When they got near Leméis’ house, Tskel put on his gopher-skin cap and put little Tcûskai under his arm, where he couldn’t do any mischief. Then he gave Gäk a sharp bone, and said: “When they give you dead men’s meat to eat, make a hole in your throat and let it out; don’t swallow it.”
The five Kaiutois brothers and old man Leméis with his wife and five boys lived in one house. The five Kaiutois lived on one side of the house and old Leméis on the other. When Tskel went to the house, the Kaiutois brothers and Leméis boys were off hunting for deer.
Old Leméis and his wife saw Tskel’s gopher-skin cap and they were so scared that they ran out of the house. They built a fire and began cooking; they were afraid to go inside. The wives and children of the Kaiutois brothers were frightened, too.
Tskel sat in the house with his head down. Tcûskai teased him to let him put the cap on and run out and scare the old man, but Tskel pinched him and told him to keep still where he was, under his arm. Gäk was lying on the ground and looking at Tskel.
Soon old Leméis’ eldest son came home. When he saw his father and mother outside, he asked: “What are you doing out here?”
The old man said: “There is something strange in our house. We can’t stay there. We have never seen anything like it before. It is terrible!”
“What is there stronger than I am?” asked the son. “I have been off killing men. I am not afraid of this thing.”
“You haven’t seen it,” said old Leméis. “You can’t go into the house.”
The young man went to the house. He took one step down the ladder, saw Tskel’s cap, and turned back, screaming so loud that the ground shook. He said to his father, “There is something there stronger than I am; I can’t go in.”
The second brother came home. He saw his father outside and asked: “Why are you out here?”