he asked: “Why do you think of such things? What I wish for will be. To-morrow you will go home.”The next morning Wus wrapped up the baby and tied it on a board. The child was bright and beautiful. It looked like a rainbow.Old man Tsmuk sent his youngest son to hunt for his sister. When the young man saw her coming, he didn’t know her, she[131]was so beautiful; she was different from what she had been before. He ran into the house, and said: “There is a beautiful woman coming.” When the second brother saw her, he said: “That is our sister.” The woman was alone, except for the baby on her back. When she went into the house, her father asked: “What man have you found? If Wus is your husband, you can’t stay here!”Wus was a long way off, but he heard what the old man said and he was angry. He thought: “I will find out if old Tsmuk is mad at his daughter.” Then he wished the baby to turn to a little fox. When the young woman took the baby off her back, it was like a baby fox. It was covered with hair.“That child smells like a fox!” cried the old man. He snatched it and threw it out of the house. The mother screamed. Wus heard her, and said: “Now I will torment Tsmuk.” That moment Wus’ wife was an old woman. Her youngest brother was so frightened that he lay down and cried. The baby was crying itself to death, but the mother couldn’t do anything; she was bent over and helpless, too old to go out of the house.Wus thought: “Bring in that child!” That minute the young man got up, went out, and brought in the baby and put it by its mother. He said to his sister: “Lie down, and I will cover you up.”Wus thought: “My brother-in-law is going to like me,” and he was glad. He gave his own feelings to the young man.The brother watched his sister, and after a while he saw that she was getting younger; then he said: “Go to the river and swim. Maybe you will be young again. I don’t care if you are old, I love you just the same; but I am sorry for the baby.” He kept the child covered, and it went to sleep. He went to sleep himself, and slept till the middle of the night, then he woke up, but he slept again, and when he woke up the second time it was almost morning. He looked at the baby; it was like a person. He didn’t go to sleep again; he was afraid to; he thought if he did the child would turn into a fox.“Do you know what Wus can do?” asked his sister. “He[132]can do anything. He can make people old in a minute; he can turn them to anything; he can move a house or tear it down by wishing. When I saw Wus, he looked as I do; he was a woman and carried a basket on his back. While I was asleep, he turned to a man and built a house. The house is so bright and has so many colors that it hurts my eyes to look at it. If anything happens to Wus’ child, I think we shall die. When it was thrown out, I got old; now that it is in the house, I am growing young again.”“What are you talking about?” asked Tsmuk. “Old Wus is listening to everything. He listens while he catches mice to eat.”When the brother and sister started to go to Wus’ house, they didn’t tell their father where they were going. Soon they heard Wus blowing on reeds, making music. It was nice and it sounded far off. They followed the music till they came to the house. The brother stood outside; he was afraid to go in.Wus said to the woman: “Why do you let your brother stand outside? Tell him to come and sit here by me.”When the young man went into the house, he couldn’t see, it glittered so; the light was so bright that it hurt his eyes; he had to hold his head down. Wus said: “I know that you like me,” and he called the young man brother-in-law. “Take off your clothes and put on these I give you; then you can look around.”The sister asked: “When do you want to go back to our father and mother?”“In two days I will go,” said the brother.“Will you take blankets and beads with you?”“No,” said the young man, “I shall come back; I don’t like to stay there.”Wus wanted to go to Tsmuk’s house. His brother-in-law said: “I will show you the way; you will get there if I am with you.”They all started; when near the house the young man went ahead. Old Tsmuk spoke cross to him; asked: “Have you been in Wus’ house?” and he called Wus bad names.[133]At last the young man said: “Don’t say such bad things of Wus; if you do, harm will come to you.”“How can Wus harm me?” asked the old man. “I have lived a long time, and nobody has been able to harm me,” and he kept abusing Wus.Old woman Tsmuk cried; she thought Wus was a nice-looking man, and she didn’t want to hear him abused. She spread around mats and blankets, and Wus and his wife went in and sat down.“Why does your mother cry?” asked Wus.Tsmuk heard this and it made him mad. He screamed to his wife: “Put that man off by himself! He smells badly; he will spoil all our seeds and roots!”Wus didn’t listen to his father-in-law. He said: “I wonder if I could find any game if I went hunting?”“My brothers hunt,” said his wife, “but they never catch anything.”Wus didn’t want to hunt; he wanted to torment his father-in-law. As soon as he was a little way from the house, he turned into a fox. One of his brothers-in-law was outside; he saw the fox, and called: “Look! a fox is coming.”Old Tsmuk said: “That is not a fox; that is your brother-in-law. You see what kind of a man he is!” And he scolded the son who had been at Wus’ house.Wus caught a sackful of mice, carried them to the house, and sent his mother-in-law outside to roast them.“What smells so badly?” asked old Tsmuk.“Mother is roasting mice,” said the youngest son.“Are you going to eat mice?” the second brother asked the youngest.“Yes. Are you going to stay with father?”“No,” said the second brother. “I don’t like his way.”“Then you must eat some of those mice.”They ate together. Wus spoke to his father-in-law, but the old man didn’t answer.“Are you going to be mad all the time?” asked Wus.“Yes,” said old Tsmuk. “I don’t want you for a son-in-law. I think you are bad; that you are dirty.”[134]“Why do you think so?”“Because you are not a person; you are not a man.”Wus asked again: “Are you going to be mad all the time?”“Yes. You have no sense. I don’t like you; you smell badly.”Wus asked the third time: “Are you going to be mad all the time?”“Yes. I want you to go to your own place; I hate you.”“In which direction can you see farthest?” asked Wus.“I can see far off in any direction I like.”“What do you see when you look straight east?” asked Wus.Old Tsmuk looked toward the east. That moment Wus made a great wind come from the west. The old man’s body melted like snow, and right away he turned into a black cloud, and the wind blew him off toward the east. Wus said: “Hereafter, old man, you will have no sense. You will no longer be a person. You will be darkness, and people will sleep when you come; but I shall never sleep when you are here. I shall sleep in the daytime and travel when you come. People will call you Tsmuk, and will do evil when you are around. They will steal, and will kill one another, for you are bad, and will give them bad thoughts. I asked you three times if you were mad, asked you not to be mad.”The son said to his father: “From quarreling with my brother-in-law you are no longer a person. I thought you had power, but you hadn’t. You were calling Wus what you were yourself. I don’t care for you any longer. I like Wus.”Wus said to his brothers-in-law: “You will come to my country and live with me always.” To his wife he said: “I am taking you from Darkness; now you will change feelings. I will give you the water of life. When we get to the house, you must go in first, drink the water you find there, and give some to each one of your brothers and to your mother; it will change your minds. As you travel, go straight ahead; don’t look back. If the wind comes from the east, you must go around it. Old Tsmuk has tried to beat me in many ways; maybe he will try again.”[135]When they got to Wus’ house, the young woman went in and gave water to her mother and to her brothers. As they drank, they seemed to open their eyes, they had good feelings, felt light.Wus said to his wife: “Off on a high mountain I have an old grandmother; her name is Wuswelékgăs; I am going to see her.” When he started, he began to sing. The old woman heard his song, and said: “My grandson is coming.”Wus traveled fast; he went like a spirit, and right away he was there. He thought: “I will cheat her.” Then he said: “Grandmother, I have lost my mind; this world has made me lose it. When I slept, Gäk woke me up, and I hadn’t my mind.”His grandmother said: “I was afraid Tsmuk would kill you.”