They never had acorns of that kind till then. Nop came first to the basket to eat, and to this day he is fond of acorns. Then Tsihl and Wima and Tichelis and Tsudi and Tsaik went to the basket and ate, and all are fond of acorns now. No matter how many they took from the basket, the acorns were none the less.
Sedit sat back ill-natured; he wanted them to eat all the acorns. Waida Dikit put the basket outside.
Tsihl rose now, went to the place where Patit had spat, and put an empty basket on the ground. He untied a wide strap, or braid of grass, which he wore around his wrist, and held down his hand. Something flowed out of it, like water, till the basket was filled. Then he tied up his wrist again. The basket was full of seeds of sugar pine. Waida Dikit ate of them; then called all to eat. People came and ate all they wanted. The basket was as full as before. Sedit was very angry.
Hau came forward and put down a stone cup. He held his ear over it, scratched the ear, and out came a stream of manzanita berries. These were the first manzanita. No one had ever seen those berries in the world before. Waida Dikit ate a handful of the berries and sat down—said nothing. All the people hurried to eat, crowded around the cup, ate as long as they were able, but could not decrease the berries. Presently Waida Dikit began to itch. He did not know what troubled him. Soon spots came out all over his body—red, yellow, and black. This was because he had eaten the berries. His spirit was afraid of what he had eaten. His spirit did not wish that he should eat berries, they were not his kind of food; and that was why the spots came out on him. It was his spirit’s fear that brought out the spots, and he has been spotted ever since. He ate not because he wished, but because he was master of the house. It was for him to taste everything, or people would think it bad food.
Now Wima came, put down a basket, and untied a white wristband which he wore, held his hand down, and wild plums dropped into the basket and filled it.
This time Waida Dikit sent Tichelis to taste the plums and set out the basket. People ate, but there were as many plums as before.
These different kinds of food were given to the world for the first time then, and this is why we have them now.
Tsaik came to the middle of the sweat-house. He tapped the ground with his nose, and out came a great pile of acorns.
Sedit had eaten as much as he could, and was angry because any was put away. He kept saying to Patkilis, “I don’t like that.”
“Sedit,” answered Patkilis, “I have warned you against talking so much. Don’t you know that after a while all the new kind of people, the people to come, will use food in this way, eat what they want, and put the rest away?”