Jeremiah Curtin

“ One evening Tsawandi Kamshu hung his bow (an old bow bound around closely with deer sinew) over his bed on the south side of the sweat-house. With this bow he hung an otter-skin quiver full of arrows.
“My grandmother,” said he in the night, “I may not come back to-morrow. If anything happens, the bow and the quiver and all that are with them will fall on the bed. You will know then that some one has killed me. But a child will rise from the spittle which I have left near the head of the bed; a little boy will come up from the ground.” ”

“ Tulchuherris turns old Tichelis into a ground-squirrel at the climax of his perfidy. He changes Hawt, the porter at the dangerous river, into a lamprey eel, whose children are to be eaten by Indians in the future. Old Sas, the false and vain chief in Saskewil, is beaten by his son-in-law, and receives his present form of sun and moon at the end of a long and bitter struggle, in which strength, wit, and keenness use the very last of their resources.
There are cases in which some of the first people are so modified mentally that they are conscious of what has happened within them. ”

“ In the original Algonkin myth the hero to which Hiawatha has been accommodated was a child of the sun and the earth. Whatever his names in the numerous versions found in the twenty-eight languages of this richest and most varied Indian stock of North America, he is always the bounteous benefactor of man, the kindest of all divine powers that have ever appeared upon earth. He is always in reality that warm light which dances and quivers before us in fine weather, and through which every man, beast, reptile, insect, fish, bird, and plant lives and flourishes. ”

“ You, Klak Loimis, will go to Klak Kewilton, be a rattlesnake there, increase and spread everywhere. I will send you, Wima, to Wima Wai Tsarauton; you will be a grizzly bear there. After a while a great family will come from you and spread over all the country. You will be bad; and, Klak, you will be bad, but, Dokos, you will be the worst, always ready to hurt and kill; always angry, always hating your sisters and every one living.
“You, Klak, and you, Wima, when you see people you will bite them, and people will take Dokos to kill you, and Dokos will go into your bodies, and you will die. ”

“ Tsuwalkai Marimi listened, said nothing, made no answer. Tsawandi Kamshu went out the next morning at daybreak, stayed out all that day. At dusk the bow fell with the quiver.
The old woman began to cry. She cried bitterly. “All our people are dead,” said she. “All our people are gone, and I am alone.”
She went around crying; went along the four sides of the house; went to where the bows, arrows, and otter-skin quivers were hanging; cried all that night, cried all the next day.
The Tennas watched for the old woman, watched closely. ”

“ They heard no noise but the whistling of Hohwitina.
“I know that he is asleep now,” said Itchi Watibila.
Four men went to the top of the sweat-house. The watcher was whistling not so loudly, but whistling. Itchi Watibila gave his arrows to Chini Pachuna, and Chini Pachuna gave them to Maibyu, for he had to lift up the girls.
“That man sleeps, I know,” said Itchi Watibila; and he went down slowly along the pillar, reached the bottom, and sat a while to listen. He looked closely at Hohwitina, and saw that he was whistling with his eyes shut. Itchi Watibila laughed to himself. ”

“ Ahalamila came home and talked to the chief and people. “I saw no fire,” said he; “I could not see any, but I will go to a better place the next time and take some one with me. I will go to-morrow night to the top of Wahkalu. Who here has a good head, who a sharp eye to see fire? I want to look for fire to-morrow night from the top of Wahkalu; from that place I will look all around the whole world to find fire.”
“We have a man here,” said the chief, “who can see through a tree, who can see down through the earth to bed rock, who can see through a mountain. ”

“ THE FLIGHT OF TSANUNEWA AND DEFEAT OF HEHKU
It is not so easy to decide who Hehku is. Her most usual, if not her regular and normal, form is that of a horned serpent; but she changes herself into various forms. When angry, or rather when raging, she becomes a Putokya,—that is, a skull person, like Hitchinna. These Putokyas seem to be the cyclone or tremendous wind which moves in a narrow path and makes a clean sweep of everything.
The gambling scene in Jupka’s sweat-house is good. Hehku has easy work till she meets the master, who to his incomparable power adds deceit. ”

“ The great and characteristic event of her life, her departure from the dance with her partner, is of the same scope and meaning as the last journey of Hiawatha when he sails to the west and vanishes in the regions of sunset. The hero of the Algonkin myth must go, he cannot stay; he must vanish in the ruddy glow of evening because he is the warm dancing air of the daytime. He must go whether he will or not. Before he goes, however, he cheers all whom he leaves behind by telling them that another will come from the east to take his place and comfort them. ”

