She went for water; he was there by the creek. She stayed out of doors; he did, too. Every time she said: “Go away!” he said: “Go away!” When she cried; he cried. She went to the bushes where the old woman was; he followed.
When the sun was down, Yahyáhaäs rubbed his forehead with his hand and made the woman sleep as if dead. At daylight he began to tickle her; she laughed till the sun was high, laughed till she died. Yahyáhaäs cut off her little finger and put it on a string of fingers he wore around his neck; then he went off to the mountain, where he lived under a great flat rock. He had children under the rocks, but he had no wife.
When the little girl found the men and told them that Yahyáhaäs was going to kill her mother, they left their seeds and went home. They found the woman dead and they began to hunt for Yahyáhaäs to kill him.
Two brothers, Tcûskai and Tskel, lived near a swimming-place on the top of a high mountain. Skóŭks, a Shasta woman, was Tskel’s wife. She went to visit her kin in Shasta, and took her baby with her. Tcûskai was lonesome; he missed the [[150]]baby. One day when he was out on the rocks, he heard people mourning. He wanted to go where they were, but Tskel said: “Stay in the house. Don’t run around everywhere.”
Tcûskai said: “I am watching for Skóŭks; I want to see if she is coming.”
He went high up on the rocks and listened; then he went in and said to his brother: “There are lots of people crying in the village down at the foot of the mountain.”
“Stay in the house,” said Tskel.
“I am going to sit by the smoke hole and watch for Skóŭks,” said Tcûskai. After a while Tskel asked: “Are you there?”
“I’m right here,” said Tcûskai’s voice. Tcûskai was at the foot of the mountain, but the next minute he was in the house and teasing to go and see why people were crying.
Tskel said: “Well, go and find out what the trouble is; then come back. Don’t let them hire you to do anything.”