[1] When Indians tell this story, they talk down in their throats, to imitate the Näníhläs people. [↑]
THE BRINGING TO LIFE OF THE WUS BROTHERS
CHARACTERS
| Kaiutois | Gray Wolf |
| Wus | Black Fox |
Ten Wus brothers and ten Kaiutois brothers lived together; they were kin. Each man had five daughters, except the youngest Wus brother; he wasn’t married. The Wus brothers had a sister; she was nice-looking, but she had such a long neck that she couldn’t eat meat; she ate the neck bones of deer; ate five at a time. Everybody in the world knew about her.
One day, when the eldest Wus brother was hunting, he took his drill out of his quiver to start a fire. He put the drill on the ground and the next minute it was gone; he couldn’t find it anywhere. That night he said to his brothers: “I was alone all day, but when I put down my fire drill it went away. I hunted everywhere, but I couldn’t find it. That means trouble is coming to us; I don’t think we will live long.”
The next morning when some of the brothers wanted to track deer, the eldest Wus brother said: “We must stay at home to-day. I feel scared about my drill; something bad is going to happen.”
Old woman Kaiutois was sick in a little straw house near the big house where her sons lived. She called to them, and said: “I hear people around in the mountains; I think that they are coming to kill us. They are people from the north. I don’t know what they say, but they are coming nearer and nearer all the time.”