CHARACTERS
| Kûlta | Otter |
| Ilyúyu |
Kûlta’s wife had one grown-up brother, and a number of little brothers and sisters. Her grown-up brother had a pet wolf,—same as people have pet dogs now.—Its name was Ilyúyu Watcagû, and the young man was called by the same name.
When Kûlta’s wife went to visit her father and mother, and carry them the nice things Kûlta had paid for her, her brother wanted to go home with her. She said: “My brother, it is a bad place there. They eat snake heads and frog heads. If you don’t eat with them, maybe they will kill you. There are bad women there, too; they will make fun of you and tease you.” But the young man kept asking her to let him go, and at last she said: “Get some tula straws and roll them up in little balls. When the women give you snake heads to eat, put a ball on the dish; then they can’t hurt you.”
When they got to the house, one of Kûlta’s sisters brought a dish of snake heads and gave it to Ilyúyu. Some of the heads were dry, others were fresh and alive. His sister said: “Put a ball on the plate.” But Ilyúyu was so frightened that he couldn’t move.
The women made fun of him, and said: “He doesn’t call our brother ‘brother-in-law.’ We are as good as he is, but he won’t eat with us.” They took the plate away and said to him: “You came here to peek around and see how we lived; you will be sorry for it. Your head may get home, but your body will be destroyed.”
Kûlta had two sisters. Ilyúyu gave each one of them a nice bone scratcher; then he said: “You needn’t think you won’t [[334]]be sorry, too. Those bones will scratch all the flesh off your body.”
Kûlta’s wife was crying; she gathered up a sackful of nice beads and gave them to her brother; then she gave him a bow and arrow, and he started for home. As he went, he called: “Come, Ilyúyu! Come, Ilyúyu!” and the little wolf followed him. He talked to Ilyúyu, said: “We went to take our sister back to her husband, but now what trouble we are in.” And he began to sing to himself in a crying voice: “We met trouble from going home with our sister, we met trouble from going home with our sister.” After he had gone a little way, he said: “I wonder what is so heavy.” He stopped, took the sack off his back, untied it, and threw away some of the nice beads his sister had given him. Then he called: “Come on, Ilyúyu!”
Ilyúyu cried; he was sorry to have his master lose such beautiful beads.
The young man said: “Come on, Ilyúyu. Don’t cry for the beads. I have plenty of beads at home.” When he had gone a little farther, his pack grew heavy again. He took it off and threw away more of the beads. Ilyúyu picked them up and carried them in his mouth. “Come on, Ilyúyu!” called his master. “Don’t mind those beads; I have plenty of beads at home.”
Soon the young man said: “I wonder what is so heavy.” He threw away his bow and arrows. Ilyúyu cried. He picked up the bow and carried it in his mouth. “Come on, Ilyúyu,” said his master. “Don’t cry, I have another bow at home.” Soon he said: “I wonder what is so heavy.” And he threw away his quiver.
Kûlta’s wife knew what the women were doing to her brother. She took a basket and followed him. When he threw away his quiver, she was there behind him; she picked up the quiver and put it in her basket. She felt badly. She cried hard and thought: “Poor brother, they will kill you.”
The young man said: “There are too many beads on my moccasins; they are so heavy I can hardly step.” He threw away one of the moccasins, and called: “Come on, Ilyúyu!” [[335]](He didn’t see his sister, and Ilyúyu didn’t see her.) Soon he pulled off the other moccasin and threw it away. He threw away his belt. Ilyúyu picked it up and tried to carry it in his mouth. He dragged it a while, then dropped it. After a time the young man said: “What have I got on that is so heavy?” He took off his beaded shirt and threw it away. When Ilyúyu cried, his master called: “Come on, Ilyúyu, I have another shirt at home.” He threw away his beaded leggings; then he was naked. Ilyúyu was crying. “Come on, Ilyúyu,” said his master. Soon he pulled off one arm and threw it away. Ilyúyu tried to drag the arm along with his teeth, but his master called: “Come on, Ilyúyu, come on!” and he left it. His sister put it in her basket. Soon he said: “I wonder what is so heavy.” And he threw away the second arm. He pulled off his legs; then he was only a body and head. He went on a little way, then said: “I wonder what is so heavy.” His body fell off, and he was only a head. He became Núsdilausniyas (Rolling Head) and could travel fast. He crossed a mountain at a bound, then rolled along in the air. He had big eyes and long hair that waved behind him.
When he got to the river near his home, he struck the ground, and said: “Dum! dum!” Then he called in a loud voice: “Mother, come and take me across!” “Where are you?” asked his mother; she couldn’t see him.
“I am here waiting. Come and get me!” When she didn’t come, he got mad, flew across the river and came down in the house: “Dum! dum!” Then he flew at the people, hit them, and killed them.