“No,” said Wus. “I have turned Tsmuk to a cloud and driven him away. But he may try to beat me yet; that is why I came to tell you to take care of yourself.”“How can I take care of myself? I shall be hungry,” said the old woman.“I will show you where there are mice,” said Wus, and he took her to a field where there were lots of them. She was glad, for she would always have plenty to eat.When Wus started home, he began to sing. His wife said: “Wus is coming,” and she pounded roots for him to eat.When Wus got to the house, his brother-in-law asked: “Will you go with me to hunt deer on the mountain?”Wus said: “I always hunt on the flats; I never go to the mountain.”The brother-in-law went to the top of a high mountain, and when night came he camped there. Wus hunted on the flat and came back with plenty of mice. When he got home, his wife had another child. Wus kept awake for five days and five nights; his brother-in-law didn’t come home.Wus’ wife said: “I feel badly. I am afraid something has happened to my brother.”Wus said: “I know which way he went; I will track him.”He started out and soon found his brother-in-law lying under[136]a tree. “What is the matter?” asked Wus. “Why don’t you come home? Your sister feels badly; she thinks that you are lost.”“My toe nails have fallen out,” said the young man; “I was going to stay longer, but I will go with you.”Wus knew that he had been thinking about his father, and he felt sorry for him. When they got home, Wus said to his wife: “I am going to a swimming pond on the mountain; maybe I will have a good dream about my brother-in-law. Maybe I will find out what is going to happen.”Wus couldn’t forget his brother-in-law; he felt lonesome. He sang all the way up the mountain, then he piled stones and worked till morning. At daylight he fixed a bed of dry grass and lay down and slept. He dreamed that he heard his brother-in-law say: “I am going away from you; I shall never come back. I am going to stay lost.”When Wus woke up, he was crying. He was sorry that he had come to the mountain to dream. When he got home, his wife was painted. She said: “We can eat now; the baby is five days old. You must put red paint on your face.”Wus painted his face, then he sat down and ate. When he got up, he said to his brother-in-law: “While I was on the mountain, I had a dream. I heard you say that you were going away, that you would be a person no longer.”The young man was angry; he scolded Wus for going to the mountain.Wus said: “I will go away myself, then you can stay here; I will change to an animal, but I will keep a little of my mind.” Wus left his wife and children and wandered off,—a fox.The wife cried; the brother-in-law felt ashamed; he scolded her, and said: “Throw the children out; I don’t want them around here.” The mother said: “Wus told me to keep the children.”“I won’t have them here,” said her brother, and he threw them out. The mother screamed. Wus heard her and put his head to the ground to listen. Soon he heard his children coming—they were little foxes. He waited for them, and asked: “What is the trouble?”[137]“Our uncle threw us out.”Wus didn’t know what to do; he thought a while then said: “You must live with my grandmother, old Wuswelékgăs; she will take care of you. I am going to the end of the world. You mustn’t tell her where I am.” He took the children part way, then pointed out the old woman’s house and left them.Old Wuswelékgăs was glad to have the boys, for she was lonesome. “Where is your father?” asked she.“We don’t know,” said the elder boy.She didn’t believe him and she kept asking the same question till at last he said: “My father has lost his mind and gone off. He said that we would never see him again.” Then the boy told her how his father went to a swimming pond on the mountain and had a bad dream, and their uncle threw them out.The old woman felt badly; she asked the earth to give her grandson his mind. She roasted mice for the boys and showed them how to play with bows and arrows. One day, when the younger boy was eating, and was crying for his mother, he got choked with a mouse bone. The grandmother tried to get it out of his throat, but she couldn’t, and the child died.The next day old Wuswelékgăs buried the body and covered it with ashes and stones. That night she begged the earth to give her grandson his mind again. She said: “He is off on a mountain at the edge of the world. You used to have power and strength; now bring back my grandson’s mind.”Wus heard his grandmother’s voice and it gave him some strength. He was only bones; there was no flesh on his body. He started, went a little way, then sat down and rested. He was too weak to go far.Every evening old Wuswelékgăs called: “My grandson, my grandson! where are you now?” And she kept asking the earth to give back his mind. She talked to Wus, and said: “When you were a child you went to the great mountain and it gave you power. Now you must go again, and you will get strength. The mountain will give you your mind.”Wus heard this and grew strong. He went to the top of[138]Wewékeni, and lay there five days and five nights. He thought: “I shall get my mind back here. I am lying on the head of Wewékeni. I am lying where all living things get their mind. I shall get my mind from the head of this mountain.” He was glad. He talked loud, and as he talked he looked toward the west, then toward the east, and told how he suffered. He looked north and then south; he talked all the time, asked for power. His mind came back to him a little at a time. Then he asked in the same way for flesh to come on his body. He heard his grandmother say: “Your little boy is dead. You must come and see the only boy you have.” Before he started, Wus spoke to the mountain, and said: “You are my mountain. I thank you for giving me back my mind.”When the boy saw his father, he felt lonesome.The grandmother asked: “Why are you lonesome?”“I am thinking of my little brother.”“Don’t think of him; think of your father,” said the old woman.The next day Wus remembered his first cousin, Kaiutois. He wanted to see him. His grandmother didn’t want him to go; she said: “Why do you leave me? I thought you would stay here always.”Wus said: “I must go; I don’t feel well here.”“There will be many bad places along the road,” said the old woman. “You will meet Wekómpmas. He carries great stones on his back; he has dug deep holes around his house, and when a man falls into one of them, he throws stones on to him and kills him.”Wus wouldn’t stay; he wasn’t afraid. He started off and soon he met Wekómpmas, a big, old man. In his house he had five yans2hung up; they were his medicine, and he didn’t let any one touch or go near them. Just as Wus met him, Wekómpmas turned and ran home; he felt that some one had touched his medicine.Two men went to Wekómpmas’ house; one was a fool. He talked smart and felt smart, but always did foolish things. Those men saw the yans, and the foolish one said: “Let’s[139]eat them. Old Wekómpmas says they are medicine. I don’t believe it. If we eat them and they make us vomit blood, we shall know.”Wekómpmas’ sister tried to stop them, but couldn’t. As soon as they had eaten one yan, she climbed a tree near the house and drew up her child. Then she listened for her brother.When he came he called out: “Where are my yans? Where are my yans?” He killed the two men, then he scratched his arms with his nails and sucked his own blood. Right away he was a man-eater. He killed all the people around and ate them. Then he started off to find others to kill and eat. As he traveled he looked in at every smoke hole, but he found only empty houses, for everybody had heard of him and had run away. In only one house did he find a living person. In the house at the edge of a village was a woman with but one leg. She sat inside making a basket. When Wekómpmas looked down the smoke hole, he was glad, and said: “She doesn’t see me! Now I will have something to eat!”But Nátcaktcókaskĭt had seen him, for she had an eye on the top of her head. Just as he was going to throw a stone down and kill her, she took her cane, and, with one hop, went far away, turned into a bug as small as a louse, and crawled under the rocks.Wekómpmas tried to get her; he punched the ground with a stick, turned everything over; but Nátcaktcókaskĭt was a medicine woman, and he couldn’t find her.As Wus traveled around, he came to a village where all the people were crying. “Why are you crying?” asked Wus.“There is a terrible man-eater in this country; he destroys whole villages. He will kill and eat us.”