“It isn’t safe to go there in the daytime,” said his brother. “Old Yaukùl, the man who lives there, kills people by twisting their wrists; he has a knife stuck in the ground near the fire, and after he kills a man he cuts him up and burns the pieces. No one ever comes away from his house. We will go there in the night.”
“Don’t go to that bad place,” said the little boy.
“If I go, maybe I can kill that man; I don’t think he has the power to live always.”
The elder brother gathered the strongest wood he could find and made bones of it. He put the bones into his brother’s wrists and into his own, and outside of those he put bones made of brittle wood. When night came, they went to the valley and climbed to the top of the house. Then they turned themselves into dead coals and dropped through the smoke hole. [[111]]
Yaukùl had two servants, Gäk and Gapni. The old man and Gäk were asleep, but Gapni was awake and he called out: “Something fell in! Something fell in!” They didn’t hear him; they were sound asleep: he had to call to them a good many times. Even if dust fell, Gapni heard it and called out: “Something fell in.” At last they woke up. “What can you see with your little eyes?” asked Gäk.
“I can see everything in the world, and I can count everything.” Gäk hated Gapni.
Yaukùl got a torch and looked around the fire. Gäk wouldn’t look, for he didn’t believe that anything fell in. Gapni kept repeating: “Dwûhélibina!” (Something fell in).
“I can look through the world,” said Gäk; “I know that nothing fell in.”
“I know for myself that something came in,” said Yaukùl. He lighted the fire and hunted. At last the old man was tired; he put his hands on his knife, leaned on it, and rested. Then the elder brother changed into a man and stood in front of him.
“Oh, I am glad you have come!” said Yaukùl. (He thought he would have something to eat.) “Gäk,” said he, “I knew that Gapni didn’t lie; he never lies, he always tells the truth. He can see farther and hear better than you can; he shall be chief.”