At sundown Wus began to kick and to call: “I am well; come and take the basket off!” He called many times. Each time Gäk said: “Lie still a while longer; you needn’t be afraid. There is plenty of meat; we can’t eat it in all night.” At last Gäk took the basket off.
After that Wus and Gäk lived together. The Pakols wanted to kill Gäk, because he had killed their best man. All kinds of people hated him, and wanted to kill him, but when any one got near him he wasn’t Gäk; he turned into something and got away. One morning two small men started to hunt for him; when he knew they were coming, he turned himself into a bird and flew away.
Gäk had a blanket of bright rock (obsidian); he put the blanket around him, turned into a man just like Ndukis, and sat down on a high rock in sight of his enemies. He painted his face white, to make them believe he was Ndukis. His enemies came and looked at him,—a long line of people. All the people that walk, or crawl, or fly in the world were there, and all had good eyes. Each man gave his opinion, and each thought it was Ndukis.
Blaiwas said: “Nobody in the world can see plainer than I can; that is Ndukis.” Old man Moi knew the man was Gäk, but he didn’t want to say so. When they asked him what he [[313]]thought, he said: “You have a wise old man here” (he meant Kumal); “if he doesn’t tell you who that man is, I will.”
Gäk sat perfectly still on the rock. He knew that Kumal was wise, and that he had a blanket made of five kinds of stone. Gäk’s blanket was made of four kinds of stone.
When Kumal came up, the people gave him a place where he could stand and look at the man on the rock. He looked a long time, then said: “How could you be fooled? That is Gäk, the man who killed Pakol. He has painted his face white and made himself look like Ndukis, but don’t you see his large mouth?”
Gäk came down from the rock, took his own form, and began to fight with the crowd. He killed every one who fought with him; some wouldn’t fight, they ran away.
Gäk struck at Kumal’s throat, cut through the old man’s stone blanket, and killed him; he tore his body to pieces, threw the pieces in the water, and said: “You will no longer be a person. You will be a fisher, and live in the water.” The other bodies Gäk turned to rocks, then he went off to the mountains. Wus had been eating the bodies of the men Gäk killed. When the bodies turned to stone, he followed Gäk to the mountains. [[314]]
[1] A medicine basket is made of tckula, a kind of willow, and is painted red. When the basket is not a medicine, it is used as a sieve. The old Indian woman who related this Gäk myth said: “The basket is a good medicine. If a man is wounded, and the basket is put over him, he gets well.” [↑]