“I will meet him,” said Wus. “Give me strings to tie back my hair, and don’t make any noise.”Women gave him bark strings; as he tied his hair back with them, they turned into beaded bands.Old Wekómpmas was coming along through a low place at the foot of a hill. Wus took off his own skin, filled it with grass, and put his mind in the end of the nose. He left his body in a damp place where it wouldn’t dry up, then his skin[140]and mind ran off to meet Wekómpmas. As he got near, the old man put down his stone, and asked: “Where are you going?”“I am just traveling around,” said Wus. “Where are you going?”“I am going around the world,” said the old man, and he began sucking the blood out of his arms, he was so glad that he was going to have something to eat.Wus asked: “What are you doing?”“Come and lie down on this hole,” said Wekómpmas.“Why should I do that?” asked Wus.“It’s a game.”“Will you lie down when I get up?” asked Wus.“Yes.”Wus stretched himself across the hole, and said: “I think you will hit me!”“No, this is the way we are going to play.” The old man raised his stone and struck Wus on the back, but it didn’t hurt him, for his body wasn’t there. He jumped up, and said: “Now lie down here, old man. I am in a hurry; I want to go.”Wekómpmas lay down and Wus struck him a terrible blow, smashed him to pieces, then he said: “Hereafter people will pound roots and dried meat with you. You will no longer be a person; you will be a stone pounder (pestle).”Wus went to his body, sprinkled his skin with water, got it moist and soft, and put it on; then he went to the house of the one-legged woman. He sat on one side of the fire, she sat on the other side. Wus and Nátcaktcókaskĭt were the only people left in that village. She fed him roots and seeds. While he was eating, he cried, for he had no home, and he was thinking where he could go. While he was crying, he fell asleep.The woman fixed him a nice place, then she woke him up and said: “You must sleep here where I have fixed you a place. Why do you think about leaving me? Whoever comes to me can never go away.”Wus said: “When I came here I didn’t think I would find anybody alive.”[141]“What do you think now?” asked the woman.“I think that I shall have to stay here.” Nátcaktcókaskĭt was glad; she said: “We will raise many children.”The next morning Wus said: “I will go to the mountain and bring home some dried deer meat I left there.”“I will go with you,” said the woman.Wus looked at her leg, and asked: “How can you go?”That made her laugh. She said: “I have traveled all my life on one leg. You must go ahead; I always travel alone. As soon as you are on the mountain and ready to pick up the meat, I will be there.”Wus ran all the way. When Nátcaktcókaskĭt thought he was there, she took her cane, and with one hop came down at his side. Wus was scared, but right away he thought: “How shall we carry all this meat?”Nátcaktcókaskĭt knew his thoughts; she said: “You must make a big bundle of the meat; then go home as fast as you can. I will take care of the bundle.”She put the bundle on her back and with one hop was at home.The next morning Wus killed a deer and made himself a cap out of the skin of its head. He looked far off around the country, but he couldn’t see any one. The world seemed empty, and he felt lonesome. He went home, and lay down by the fire.His wife said: “I told you not to think of anything, not to be lonesome. You have been feeling sorry for the world because so many are dead. You are lonesome.”The next day Wus killed five deer and brought them all home on his back. Nátcaktcókaskĭt had made them light. He thought: “Where shall I put them; there is no room in the house.”The woman said: “Put them down; there will be plenty of room.” And there was.That day Nátcaktcókaskĭt had two children, a boy and a girl. She washed them, then took ashes from the fire, and rubbed them. While she rubbed the children they grew fast. In a few days they were running around.[142]Wus made the boy a bow and arrows out of big blades of dried grass. The mother said: “That is not right; there are bad thoughts in those things.”The next day the woman had two more children, and not long after two more. She had children every few days, and always two at a time. Soon the house was full of children. They played together and were happy, but the mother was sorry that their father had made them arrows for playthings. She knew that trouble would come from them; that the children would get to quarreling and fighting.The house was crowded. Wus had to hunt all the time to get meat enough. He scolded, but his wife said: “I told you that we would have many children. If there are too many, you must build another house.”The mother took no care of the children; they grew up by themselves, and grew very fast. Soon they began to quarrel and fight with one another. Wus was unhappy; he wanted to go away from a house where there was nothing but fighting.The woman knew his thoughts; she said: “Why don’t you try to find other people?”Wus was glad to go. When he started, he said: “Hereafter one half of the people in this world will fight with the other half. There will be no peace.”After traveling a long time, Wus came to a village. A fool lived in that village; as soon as he saw Wus, he called out: “There is the father of many children! Look at him!” He followed Wus, and wouldn’t leave him; he kept calling out: “Look at him! Look at him!” At last Wus got mad and slashed him with his knife. The fool screamed and ran around. Every man kept his house closed, no one would let him in. At last he died.Wus said: “I didn’t want to hurt you, but you made me mad.” He was sorry and he sent for Gäk to come and step over the body.Gäk came, stepped five times over the body, and the man stood up. He had a good mind now, and was thankful for what Wus had done.[143]When Wus went home, he found his children quarreling. He lay down without eating. His wife said: “We won’t have any more children; they are bad.”Wus divided the country between his children, gave each twelve of them a place by themselves. To the first twelve he said: “You will stay here, you will be called Modocs.” To the second twelve he said: “You will be near the big mountain and will be called Klamaths.” So he divided his children into tribes, and made each tribe speak a different language. Most of the tribes of the west come from that division of Wus’ family, and Wus named each tribe. To the first twelve children, the Modocs, he said: “You will be the strongest of all the tribes and the greatest warriors.”Wus kept five of the youngest children.He felt badly about his children, he blamed himself. He said: “Somebody must have given me the thought to make those arrows; I did wrong.”Now Wus and Nátcaktcókaskĭt and their five youngest children traveled north toward the end of the world. When they came to a large river Wus saw little fish in the water. “I am hungry,” said he. “I don’t want little fish; I want salmon.” That moment the river was full of salmon. He caught a good many and took their heads off. Then he said to his wife: “Cook these fish a long time, for if we eat them raw, we shall get sick and die. So it will be hereafter; people who eat this kind of fish raw will get thin and die.”Nátcaktcókaskĭt said: “I saw deer tracks near the river; I want some deer meat to eat.” The next morning Wus went to Pakol Keni to hunt deer. Soon he saw a big stag. As he got near it, the stag hallooed like a person. Wus thought: “Who can be ahead of me?” The stag hallooed again. That time Wus heard the words, and he said: “I know who you are; I know all about you. I used to kill your people to get sinews out of their backs and strings out of their legs.”Wus killed the stag and carried it to his camp. When he told his wife that the stag had hallooed at him, she said: “Something bad is going to happen to you.” She was angry at him for killing the deer.[144]Wus wanted her to eat some of the meat, but she wouldn’t and they began to quarrel.Wus said: “Give me one of the children and I will go away.”“No!” screamed the woman, “I will keep them all!” And jumping up, she said: “Hereafter you will be a black crow! You will no longer be a person. You will only be good to tell people where dead things are!”Wus said: “You are like the wind that never stops blowing; you are always talking. Hereafter you will be a Dó-dó-la and sing all the time. You will watch for daylight so you can begin to sing, and you will sing till night comes, and your children will be like you!” And so it was.[145]

