Kûlta said: “No, I can’t give it to you; my father told me never to part with it. I had rather give you the woman.”
“Can the paint do anything? Has your father any power? I have power, I can do anything. See, off there is where Blaiwas lives.”
The woman looked, and right away she turned to a common eagle. As she flew off, Wus said: “You will no longer be a person. You will be a bird. The people to come will use your tail feathers to doctor with and to wear for an ornament.” Then he said to Kûlta: “You will no longer be a person. You will be an animal that even a woman can kill. I am Wus; I can do anything.”
When Wus got home, he said to his mother: “When I travel around, I hear Tsmuk’s daughter singing. I am going to find out why she always sings about me. She lives off by the great water. Those people always live by the great water. I shall be gone a long time.”
It took Wus a good many days to make the journey. At last he came to the top of a high mountain, and looking down, he saw Tsmuk’s house. Tsmuk’s daughter saw him, though she was in the house. She said: “Momáltciks (Big Eyes) is coming,—the man who is always after some girl.”
Daytime was night for those people. There were people living near Tsmuk’s house, and when it was growing dark, Wus saw that they were getting ready to dance. He fixed himself up, put blue shells in his hair, and put on a blanket covered with nice beads, then he went down to the flat. [[247]]
When the people saw him coming, they stopped dancing and asked one another: “What strange man is that?”
Pap was there. He knew Wus; he was his cousin. Pap asked: “Why did you come here?”
“I wanted to look around; I got tired of staying at home,” said Wus.
Pap said: “These people will give you one of their young women.”