Ilyúyu was crying; the river was swift and he couldn’t cross. Soon the sister came. She found a canoe, crossed the river, and went to the house. She looked in through the smoke hole and saw the Head eating the body of her mother. She was terribly scared. She ran to the village to tell the people; she knew that after the Head had eaten her father and mother, it would fly to the village and kill everybody there.
The Head felt dust scatter in at the smoke hole, and knew that somebody was on the top of the house. It went out, saw tracks, and followed the woman. When Ilyúyu saw his master, [[336]]just a great bloody Head, he felt so badly and was so afraid that he ran off to the mountains and wandered around, crying all the time.
When the sister told the people that her brother had turned to a man-eater, the two oldest women in the village said to them: “You must paint your faces with the pitch out of cedar trees, and be strong; maybe we can save you.”
The two made a basket as tight and firm as they could. They waxed their hands so they could hold the Head. Then they rowed to the other side of the river and waited; soon they heard the Head coming, with a terrible whizzing and noise. It struck the bank: “Dum! dum!” and called out: “Come and take me over!” When it saw the two old women, it asked: “Why didn’t young people come for me?”
“They are afraid of you,” said one of the old women.
“They must come. I won’t cross with you; you will throw me into the river.”
“No, we won’t. We want to put you in our basket and take you over in the right way, so people in later times won’t make fun of you.”
“How can I look out and see what you are doing?”
“You can look through the cracks in the basket.”
“Will you carry me into your house when you get over?”
“Yes, we will take good care of you.”
At last the Head said: “I’ll go. Take me up carefully.” When they got the Head into the basket, it screamed and tried to get out, said: “I can’t see. Let me out!”
“We are almost over,” said the women. “Keep still; you are all right. Now we are going to get out of the canoe. We are across the river.”
They were only in the middle of the river. They took up the basket and dropped it into the water. It went up and down many times, for the Head was trying hard to get out. When the basket got near the bank, people pushed it away with long poles. After a while it got so heavy with water that it sank.
Then the old women said: “This world wasn’t made for such things as you are. Hereafter you will only show yourself [[337]]to scare doctors; you will be their medicine, and tell them what to do.”
When the Head was drowned, the sister went back to Kûlta’s house. Kûlta was off on the mountains, roaming around; when he saw his wife coming he was glad, and went to meet her. He said: “My sisters were proud of their scratching sticks. They scratched their arms, scratched till all the skin and flesh was off, then they scratched their legs and bodies, scratched till only bones were left, then they died. I was scared, and ran away.”
Kûlta built a big fire and burned up his sister’s bones, and the sacks of dried snake heads and frog heads. When the snakes came to life and tried to get out of the fire Kûlta and his wife pushed them in, but they couldn’t watch all of them; some got away and ran off among the rocks, and that is why there are so many snakes in the world now.
When the fire had burned down, and only ashes were left, Kûlta said: “I can’t stay here where my sisters died. I will make a house south of here, by the river.”
While the woman was poking in the ashes, a big rattlesnake sprang at her. Kûlta heard the snake rattle. He struck it with a long pole, and it ran away. Then the woman began to vomit up all kinds of terrible stuff, pieces of snake skin and fish skin, and pieces of snake heads. Kûlta said: “This is always the way when women eat snake heads, and such things, but with men it is different.”
When the woman was through vomiting, she found the snake and killed it. She said: “Hereafter, you will have no power. You will want to bite people, but you will tell them where you are; you can’t help it. They will kill you with stones but will never eat your head; they will say you are dirty.”
Every day the woman heard little Ilyúyu crying on the mountain. She felt so sorry that Kûlta said: “I will find him and bring him home.” When he got near the place where his brother-in-law’s sack grew heavy and he put it down to throw away some of the beads, he saw Ilyúyu sitting by the trail, but when the little fellow saw Kûlta he ran off, crying like a [[338]]person. Kûlta saw him at the place where his brother-in-law had thrown away his quiver. He called: “Come here, Ilyúyu! Don’t be afraid! Come and go home with me.” But Ilyúyu ran away. Kûlta followed him all day but couldn’t catch him. When he went home, he said to his wife: “To-morrow you must go for Ilyúyu. Maybe he will come when you call him.”
The next morning Kûlta heated stones and his wife sweated. Then she listened. She heard Ilyúyu’s cry and followed the sound, calling all the time: “Ilyúyu, Ilyúyu!” He would stop and wait for her to come up near him, but when she put out her hands to catch him he ran away. She followed him a good many days. When she camped he would come and lie down near her, but when she moved he would go away. She followed him till she was only skin and bones, then she said to him: “I am going home now. If you want to be wild you can. You will kill deer, and people will say, ‘Ilyúyu, Kûlta’s brother-in-law, did that.’ ”
Ilyúyu ran off to the mountains and Kûlta’s wife never heard his cry again. [[339]]