CHARACTERSKaiutoisWolfWus KumushNátcaktcókaskĭtWuswelékgăsWus’ Old WomanTsmukDarkness

Old man Tsmuk and his wife had three sons and one daughter. The daughter was always thinking about Wus and singing about him.

Wus heard her, but he didn’t know how to get to her, for everywhere around Tsmuk’s place it was dark. He tried in all directions, but couldn’t get there. He listened to the girl’s song. At last he thought: “I can do anything I want to; I am Wus. I will make a place where that girl will come, and I can see her.” He burned over ground and made it ready for ges.1Then he thought of ges, and it grew there right away.

One day, when the three sons of old man Tsmuk were starting off to hunt deer, they asked their sister: “What will you eat while we are gone?”

“I have nothing to eat,” said the girl.

“Not far from here,” said the brothers, “there is ges growing; you can dig that.” And they told her where the place was.

Wus saw her digging roots and singing, and he thought: “How can I get near her without frightening her?” He turned himself into an old woman, put his bow and arrows and quiver into a basket, tied bark around his legs and head, just as an old woman does, and went to the girl. He talked like a woman, spoke kindly, asked her who she was, and where her home was.

The girl was tired; she complained because she had to come so far for roots.

“Are you very far from home?” asked Wus.[130]

“I have to camp one night on the way back,” said the girl. When she started for home, Wus hurried the sun down, made night come quickly, then he said: “Let us sit down and sing songs.”

