CHARACTERS
| Máidikdak | Snowbird |
| Wus | Fox |
Máidikdak and her two daughters lived in the south. The old woman knew that five chiefs lived in the north, with their father, who was a chief, too. She wanted her daughters to marry those five brothers, so she made them ready for the road. To one daughter she gave a basket of food; to the other beads, nice shells, and porcupine quills.
When the girls were ready to start, she said: “If you see a man coming from the east, you will know he is Wus. Don’t stop to talk to him. He is a powerful man; he can do any thing he likes. If he gets mad, he will turn you into an animal or a bird. Don’t go on the west side of the lake. Follow the trail on the east side.”
When the girls came to the lake, the west side looked nicer, the trail was brighter. The elder sister wanted to follow it, but the younger sister said: “Our mother told us not to go on that side.”
The elder sister said: “You can follow the other trail if you want to. I am going on this trail; it is nicer.”
The younger girl didn’t want to be alone, so she went with her sister. When they passed Wus’ house she was frightened. She said: “I feel as if somebody were looking at me.”
“I feel that way too,” said the elder sister. Presently they saw a young man coming toward them.
“What nice girls those are,” thought Wus. When he came up to them, the younger sister said to the elder: “Don’t stop. Go right on. This is the man our mother told us about. Don’t speak to him.” [[126]]
But the elder girl stopped. Wus made her stop. The younger went on a little way, then she turned back; she was afraid to go on alone.
“Where are you going?” asked Wus.
“To the chief’s house,” said the elder sister.
“What chief is there out this way? I am the only chief here. I am the chief of this world.”
“You are not the chief we are going to. That chief never travels around. Our mother told us there was a bad man on this side of the lake. His name is Wus; he doesn’t smell good.”
“I know that man,” said Wus. “He is not bad. He has power and can do anything he wants to.”
“We are not going to stop here,” said the elder sister. “We are going to the chief who lives in the north, and has five sons.”
“Go on, if you want to,” said Wus.
When the girls started, Wus watched them till they went out of sight; he was saying things in his mind. As they traveled, they became old women, with humps on their backs; their bodies shriveled up, there was no flesh on their bones, they could scarcely move; their hair turned white, and their teeth fell out. Their beautiful clothes turned to dirty straw; their strings of beads were twisted bark; their baskets looked old and broken and the roots in them turned to moldy skins; the shells and porcupine quills were bits of bark.
The younger sister said: “We didn’t go the way our mother told us to. That man was Wus; he has done this. If we had gone on the east side of the lake, we shouldn’t have met him. We should have done as our mother told us; she is old, and she knows more than we do.” After a long time, they got to the chief’s house. The five brothers were out hunting. The chief didn’t know what to give the women to eat; he thought they were too old to eat roasted liver (old people’s food). When he gave them some, they pushed it away. They lay down to sleep, and while they were sleeping the five brothers came. They knew Máidikdak’s daughters and knew who had made them old. [[127]]
The youngest brother asked: “Did you give these women anything to eat?”
“I gave them liver,” said the old man, “but they couldn’t eat it; they haven’t any teeth.”
The young man was glad they had come; he sat down and watched them. About midnight they turned to beautiful girls. In the morning, when they woke up, they were old women again.
The chief said to himself: “What kind of a man is my son? Why does he stay by those dirty old women?”
The young women heard his thoughts and they felt badly. At last they crawled up and went out to wash in the river. The elder sister said: “If we swim, maybe it will make us young again.”
They took off their dirty, ragged clothes and old torn moccasins and began to swim. Right away they turned to beautiful girls; their long hair floated on the top of the water. As they swam, they talked and laughed, for they were glad to be young again. They made sport of their father-in-law, and said: “That big chief thought we were old women; he fed us liver!”
The young man heard this and said to his father: “You fed those girls dirty liver. Did you think they were old women?”
The girls kept diving down in the water and coming up, and soon they began to change. They became green-headed ducks, and floated off toward home. The young man felt badly; he didn’t want them to go.
Old Máidikdak heard them coming, and when they were near the house, she said: “My daughters, you didn’t do as I told you. I told you about that bad man. If I hadn’t this would be my fault; now it is yours.” She tried to catch them, but couldn’t. At last she went under the water and caught hold of their legs. She pulled off their feathers and they were girls again.
The next morning the young man said to his father: “I am going to carry my wives’ clothes and beads and porcupine quills to their mother.” [[128]]
When he got to Máidikdak’s house the two sisters were off gathering wood. The old woman saw him sitting on top of the house and she asked: “Who are you?”
“I am one of the five brothers who live in the north.”
“Are you the youngest?”
“Yes, I have brought back your shells and porcupine quills. Wus changed your daughters to ducks.”
“Come in, son-in-law, my daughters have gone for wood.”
The young man was glad. When the girls came, he said: “I have left my father and brothers. I will live here now.” Ningádaniak.[1] [[129]]