CHARACTERS
| Kûlta | Otter |
| Ilyúyu |
Kûlta’s wife had one grown-up brother, and a number of little brothers and sisters. Her grown-up brother had a pet wolf,—same as people have pet dogs now.—Its name was Ilyúyu Watcagû, and the young man was called by the same name.
When Kûlta’s wife went to visit her father and mother, and carry them the nice things Kûlta had paid for her, her brother wanted to go home with her. She said: “My brother, it is a bad place there. They eat snake heads and frog heads. If you don’t eat with them, maybe they will kill you. There are bad women there, too; they will make fun of you and tease you.” But the young man kept asking her to let him go, and at last she said: “Get some tula straws and roll them up in little balls. When the women give you snake heads to eat, put a ball on the dish; then they can’t hurt you.”
When they got to the house, one of Kûlta’s sisters brought a dish of snake heads and gave it to Ilyúyu. Some of the heads were dry, others were fresh and alive. His sister said: “Put a ball on the plate.” But Ilyúyu was so frightened that he couldn’t move.
The women made fun of him, and said: “He doesn’t call our brother ‘brother-in-law.’ We are as good as he is, but he won’t eat with us.” They took the plate away and said to him: “You came here to peek around and see how we lived; you will be sorry for it. Your head may get home, but your body will be destroyed.”
Kûlta had two sisters. Ilyúyu gave each one of them a nice bone scratcher; then he said: “You needn’t think you won’t [[334]]be sorry, too. Those bones will scratch all the flesh off your body.”
Kûlta’s wife was crying; she gathered up a sackful of nice beads and gave them to her brother; then she gave him a bow and arrow, and he started for home. As he went, he called: “Come, Ilyúyu! Come, Ilyúyu!” and the little wolf followed him. He talked to Ilyúyu, said: “We went to take our sister back to her husband, but now what trouble we are in.” And he began to sing to himself in a crying voice: “We met trouble from going home with our sister, we met trouble from going home with our sister.” After he had gone a little way, he said: “I wonder what is so heavy.” He stopped, took the sack off his back, untied it, and threw away some of the nice beads his sister had given him. Then he called: “Come on, Ilyúyu!”
Ilyúyu cried; he was sorry to have his master lose such beautiful beads.
The young man said: “Come on, Ilyúyu. Don’t cry for the beads. I have plenty of beads at home.” When he had gone a little farther, his pack grew heavy again. He took it off and threw away more of the beads. Ilyúyu picked them up and carried them in his mouth. “Come on, Ilyúyu!” called his master. “Don’t mind those beads; I have plenty of beads at home.”