While they were singing, Wus wished her to sleep. She went to sleep right away. Then he built a brush house over her; he worked all night, and in the morning the house was finished. When the girl woke up, she was in a bright, many-colored house, and she wondered where she was. When she remembered, and looked around for the old woman, she saw a handsome young man; his clothes were covered with beads.

The next day Tsmuk’s daughter had a child. It was like any child, except that it had fox ears. The mother cried.

“Why do you cry?” asked Wus. “Are you sorry to be here? For a long time I have listened to you. When I have been out hunting, I have heard you singing about me. If you don’t like me, why did you sing that song?”

“I am not crying about you, I am crying about my baby; I think my father or brothers will kill it.”

“They will not kill the baby. I have power; I can do anything; I am Wus,” said the young man.

Wus pushed the sun and made it go down quickly. As soon as the woman was asleep, he fixed the baby’s ears, made them like the ears of a person. He did this by thinking hard and wishing them to be that way.

Old Tsmuk and his wife were looking for their daughter. They knew that Wus had been trying to find her and they thought he had caught her. They called to her, and listened for her song, but didn’t hear it.

Tsmuk’s daughter wanted to go home; she wanted to see her father and mother. Wus knew her thoughts, and he asked: “Why do you think of such things? What I wish for will be. To-morrow you will go home.”

The next morning Wus wrapped up the baby and tied it on a board. The child was bright and beautiful. It looked like a rainbow.

Old man Tsmuk sent his youngest son to hunt for his sister. When the young man saw her coming, he didn’t know her, she[131]was so beautiful; she was different from what she had been before. He ran into the house, and said: “There is a beautiful woman coming.” When the second brother saw her, he said: “That is our sister.” The woman was alone, except for the baby on her back. When she went into the house, her father asked: “What man have you found? If Wus is your husband, you can’t stay here!”

Wus was a long way off, but he heard what the old man said and he was angry. He thought: “I will find out if old Tsmuk is mad at his daughter.” Then he wished the baby to turn to a little fox. When the young woman took the baby off her back, it was like a baby fox. It was covered with hair.

“That child smells like a fox!” cried the old man. He snatched it and threw it out of the house. The mother screamed. Wus heard her, and said: “Now I will torment Tsmuk.” That moment Wus’ wife was an old woman. Her youngest brother was so frightened that he lay down and cried. The baby was crying itself to death, but the mother couldn’t do anything; she was bent over and helpless, too old to go out of the house.

Wus thought: “Bring in that child!” That minute the young man got up, went out, and brought in the baby and put it by its mother. He said to his sister: “Lie down, and I will cover you up.”

Wus thought: “My brother-in-law is going to like me,” and he was glad. He gave his own feelings to the young man.

The brother watched his sister, and after a while he saw that she was getting younger; then he said: “Go to the river and swim. Maybe you will be young again. I don’t care if you are old, I love you just the same; but I am sorry for the baby.” He kept the child covered, and it went to sleep. He went to sleep himself, and slept till the middle of the night, then he woke up, but he slept again, and when he woke up the second time it was almost morning. He looked at the baby; it was like a person. He didn’t go to sleep again; he was afraid to; he thought if he did the child would turn into a fox.

“Do you know what Wus can do?” asked his sister. “He[132]can do anything. He can make people old in a minute; he can turn them to anything; he can move a house or tear it down by wishing. When I saw Wus, he looked as I do; he was a woman and carried a basket on his back. While I was asleep, he turned to a man and built a house. The house is so bright and has so many colors that it hurts my eyes to look at it. If anything happens to Wus’ child, I think we shall die. When it was thrown out, I got old; now that it is in the house, I am growing young again.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Tsmuk. “Old Wus is listening to everything. He listens while he catches mice to eat.”

When the brother and sister started to go to Wus’ house, they didn’t tell their father where they were going. Soon they heard Wus blowing on reeds, making music. It was nice and it sounded far off. They followed the music till they came to the house. The brother stood outside; he was afraid to go in.

Wus said to the woman: “Why do you let your brother stand outside? Tell him to come and sit here by me.”

When the young man went into the house, he couldn’t see, it glittered so; the light was so bright that it hurt his eyes; he had to hold his head down. Wus said: “I know that you like me,” and he called the young man brother-in-law. “Take off your clothes and put on these I give you; then you can look around.”

The sister asked: “When do you want to go back to our father and mother?”

“In two days I will go,” said the brother.

“Will you take blankets and beads with you?”

“No,” said the young man, “I shall come back; I don’t like to stay there.”

Wus wanted to go to Tsmuk’s house. His brother-in-law said: “I will show you the way; you will get there if I am with you.”

They all started; when near the house the young man went ahead. Old Tsmuk spoke cross to him; asked: “Have you been in Wus’ house?” and he called Wus bad names.[133]

At last the young man said: “Don’t say such bad things of Wus; if you do, harm will come to you.”

“How can Wus harm me?” asked the old man. “I have lived a long time, and nobody has been able to harm me,” and he kept abusing Wus.

Old woman Tsmuk cried; she thought Wus was a nice-looking man, and she didn’t want to hear him abused. She spread around mats and blankets, and Wus and his wife went in and sat down.

“Why does your mother cry?” asked Wus.

Tsmuk heard this and it made him mad. He screamed to his wife: “Put that man off by himself! He smells badly; he will spoil all our seeds and roots!”

Wus didn’t listen to his father-in-law. He said: “I wonder if I could find any game if I went hunting?”

“My brothers hunt,” said his wife, “but they never catch anything.”

Wus didn’t want to hunt; he wanted to torment his father-in-law. As soon as he was a little way from the house, he turned into a fox. One of his brothers-in-law was outside; he saw the fox, and called: “Look! a fox is coming.”

Old Tsmuk said: “That is not a fox; that is your brother-in-law. You see what kind of a man he is!” And he scolded the son who had been at Wus’ house.

Wus caught a sackful of mice, carried them to the house, and sent his mother-in-law outside to roast them.

“What smells so badly?” asked old Tsmuk.

“Mother is roasting mice,” said the youngest son.