“ Daylight is a personage quite apart from the sun, who is merely that old Sas who fought with Tulchuherris, and who travels through the sky every day from east to west in utter loneliness. He carries that glowing torch which we see as he moves on his way through the sky ”

“ We cannot see them.”
“I do not know,” said Ahalamila, “why we find no deer. I sang and danced last night. I dreamed that I saw deer, that I saw them south of Jigulmatu.”
“You will not see deer or any other game to-day,” said Howichinaipa; “you cannot find deer, no matter how much you sing and dance. You are not able to find deer, but you have a nice wife. She is very pretty.” ”

“ Demauna caught him in his arms. “Well done, my brother!” said he. All the rest called him brother.
“Let me have him,” said Ahalamila.
“No,” answered Demauna; “I will keep him myself.”
They asked the old woman where she had found Ilhataina. She would not tell.
“Will you sweat?” asked Ilhataina.
“Yes,” said all the people.
“I will bring wood,” said he.
When he ran out, the sweat-house danced in its place. All thought he was too small to carry wood, but when he snatched a tall fir the earth trembled. When he touched a big sugar-pine, he crushed it. ”

“ No man would lend his flute to any one else in the world for any price. All were looking toward the spot whence the music came. In the light they saw a man lying on his back with his arms across his breast, but they could not see that he was doing anything. He had no flute, he made no motion with his mouth, for he fingered his sides as he would a flute, and made the music by drawing in air through his nostrils, and sending it out through the holes in his sides.
Tsudi held up Waida Werris’s single hair, and people watched Hawt to see how he made the beautiful music. ”

“ When Klabus had covered all the rocks with good earth, Olelbis told him to rest.
“Go west and tell Yilahl to help you,” said Olelbis to Klabus the next morning, after he had rested. “Tell him to work with you, fixing the earth which you have thrown down. Go, both of you; make mountains, hills, and level country; arrange everything.”
No fire was visible anywhere; every bit had been quenched by the flood which came in after Lutchi propped up the sky. Yilahl came out into this world below from under the edge of the sky in the west, and Klabus came out from under it in the east. ”

“ Tulchuherris stood outside, crying over the bones of his people. When he had cried enough, he went in. Old Sas’s wife was sitting on the east side of the door and his daughters on the west. When they saw Tulchuherris, the girls spread a mat, sat on it, and told him to sit down between them.
“Now, my brother,” said Winishuyat, “be careful of that old woman; many of our people have been killed by her. If they were not killed outside, she turned and looked at them, and they fell dead when they saw her eyes.” ”

“ Matsklila was so sorry for this last one that he threw away bow and arrows and fell to the ground crying bitterly. Seeing this, Chikpina picked up a rock and beat Matsklila’s brains out. Wirula on Kedila’s side killed Chikpina, and there were only two left,—Chichepa, the last of Jewinna’s men, and Wirula, the last on Kedila’s side.
“Now,” said Wirula, “we have fought enough. You are alone. Go home and tell the women that your people are all killed. I am alone. I will go home and say that all our people are dead.” ”

“ What kind of a Hlahi is Kopus? He is here five days [Pg 56] and nights and can tell nothing, knows nothing. If you wish to learn something, bring a Hlahi who has knowledge of water.”
“This old Kopus knows nothing of water,” said Toko. “Old Kopus is a good Hlahi for acorns and for the Tsudi and Kaisus people; that is all he is good for. I know this Kopus well. Get a Hlahi who knows more than he does.”
“You bola herises tell us,” said Olelbis, “who is a good Hlahi for water, and we will get him. Look at my children; they are almost dying of thirst. Tell us where their mother, Mem Loimis, is.” ”

“ Now Olelbis called Lutchi and Sutunut, and said: “You, Lutchi, go north, pry up the sky and prop it; here is a sky pole and a sky prop.” Turning to Sutunut, he plucked a feather from each of his wings and said: “Go to Kahit in Waiken Pom Pui Humok Pom; tell him to come south with Mem Loimis. She lives not far from him. Her house is in the ground. And tell him to blow his whistle with all his breath. Put these two feathers on his cheeks just in front of his ears.”
Lutchi went quickly. No one could travel as fast as he. He reached the sky on the north, raised and propped it. ”