“We are sitting in the fire.”
She threw out the wood and coals. She hunted all night but couldn’t find them.
At last awl said: “What are you going to do, old woman? The boys are not to blame. Your daughter was a bad woman; she killed her brothers, and then she wanted to kill her nephews. Your grandsons are a long way off; you can’t catch them. Look at that little coal. Under it is the hole where they went down in the ground.”
The old woman saw the coal, picked it up, found the hole, and started to follow her grandsons.
The boys traveled toward where the sun comes up. They wanted to be servants of Sun, to be of use to him. The first house they came to was on the south side of Tula Lake; Tohós, Wámanik’s wife, lived there; she was their aunt.
Tohós had a great red lump on her forehead. The little boy laughed at her, and said: “That looks like a boil. It don’t look well. I don’t like to see it. People who come hereafter may look as you do.” He took his fire-drill and pressed the swelling downwards. From that time fowls and beasts do not carry their young in their foreheads.
“Oh, my nephew,” said his aunt, “what have you done? Your uncle is a bad man; he will be mad and maybe he will kill you.”
Wámanik was off hunting; when his bowstring broke he knew what had happened at home. He let himself out full length, then made a circle around the world and began to press in trees, rocks, mountains, everything. When he began to press his own house, the elder nephew went on the top of it, lay down, drew his bowstring, snapped it, and sent an arrow into Wámanik’s head and killed him. Then he cut his body into small pieces. Each piece turned to a rock, and the rocks [[108]]made a great mountain. The spirit of Wámanik came out and was a snake. The nephew said: “You will be of no use; only dirty people will eat you.”
When the boys started toward the east, Tohós’ spirit followed them a while, then said: “My nephews, tell me where you are going and when you are coming back.”
“We are not coming back,” said the boys. “It is a lonesome world. We have no father or mother; our aunt has killed them. We don’t want to live here any longer. We shall never come back; we are going to where the sun comes up.” And they went on.