“Are you going to eat mice?” the second brother asked the youngest.

“Yes. Are you going to stay with father?”

“No,” said the second brother. “I don’t like his way.”

“Then you must eat some of those mice.”

They ate together. Wus spoke to his father-in-law, but the old man didn’t answer.

“Are you going to be mad all the time?” asked Wus.

“Yes,” said old Tsmuk. “I don’t want you for a son-in-law. I think you are bad; that you are dirty.”[134]

“Why do you think so?”

“Because you are not a person; you are not a man.”

Wus asked again: “Are you going to be mad all the time?”

“Yes. You have no sense. I don’t like you; you smell badly.”

Wus asked the third time: “Are you going to be mad all the time?”

“Yes. I want you to go to your own place; I hate you.”

“In which direction can you see farthest?” asked Wus.

“I can see far off in any direction I like.”

“What do you see when you look straight east?” asked Wus.

Old Tsmuk looked toward the east. That moment Wus made a great wind come from the west. The old man’s body melted like snow, and right away he turned into a black cloud, and the wind blew him off toward the east. Wus said: “Hereafter, old man, you will have no sense. You will no longer be a person. You will be darkness, and people will sleep when you come; but I shall never sleep when you are here. I shall sleep in the daytime and travel when you come. People will call you Tsmuk, and will do evil when you are around. They will steal, and will kill one another, for you are bad, and will give them bad thoughts. I asked you three times if you were mad, asked you not to be mad.”

The son said to his father: “From quarreling with my brother-in-law you are no longer a person. I thought you had power, but you hadn’t. You were calling Wus what you were yourself. I don’t care for you any longer. I like Wus.”

Wus said to his brothers-in-law: “You will come to my country and live with me always.” To his wife he said: “I am taking you from Darkness; now you will change feelings. I will give you the water of life. When we get to the house, you must go in first, drink the water you find there, and give some to each one of your brothers and to your mother; it will change your minds. As you travel, go straight ahead; don’t look back. If the wind comes from the east, you must go around it. Old Tsmuk has tried to beat me in many ways; maybe he will try again.”[135]

When they got to Wus’ house, the young woman went in and gave water to her mother and to her brothers. As they drank, they seemed to open their eyes, they had good feelings, felt light.

Wus said to his wife: “Off on a high mountain I have an old grandmother; her name is Wuswelékgăs; I am going to see her.” When he started, he began to sing. The old woman heard his song, and said: “My grandson is coming.”

Wus traveled fast; he went like a spirit, and right away he was there. He thought: “I will cheat her.” Then he said: “Grandmother, I have lost my mind; this world has made me lose it. When I slept, Gäk woke me up, and I hadn’t my mind.”

His grandmother said: “I was afraid Tsmuk would kill you.”

“No,” said Wus. “I have turned Tsmuk to a cloud and driven him away. But he may try to beat me yet; that is why I came to tell you to take care of yourself.”

“How can I take care of myself? I shall be hungry,” said the old woman.

“I will show you where there are mice,” said Wus, and he took her to a field where there were lots of them. She was glad, for she would always have plenty to eat.

When Wus started home, he began to sing. His wife said: “Wus is coming,” and she pounded roots for him to eat.

When Wus got to the house, his brother-in-law asked: “Will you go with me to hunt deer on the mountain?”

Wus said: “I always hunt on the flats; I never go to the mountain.”

The brother-in-law went to the top of a high mountain, and when night came he camped there. Wus hunted on the flat and came back with plenty of mice. When he got home, his wife had another child. Wus kept awake for five days and five nights; his brother-in-law didn’t come home.

Wus’ wife said: “I feel badly. I am afraid something has happened to my brother.”

Wus said: “I know which way he went; I will track him.”

He started out and soon found his brother-in-law lying under[136]a tree. “What is the matter?” asked Wus. “Why don’t you come home? Your sister feels badly; she thinks that you are lost.”

“My toe nails have fallen out,” said the young man; “I was going to stay longer, but I will go with you.”

Wus knew that he had been thinking about his father, and he felt sorry for him. When they got home, Wus said to his wife: “I am going to a swimming pond on the mountain; maybe I will have a good dream about my brother-in-law. Maybe I will find out what is going to happen.”

Wus couldn’t forget his brother-in-law; he felt lonesome. He sang all the way up the mountain, then he piled stones and worked till morning. At daylight he fixed a bed of dry grass and lay down and slept. He dreamed that he heard his brother-in-law say: “I am going away from you; I shall never come back. I am going to stay lost.”

When Wus woke up, he was crying. He was sorry that he had come to the mountain to dream. When he got home, his wife was painted. She said: “We can eat now; the baby is five days old. You must put red paint on your face.”

Wus painted his face, then he sat down and ate. When he got up, he said to his brother-in-law: “While I was on the mountain, I had a dream. I heard you say that you were going away, that you would be a person no longer.”

The young man was angry; he scolded Wus for going to the mountain.

Wus said: “I will go away myself, then you can stay here; I will change to an animal, but I will keep a little of my mind.” Wus left his wife and children and wandered off,—a fox.

The wife cried; the brother-in-law felt ashamed; he scolded her, and said: “Throw the children out; I don’t want them around here.” The mother said: “Wus told me to keep the children.”

“I won’t have them here,” said her brother, and he threw them out. The mother screamed. Wus heard her and put his head to the ground to listen. Soon he heard his children coming—they were little foxes. He waited for them, and asked: “What is the trouble?”[137]

“Our uncle threw us out.”

Wus didn’t know what to do; he thought a while then said: “You must live with my grandmother, old Wuswelékgăs; she will take care of you. I am going to the end of the world. You mustn’t tell her where I am.” He took the children part way, then pointed out the old woman’s house and left them.

Old Wuswelékgăs was glad to have the boys, for she was lonesome. “Where is your father?” asked she.

“We don’t know,” said the elder boy.

