CHARACTERS

Góshgoise Rabbit (small) Skóla Meadow Lark
Juljulcus Cricket Tsmuk Darkness
Kaudokis Worm Yaukûl Stone People
Lóluk Fire

Five brothers lived together on the east side of Tula Lake; all had the same name, Yaukûl; the youngest was chief. Not far away lived the five Tcpun brothers, kin of the Yaukûls; each brother had one child. The wives of those men had been captured by the Yaukûl brothers, and made servants.

Each day old woman Yaukûl went to the top of her house and watched the trail. Whenever she saw people coming, she called to her sons, who sat by the fire, with long spears stuck in the ground around them. They went out, killed the men, and brought the women home. The brothers never left the house except when they went to kill people.

Each morning old Yaukûl went to every house in the village and sent the women to dig roots; then she watched them from the top of the house, and if a woman ate even one little root, she had her punished.

One morning, the old woman said to her sons: “There is snow on the ground.”

The youngest son said: “Tell the Tcpun brothers to go for rabbits.”

She went to the house of the five brothers, and said: “Go and hunt rabbits; my sons are hungry for meat.”

Four of the Tcpun brothers had been worked so hard that they were only skin and bones. The fifth brother was able to hunt, for while hunting he always stole and ate a rabbit. The brothers had only ragged bark blankets; the old woman took away the rabbit skins. [[170]]

The youngest brother got ready and started; as he went along, he picked up pieces of bark to tie on his feet to keep them from freezing. While hunting he kept saying: “I am hunting as though I were going to eat, but I never eat.”