Wus divided the country between his children, gave each twelve of them a place by themselves. To the first twelve he said: “You will stay here, you will be called Modocs.” To the second twelve he said: “You will be near the big mountain and will be called Klamaths.” So he divided his children into tribes, and made each tribe speak a different language. Most of the tribes of the west come from that division of Wus’ family, and Wus named each tribe. To the first twelve children, the Modocs, he said: “You will be the strongest of all the tribes and the greatest warriors.”
Wus kept five of the youngest children.
He felt badly about his children, he blamed himself. He said: “Somebody must have given me the thought to make those arrows; I did wrong.”
Now Wus and Nátcaktcókaskĭt and their five youngest children traveled north toward the end of the world. When they came to a large river Wus saw little fish in the water. “I am hungry,” said he. “I don’t want little fish; I want salmon.” That moment the river was full of salmon. He caught a good many and took their heads off. Then he said to his wife: “Cook these fish a long time, for if we eat them raw, we shall get sick and die. So it will be hereafter; people who eat this kind of fish raw will get thin and die.”
Nátcaktcókaskĭt said: “I saw deer tracks near the river; I want some deer meat to eat.” The next morning Wus went to Pakol Keni to hunt deer. Soon he saw a big stag. As he got near it, the stag hallooed like a person. Wus thought: “Who can be ahead of me?” The stag hallooed again. That time Wus heard the words, and he said: “I know who you are; I know all about you. I used to kill your people to get sinews out of their backs and strings out of their legs.”
Wus killed the stag and carried it to his camp. When he told his wife that the stag had hallooed at him, she said: “Something bad is going to happen to you.” She was angry at him for killing the deer. [[144]]
Wus wanted her to eat some of the meat, but she wouldn’t and they began to quarrel.
Wus said: “Give me one of the children and I will go away.”
“No!” screamed the woman, “I will keep them all!” And jumping up, she said: “Hereafter you will be a black crow! You will no longer be a person. You will only be good to tell people where dead things are!”
Wus said: “You are like the wind that never stops blowing; you are always talking. Hereafter you will be a Dó-dó-la and sing all the time. You will watch for daylight so you can begin to sing, and you will sing till night comes, and your children will be like you!” And so it was. [[145]]