The little boy told the women to go home, then he sat there alone.
“Why do you sit there so long?” asked Yahyáhaäs. “I wonder if such a little fellow can wrestle. Come and try.” Yahyáhaäs caught hold of the boy and began to throw him up and play with him.
“Why do you make fun of me?” asked the boy. “Wait till you get through.” He caught hold of Yahyáhaäs, twisted his leg, broke it off, and pushed him into the lake.
Then the boy called: “Come out, my people. Come out of the water!”
There was a great noise, then all the men came out of the lake. The boy called to them: “Don’t look back! Don’t look back! If any man looks back, he will die.” As they climbed up the cliff, the boy stood on the edge and said to each one: “Don’t look back. If you do, you will die.” When all were up he followed them and kept calling out: “Don’t look back! Don’t look back!”
Yahyáhaäs came out of the water and screamed to the [[158]]people, “You haven’t thrown me yet! I am standing in the same place. Why do you run away? Come back and throw me!”
The boy said: “Yahyáhaäs is dead; that is his spirit. It will kill us if we look back.” They were far off, but still they heard the call: “Come back and wrestle! Look back and see me! The boy lies; he didn’t throw me. Men don’t run away. Come back!”
The boy said: “Don’t look back!” He talked to the spirit without turning his face toward it. He said: “You will not treat my people in this way again; but you will always live. You will always be on the mountains and by the water; you will walk around by the lakes and rivers; but you will never be a person again.”
Then the boy said to his people: “It is hard work to live in this world; we will be birds and live in the air.” That moment they all became birds. The boy is a medicine bird. Doctors often see him, and he helps them cure sick people.
Yahyáhaäs is a great medicine; if a doctor has him for a medicine, he can cure a dying man. [[159]]