CHARACTERS
| Blaiwas | Eagle | Lok | Bear | |
| Gäk | Crow | Moi | Squirrel | |
| Gapni | Louse | Näníhläs | Bat | |
| Kāhkaas | Stork | Skóŭks | Woodtick | |
| Kaiutois | Wolf | Súbbas | Sun | |
| Kaltsik | Spider | Sukas | ||
| Kéis | Rattlesnake | Tcûskai | Weasel | |
| Kékina | Lizard | Tskel | Mink | |
| Kówe | Frog | Tusasás | Skunk | |
| Kûlta | Otter | Wŏn | Elk | |
| Leméis | Thunder |
Two brothers, Tskel and Tcûskai, lived together not far from Klamath Lake. Tskel’s wife was Skóŭks. Tcûskai was a little fellow. One day when Skóŭks was outside cooking deer meat and was blowing the fire to make it burn, she saw Tcûskai watching her; that made her mad and she threw the meat into the fire. Tskel hit Tcûskai and told him to stay in the house when Skóŭks was cooking; then he said to Skóŭks: “Cook more meat; Tcûskai and I are going to the mountain to hunt for deer. If I kill a big deer, we will camp and stay all night.” Tskel never killed a deer; no matter how many he saw, he always let them get away.
When they got to the mountain, they saw a large deer; Tcûskai killed it, and they camped in sight of a big hole between the rocks. Tskel wouldn’t camp very near the hole, for he was afraid his brother would go into it and get hurt. Tcûskai would go anywhere, he wasn’t afraid of anything.
Tskel cut up the deer; then he and Tcûskai lay down, one on each side of the fire. As soon as Tcûskai was asleep, Gopher came and ran across him, just to tease him. Tcûskai [[289]]woke up and called his brother: “Come here! Come and see this little fellow! I will give him a piece of our meat, and we will catch him.”
Tskel didn’t move; he was asleep. Tcûskai gave Gopher a small piece of meat. He took it and ran off to the rocks, then came back for more, carried that off and came back again. Each time he came Tcûskai gave him a larger piece. At last all the deer meat was gone; then Tcûskai went to Tskel, shook him, and said: “Get up! Get up! This little fellow has carried off all of our meat.”
Tskel didn’t move or say a word. Tcûskai gave Gopher all the roots Tskel had brought from home; then he took off Tskel’s belt and gave it to him. Gopher carried it under the rocks. He gave him Tskel’s deerskin cap and his rabbit-skin blanket.
In the morning when Tskel woke up, the north wind was blowing and he was almost frozen. He asked Tcûskai where the blanket was. Tcûskai said: “Gopher took it.”
“Then you gave it to him,” said Tskel; “Gopher couldn’t unwrap me.”
Tcûskai began to feel cold; he wanted to get into Tskel’s ear, but Tskel was mad, and threw him out. Then he tried to get under Tskel’s arm, but Tskel pushed him away and sat with his arms folded across his breast, for he had no blanket and he was cold.