She didn’t believe him and she kept asking the same question till at last he said: “My father has lost his mind and gone off. He said that we would never see him again.” Then the boy told her how his father went to a swimming pond on the mountain and had a bad dream, and their uncle threw them out.

The old woman felt badly; she asked the earth to give her grandson his mind. She roasted mice for the boys and showed them how to play with bows and arrows. One day, when the younger boy was eating, and was crying for his mother, he got choked with a mouse bone. The grandmother tried to get it out of his throat, but she couldn’t, and the child died.

The next day old Wuswelékgăs buried the body and covered it with ashes and stones. That night she begged the earth to give her grandson his mind again. She said: “He is off on a mountain at the edge of the world. You used to have power and strength; now bring back my grandson’s mind.”

Wus heard his grandmother’s voice and it gave him some strength. He was only bones; there was no flesh on his body. He started, went a little way, then sat down and rested. He was too weak to go far.

Every evening old Wuswelékgăs called: “My grandson, my grandson! where are you now?” And she kept asking the earth to give back his mind. She talked to Wus, and said: “When you were a child you went to the great mountain and it gave you power. Now you must go again, and you will get strength. The mountain will give you your mind.”

Wus heard this and grew strong. He went to the top of[138]Wewékeni, and lay there five days and five nights. He thought: “I shall get my mind back here. I am lying on the head of Wewékeni. I am lying where all living things get their mind. I shall get my mind from the head of this mountain.” He was glad. He talked loud, and as he talked he looked toward the west, then toward the east, and told how he suffered. He looked north and then south; he talked all the time, asked for power. His mind came back to him a little at a time. Then he asked in the same way for flesh to come on his body. He heard his grandmother say: “Your little boy is dead. You must come and see the only boy you have.” Before he started, Wus spoke to the mountain, and said: “You are my mountain. I thank you for giving me back my mind.”

When the boy saw his father, he felt lonesome.

The grandmother asked: “Why are you lonesome?”

“I am thinking of my little brother.”

“Don’t think of him; think of your father,” said the old woman.

The next day Wus remembered his first cousin, Kaiutois. He wanted to see him. His grandmother didn’t want him to go; she said: “Why do you leave me? I thought you would stay here always.”

Wus said: “I must go; I don’t feel well here.”

“There will be many bad places along the road,” said the old woman. “You will meet Wekómpmas. He carries great stones on his back; he has dug deep holes around his house, and when a man falls into one of them, he throws stones on to him and kills him.”

Wus wouldn’t stay; he wasn’t afraid. He started off and soon he met Wekómpmas, a big, old man. In his house he had five yans2hung up; they were his medicine, and he didn’t let any one touch or go near them. Just as Wus met him, Wekómpmas turned and ran home; he felt that some one had touched his medicine.

Two men went to Wekómpmas’ house; one was a fool. He talked smart and felt smart, but always did foolish things. Those men saw the yans, and the foolish one said: “Let’s[139]eat them. Old Wekómpmas says they are medicine. I don’t believe it. If we eat them and they make us vomit blood, we shall know.”

Wekómpmas’ sister tried to stop them, but couldn’t. As soon as they had eaten one yan, she climbed a tree near the house and drew up her child. Then she listened for her brother.

When he came he called out: “Where are my yans? Where are my yans?” He killed the two men, then he scratched his arms with his nails and sucked his own blood. Right away he was a man-eater. He killed all the people around and ate them. Then he started off to find others to kill and eat. As he traveled he looked in at every smoke hole, but he found only empty houses, for everybody had heard of him and had run away. In only one house did he find a living person. In the house at the edge of a village was a woman with but one leg. She sat inside making a basket. When Wekómpmas looked down the smoke hole, he was glad, and said: “She doesn’t see me! Now I will have something to eat!”

But Nátcaktcókaskĭt had seen him, for she had an eye on the top of her head. Just as he was going to throw a stone down and kill her, she took her cane, and, with one hop, went far away, turned into a bug as small as a louse, and crawled under the rocks.

Wekómpmas tried to get her; he punched the ground with a stick, turned everything over; but Nátcaktcókaskĭt was a medicine woman, and he couldn’t find her.

As Wus traveled around, he came to a village where all the people were crying. “Why are you crying?” asked Wus.

“There is a terrible man-eater in this country; he destroys whole villages. He will kill and eat us.”

“I will meet him,” said Wus. “Give me strings to tie back my hair, and don’t make any noise.”

Women gave him bark strings; as he tied his hair back with them, they turned into beaded bands.

Old Wekómpmas was coming along through a low place at the foot of a hill. Wus took off his own skin, filled it with grass, and put his mind in the end of the nose. He left his body in a damp place where it wouldn’t dry up, then his skin[140]and mind ran off to meet Wekómpmas. As he got near, the old man put down his stone, and asked: “Where are you going?”

“I am just traveling around,” said Wus. “Where are you going?”

“I am going around the world,” said the old man, and he began sucking the blood out of his arms, he was so glad that he was going to have something to eat.

Wus asked: “What are you doing?”

“Come and lie down on this hole,” said Wekómpmas.

“Why should I do that?” asked Wus.

“It’s a game.”

“Will you lie down when I get up?” asked Wus.

“Yes.”

Wus stretched himself across the hole, and said: “I think you will hit me!”

“No, this is the way we are going to play.” The old man raised his stone and struck Wus on the back, but it didn’t hurt him, for his body wasn’t there. He jumped up, and said: “Now lie down here, old man. I am in a hurry; I want to go.”

Wekómpmas lay down and Wus struck him a terrible blow, smashed him to pieces, then he said: “Hereafter people will pound roots and dried meat with you. You will no longer be a person; you will be a stone pounder (pestle).”

Wus went to his body, sprinkled his skin with water, got it moist and soft, and put it on; then he went to the house of the one-legged woman. He sat on one side of the fire, she sat on the other side. Wus and Nátcaktcókaskĭt were the only people left in that village. She fed him roots and seeds. While he was eating, he cried, for he had no home, and he was thinking where he could go. While he was crying, he fell asleep.

