Stories of the Fourth Night
The Story of the Gambler’s War
And after this, for a long time, there was peace toward the Apaches, but it happened, once, that two brothers of the country went to gamble with the Awup, playing the game called waw-pah-tee in which the gamblers guess in which piece of cane a little ball is hidden.
And one of the brothers, after losing all his goods, bet his brother and lost him, and then bet the different parts of his own body, leaving his heart to the last, and finally wagered his heart against all his previous bets, saying it was worth more than they, and hoping so to recover all, but he lost that also.
And when the game was ended the Apaches killed his brother, but allowed him to walk away, and he returned to his own land.
But all the way he would see his brother’s tracks, and whenever he stopped to camp he would see his brother’s body, where it lay, and how he looked, lying there dead; and when he got home he felt so sad he cried aloud, but no one paid any attention to him.
And when he got home his folks gave him food to eat, and water to drink, but he would neither eat nor drink, feeling so sad about his brother, and he took nothing for four days.
But on the fifth day he went out and sought the cool shade of trees to forget his brother, and went upon the hills and stood there, but he could not forget; and then, in coming down, he fell down and went to sleep.
And in his sleep his brother came to him, and he seemed to know him, but when he tried to put his arms around his brother he woke up and found he was not there.