CHARACTERS
| Gäk | Crow | Ndukis | Hawk | |
| Kiúks | An Indian Doctor | Pakol | Deer | |
| Kumal | Pelican | Wíle | A Fawn | |
| Moi | Squirrel | Wus | Fox |
Gäk was an old man and he was a doctor; his wife was young.
Off in the mountains there was a platform of rocks. Gäk lay on the platform; he was sick. His medicines were the earth and the wind, and he sang to them all the time, trying to get well.
One morning Gäk told his wife (Wíle) that he was going to die, and asked her to call to her mother and father and aunts and uncles and cousins, and tell them to come and see him for the last time.
Wíle stood on the rocks and called: “My mother, my father, my aunts and uncles and cousins, come and see Gäk; he is going to die.”
Her father was away on the mountain, but he heard her and said: “That sounds like my child’s voice.”
Right off Wíle saw hundreds of her people gathering and she called to Gäk: “They are coming! They are coming!”
Gäk got up, turned around, and lay down so there was just room enough for one person to sit on the edge of the rock. Then he said to Wíle: “When they get here, have the fattest one, the one with the black spot on his forehead, sit here by me. I am going to leave him everything I have.”
When they were all standing around Gäk, he said to the one with the spot on his forehead: “I want you to be the last man to bid me good-by.” Then he covered up his head and [[311]]made a sound like groaning. The Pakols waited a long time to see him die. At last they began to say good-by. There was such a crowd that it was sundown when they were through. Then Gäk told the fat Pakol, the one with the spot on his forehead, to say good-by.
Just as Pakol was getting up to go, Gäk kicked him off the rock; he fell over the precipice and was killed. Wíle and all the Pakols were so scared that they ran away. Gäk went down among the rocks and began to eat Pakol’s body.
The Pakols said: “The greatest one of us has been killed,” and they mourned for him. (The Gäk people can never get enough to eat; they feed themselves with both hands.)
Wus was no longer a person, but he could still talk. He came to the ledge of rocks, looking for something to eat. He saw Gäk eating and called out to him: “My brother, how did you get so much meat? How did you get down there among the rocks?”
“I shut my eyes and jumped. Come down and eat with me.”
“I am afraid.”
“Go back a little way, shut your eyes, run to the edge, and jump.”
Wus said, “Eg! Eg!” and ran, but just as he got to the edge of the rocks he opened his eyes and stopped. He did that three times.
Gäk scolded, and said: “You must do as I tell you. If you open your eyes when you jump, you will get killed.”
Wus tried again, then he said: “Oh, my brother, throw me a piece of meat.”
Gäk said: “If you want to eat, you must come down here.”
“Well, this time I will come!”
Wus jumped, but he caught on the bushes, and climbed back.
Gäk said: “It is getting dark. If you don’t come, you will have nothing to eat.”
“I will come this time.”
Wus went over the rock like a feather, but when he was half-way down, he opened his eyes; then he fell and was torn [[312]]to pieces. His head, alive and with open eyes, was far away from the body.
Gäk felt badly; he and Wus had always been good friends. He said to the head: “Wus, I thought you were the strongest person in the world; now you are torn to pieces. You didn’t do as I told you to; you opened your eyes.”
Gäk talked to his medicines, the earth and the wind, then he got his red medicine basket,[1] picked up the pieces of Wus, joined them together and stepped over the body three times. He covered the body with the basket and told Wus to lie still, that the basket would cure him, but he mustn’t get up till he came and took it off. Gäk went back to eating.
At sundown Wus began to kick and to call: “I am well; come and take the basket off!” He called many times. Each time Gäk said: “Lie still a while longer; you needn’t be afraid. There is plenty of meat; we can’t eat it in all night.” At last Gäk took the basket off.
After that Wus and Gäk lived together. The Pakols wanted to kill Gäk, because he had killed their best man. All kinds of people hated him, and wanted to kill him, but when any one got near him he wasn’t Gäk; he turned into something and got away. One morning two small men started to hunt for him; when he knew they were coming, he turned himself into a bird and flew away.
Gäk had a blanket of bright rock (obsidian); he put the blanket around him, turned into a man just like Ndukis, and sat down on a high rock in sight of his enemies. He painted his face white, to make them believe he was Ndukis. His enemies came and looked at him,—a long line of people. All the people that walk, or crawl, or fly in the world were there, and all had good eyes. Each man gave his opinion, and each thought it was Ndukis.
Blaiwas said: “Nobody in the world can see plainer than I can; that is Ndukis.” Old man Moi knew the man was Gäk, but he didn’t want to say so. When they asked him what he [[313]]thought, he said: “You have a wise old man here” (he meant Kumal); “if he doesn’t tell you who that man is, I will.”
Gäk sat perfectly still on the rock. He knew that Kumal was wise, and that he had a blanket made of five kinds of stone. Gäk’s blanket was made of four kinds of stone.
When Kumal came up, the people gave him a place where he could stand and look at the man on the rock. He looked a long time, then said: “How could you be fooled? That is Gäk, the man who killed Pakol. He has painted his face white and made himself look like Ndukis, but don’t you see his large mouth?”
Gäk came down from the rock, took his own form, and began to fight with the crowd. He killed every one who fought with him; some wouldn’t fight, they ran away.
Gäk struck at Kumal’s throat, cut through the old man’s stone blanket, and killed him; he tore his body to pieces, threw the pieces in the water, and said: “You will no longer be a person. You will be a fisher, and live in the water.” The other bodies Gäk turned to rocks, then he went off to the mountains. Wus had been eating the bodies of the men Gäk killed. When the bodies turned to stone, he followed Gäk to the mountains. [[314]]
[1] A medicine basket is made of tckula, a kind of willow, and is painted red. When the basket is not a medicine, it is used as a sieve. The old Indian woman who related this Gäk myth said: “The basket is a good medicine. If a man is wounded, and the basket is put over him, he gets well.” [↑]