The woman fixed him a nice place, then she woke him up and said: “You must sleep here where I have fixed you a place. Why do you think about leaving me? Whoever comes to me can never go away.”

Wus said: “When I came here I didn’t think I would find anybody alive.”[141]

“What do you think now?” asked the woman.

“I think that I shall have to stay here.” Nátcaktcókaskĭt was glad; she said: “We will raise many children.”

The next morning Wus said: “I will go to the mountain and bring home some dried deer meat I left there.”

“I will go with you,” said the woman.

Wus looked at her leg, and asked: “How can you go?”

That made her laugh. She said: “I have traveled all my life on one leg. You must go ahead; I always travel alone. As soon as you are on the mountain and ready to pick up the meat, I will be there.”

Wus ran all the way. When Nátcaktcókaskĭt thought he was there, she took her cane, and with one hop came down at his side. Wus was scared, but right away he thought: “How shall we carry all this meat?”

Nátcaktcókaskĭt knew his thoughts; she said: “You must make a big bundle of the meat; then go home as fast as you can. I will take care of the bundle.”

She put the bundle on her back and with one hop was at home.

The next morning Wus killed a deer and made himself a cap out of the skin of its head. He looked far off around the country, but he couldn’t see any one. The world seemed empty, and he felt lonesome. He went home, and lay down by the fire.

His wife said: “I told you not to think of anything, not to be lonesome. You have been feeling sorry for the world because so many are dead. You are lonesome.”

The next day Wus killed five deer and brought them all home on his back. Nátcaktcókaskĭt had made them light. He thought: “Where shall I put them; there is no room in the house.”

The woman said: “Put them down; there will be plenty of room.” And there was.

That day Nátcaktcókaskĭt had two children, a boy and a girl. She washed them, then took ashes from the fire, and rubbed them. While she rubbed the children they grew fast. In a few days they were running around.[142]

Wus made the boy a bow and arrows out of big blades of dried grass. The mother said: “That is not right; there are bad thoughts in those things.”

The next day the woman had two more children, and not long after two more. She had children every few days, and always two at a time. Soon the house was full of children. They played together and were happy, but the mother was sorry that their father had made them arrows for playthings. She knew that trouble would come from them; that the children would get to quarreling and fighting.

The house was crowded. Wus had to hunt all the time to get meat enough. He scolded, but his wife said: “I told you that we would have many children. If there are too many, you must build another house.”

The mother took no care of the children; they grew up by themselves, and grew very fast. Soon they began to quarrel and fight with one another. Wus was unhappy; he wanted to go away from a house where there was nothing but fighting.

The woman knew his thoughts; she said: “Why don’t you try to find other people?”

Wus was glad to go. When he started, he said: “Hereafter one half of the people in this world will fight with the other half. There will be no peace.”

After traveling a long time, Wus came to a village. A fool lived in that village; as soon as he saw Wus, he called out: “There is the father of many children! Look at him!” He followed Wus, and wouldn’t leave him; he kept calling out: “Look at him! Look at him!” At last Wus got mad and slashed him with his knife. The fool screamed and ran around. Every man kept his house closed, no one would let him in. At last he died.

Wus said: “I didn’t want to hurt you, but you made me mad.” He was sorry and he sent for Gäk to come and step over the body.

Gäk came, stepped five times over the body, and the man stood up. He had a good mind now, and was thankful for what Wus had done.[143]

When Wus went home, he found his children quarreling. He lay down without eating. His wife said: “We won’t have any more children; they are bad.”

Wus divided the country between his children, gave each twelve of them a place by themselves. To the first twelve he said: “You will stay here, you will be called Modocs.” To the second twelve he said: “You will be near the big mountain and will be called Klamaths.” So he divided his children into tribes, and made each tribe speak a different language. Most of the tribes of the west come from that division of Wus’ family, and Wus named each tribe. To the first twelve children, the Modocs, he said: “You will be the strongest of all the tribes and the greatest warriors.”

Wus kept five of the youngest children.

He felt badly about his children, he blamed himself. He said: “Somebody must have given me the thought to make those arrows; I did wrong.”

Now Wus and Nátcaktcókaskĭt and their five youngest children traveled north toward the end of the world. When they came to a large river Wus saw little fish in the water. “I am hungry,” said he. “I don’t want little fish; I want salmon.” That moment the river was full of salmon. He caught a good many and took their heads off. Then he said to his wife: “Cook these fish a long time, for if we eat them raw, we shall get sick and die. So it will be hereafter; people who eat this kind of fish raw will get thin and die.”

Nátcaktcókaskĭt said: “I saw deer tracks near the river; I want some deer meat to eat.” The next morning Wus went to Pakol Keni to hunt deer. Soon he saw a big stag. As he got near it, the stag hallooed like a person. Wus thought: “Who can be ahead of me?” The stag hallooed again. That time Wus heard the words, and he said: “I know who you are; I know all about you. I used to kill your people to get sinews out of their backs and strings out of their legs.”

Wus killed the stag and carried it to his camp. When he told his wife that the stag had hallooed at him, she said: “Something bad is going to happen to you.” She was angry at him for killing the deer.[144]

Wus wanted her to eat some of the meat, but she wouldn’t and they began to quarrel.

Wus said: “Give me one of the children and I will go away.”

“No!” screamed the woman, “I will keep them all!” And jumping up, she said: “Hereafter you will be a black crow! You will no longer be a person. You will only be good to tell people where dead things are!”

Wus said: “You are like the wind that never stops blowing; you are always talking. Hereafter you will be a Dó-dó-la and sing all the time. You will watch for daylight so you can begin to sing, and you will sing till night comes, and your children will be like you!” And so it was.[145]

1A certain root. English name unknown.↑2A vegetable like an onion.↑

1A certain root. English name unknown.↑

2A vegetable like an onion.↑

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