He was so glad that he ran around and boasted, said: “Tcûskai drank from my daughter’s cap; he is my son-in-law.”
When Tcûskai got to the village he stood in the middle of the road. Blaiwas wanted to lead him into his house; so did all the other chiefs; but he wouldn’t go. At last old Máidikdak asked him to come to her house, and he went.
The next morning Blaiwas asked Tcûskai to run a foot race. All the men were mad at Tcûskai and wanted to kill him. Every man in the village ran against him. When Tcûskai started, he went under the ground. He ran faster than anybody and got to the goal first. One after another the runners [[308]]came till all were there; then they turned and looked back to see where Tcûskai was. Tusasás said: “I wonder when he will get here?” and he made fun of him. Then they saw that Tcûskai was ahead of them.
When they were ready for the race back, Tcûskai said: “Go on! You needn’t wait for me.” He ran under the ground. He came to the goal first and won the race. The second man to come was Blaiwas, the third was Wus. When Kûlta overtook Tusasás, he said: “Little brother, stop and pull this sliver out of my foot with your teeth.” Tusasás stopped, but he couldn’t get the sliver out; men had to come and carry Kûlta home.
Blaiwas said: “Now we will hunt deer.” They drove the deer to the mountain and left Tcûskai alone there. He sent one arrow and killed all the deer on the mountain.
The next morning Máidikdak’s daughter had a little boy; he grew fast and soon was running around.
After a time Tcûskai wanted to see his brother. When he got to Tskel’s house he found that Tskel had a boy larger than his own. The two little boys were like brothers. Tskel asked Tcûskai to go to the lake and get him reeds for arrows. “Get the kind of reeds that have tear-drops on them,” said he. “Those are the best to make arrows.”
Tcûskai went, and looked in every place; when he couldn’t find reeds with tear-drops on them, he put his fingers in his eyes and made tears come; then he dropped them on the reeds. He shed so many tears that his eyelids got swollen; he could hardly see.
When Tcûskai went to the lake, he went along the south side, for old Sukas, a man-eater, who drew people in with his breath and swallowed them, lived on the west side. Going home he made a mistake; he thought the west was the south side,—he couldn’t see well. Soon he met old Sukas.
Sukas said: “Come and wrestle with me, then you can go home.”