The one-legged man built a fire. “Now we will wrestle,” said he.
“Why did you build the fire?” asked the boy.
“The one that gets beaten will be thrown into the fire and burned up.”
While Yahyáhaäs was fastening his leg to a rock, the elder boy said to his little brother: “Take our quivers and bows and stand on the north side of the fire with your back toward us. When we begin to wrestle, run as fast as you can and don’t look back, no matter who calls to you. Run till you are on the other side of that high mountain over there and then wait for me. I shall kill this man and burn up his body, but his spirit will follow us as far as we go.”
The two began to wrestle. A good many times Yahyáhaäs swung the boy around and almost killed him, but the boy clung to him, and at last bent him back with a twist and broke his leg off. He threw the leg and the body into the fire, poked the fire up around them, and ran off as fast as he could toward the mountain, where he had told his brother to wait for him.
“Come back and wrestle with me,” called Yahyáhaäs’ [[114]]spirit. “You haven’t thrown me. Come back!” Then he called to the younger brother: “Come back, little boy; I have thrown your big brother into the fire.” The boy didn’t turn. His brother soon overtook him, and they went on together.
“Yahyáhaäs’ spirit will follow as far as we go,” said the elder brother.
They traveled a good many days; one day Yahyáhaäs’ spirit went ahead, then turned and came toward them. The spirit looked exactly as Yahyáhaäs had looked. Yahyáhaäs had a deer on his back. The boys couldn’t turn, for they were always going east.
The spirit stopped on the trail, took the deer off his back and built a fire. When the boys came to the place, they sat down. Yahyáhaäs didn’t offer them meat, but he said: “Let us smoke,” and he gave his pipe to the elder brother. With the first whiff, the pipe broke. “Let me smoke your pipe,” said Yahyáhaäs. When he couldn’t break the pipe by drawing on it, he tried in every other way. At last the boy said: “You sha’n’t break my pipe; it is the only one I have.” He snatched it away from Yahyáhaäs, put it in his pouch, and started to go.
“Stop and wrestle with me,” said the spirit. “Did you meet a man who lives straight west on this road? He is a bad man; he kills every man that passes his house.”