CHARACTERS
| Gáukos | Moon | Lok | Bear | |
| Kówe | Frog | Weketas | A Small Green Frog | |
| Kûlta | Otter |
Gáukos and Kûlta had a house among the rocks on the east side of Klamath Lake. On the west side of the lake lived the ten Kówe sisters, beautiful little women. Their clothes were covered with beads and porcupine quills. They were powerful women, too; they could do anything they wanted. A Weketas woman lived with the ten sisters. She was big and ugly, and the only thing she could do was to bring people to life.
Gáukos grew lonesome. He was tired of living in the world. Kûlta said: “I will go and tell the ten sisters that you want a wife. With a woman to cook for us, it won’t be lonesome.”
Kûlta went to the ten sisters, and said: “A young man on the east side of the lake wants one of you for a wife, but he don’t know which one.”
Each one of the ten sisters got ready to go; they cooked nice roots and pounded sweet seeds. They put on new moccasins and dresses, pulled their canoe into the water, and started. Weketas had nothing to cook and nothing new to wear. She had on a ragged old cap, and was half naked, but she went to row the canoe. The sisters kept pushing her, and saying: “Row faster, ugly thing! Row faster!”
Gáukos sat on the rocks where he could watch the sisters. When they reached land, they left the canoe, one by one. To the first one Gáukos said: “Not you; another.” To the second sister he said the same, and so on to the last.
Kûlta told them to go back to the canoe; then he said to Gáukos: “Tell me which one you want.” [[82]]
“The one at the end of the canoe.”
“What do you want of that ugly thing?” asked Kûlta. “You should take one of those nice girls.”
“I will take the one I know will be best for me, the one that will live in my heart and always save me.”
“Don’t take that ugly Weketas woman,” said Kûlta.
“I don’t want to live around here,” said Gáukos. “Every night, I see some of the big-mouthed people. They are watching me; they like to eat such men as I am.”
“How can that ugly Weketas woman save you?” asked Kûlta.
“If there should be only a little bit of me left in Lok’s mouth, she would bring me to life,” said Gáukos.
Kûlta was willing now, but the ten sisters wouldn’t let the Weketas woman pass them. She crept along on the edge of the canoe, and each sister pinched her as she passed; they made her arms and legs bleed.
Gáukos wiped the blood off, rubbed her with deer tallow, and gave her a nice blanket. Then he put her in his bosom and started off toward the east. As he left, he said to Kûlta: “You will see me every month; I shall live always and will always travel on the sky.”
To this day Gáukos travels and he always will travel. People can see Weketas, for Gáukos still carries her in his bosom. Sometimes they can see Weketas’ children lying near her. When Súbbas comes, and Gáukos is still in the west, he gets eaten up by the big-mouthed people, but Weketas always brings him to life and will do so just as long as he carries her in his bosom. [[83]]