Tskel knew what Tcûskai had done, and that he couldn’t find his way home. He let him run around for a long time, then he pointed his flint knife toward the east, and cut a hole in the darkness to let light in.
It is because Tcûskai was running around so long in the dark that nights are so long and dark in winter time. [[85]]
WITSDUK
CHARACTERS
| Tcutûk | Rock Squirrel |
| Witsduk | Snow that the Wind Blows and Drifts |
| Wus | Fox |
When Witsduk was a person, her home was in the Modoc country; she and her family were that snow which the wind carries in every direction. Wherever they went, they made people shiver, blinded them, and took their breath away. Everybody was tired of the Witsduks and wanted to get rid of them.
At last Tcutûk, an old medicine woman, said: “I can destroy Witsduk and her family, but I am afraid of Wus. He is a bad man; he likes to tease people, and he is always around. I can put Witsduk and her family in my bag and hide them under rocks where they can’t get out, but if I meet Wus he will take the bag away from me, and untie it. Then the Witsduks will kill us.”
The people were glad when Tcutûk said she could destroy the Witsduks; they promised to watch for Wus and kill him if he tried to get the bag away from her.
Tcutûk went to the mountain where the Witsduks lived. She opened her bag and waited for a long time. The Witsduks were going back and forth in every direction; Tcutûks was so cold that she was almost frozen. At last they came near her hiding-place, but they didn’t see her. When they were right there, Tcutûk said magic words and the Witsduks began to go into the bag. They couldn’t help going; Tcutûk pushed them down, crowded them, packed them solid. When they were all in and her bag was full, she tied it with a buckskin [[86]]string, took it on her back, and went toward the rocks; she traveled fast.