“Sit behind my head.”
“You might turn your head around and drop me off.”
“Creep into my ear.”
“You might shake your head, and I would fall out.”
“Take hold of my neck and hang on tight.”
“I couldn’t hold on long enough; I should get tired and drop off. Then I would get drowned.”
“I don’t want to leave you here looking at the water. It makes me feel sorry. You must come. Hurry, now, my people have left me; they are far off by this time. Creep into my mouth; I won’t chew you.”
Coltz crept in, then went down and sat right by Wŏn’s heart. [[273]]
When Wŏn got across the river, he felt sharp things sticking into his heart; he forgot that he had let Coltz creep into his mouth. The sharp things hurt worse and worse. He lay down on the ground and died.
Coltz crept out of Wŏn’s mouth and went to hunt for a piece of sharp rock (obsidian) to cut up the body. As he hunted, he talked to himself, said: “I wish I could find something to skin Wŏn with. I’ve nothing to scrape my arrows on.” He said different things, so if any one heard him, they wouldn’t know what he was talking about.