He waited for fish, and at last saw something come slowly from the south. It stopped, and then looked at him. Tulchuherris saw a face and a head with long hair tied in a knot with a band of woodpeckers’ scalps, a long band wound around many times. Tulchuherris wore just such a band, but the scalps were of mountain woodpeckers.
“Ah, my brother-in-law,” called out the person in the water, “let us exchange headdresses.”
“I am sorry for you, my brother-in-law,” said Tulchuherris. “I hate to kill you, but I must, for my father-in-law sent me to kill you.”
“Go ahead, go ahead,” said Winishuyat. “Don’t spare him. Sas says he is a fish. He is Sas’s son, Supchit. You must catch him or suffer.”
Supchit turned, as it were, to go back. Tulchuherris hurled the pole, speared him under the arm, and the point went through to his other side. Supchit rushed toward the east with great force. Tulchuherris held to the spear with one hand, grasped tule grass with the other, used all his strength. Then he let the spear go, and held the strap. Though strong, he could not stop Supchit. He was drawn into the water to his waist, then to his breast, and at last to his chin.
“My brother,” said Winishuyat, “do you wish to drown? Call your gopher”—he had a gopher in his moccasin—“send him to fill up the escapes, to block all the doors to Supchit’s houses.”
Tulchuherris sent his gopher to fill every hole, all Supchit’s doors. Sas was at home now. He heard the great struggle, and said,—
“Oh, Tulchuherris, my son will finish you. This is your last day.”
The gopher stopped every opening, and Supchit went from place to place. Every door was closed. He had to stay. Tulchuherris came out of the water little by little, and pulled till he drew Supchit to the bank, where he died. He carried him home in one hand, as if he had been a small fish.
“My father-in-law,” said Tulchuherris, “I saw no fish except one little trout. I speared and brought home that little trout.”