When Tcutûk got to the foot of the mountain, she said to the people waiting for her: “I have every Witsduk in the world in this bag on my back; now you must come with me to the rocks where I am going to hide them. I am afraid of Wus; I am afraid that I will meet him. If he should open my bag and let the Witsduks out, I should feel badly, for then no one would be safe. The Witsduks are mad; they would come out and kill everybody. Then they would live forever; they would scatter and be everywhere.”
The people said: “If we meet Wus, we will kill him,” but they were afraid. They went a little way, then turned back. Tcutûk traveled on alone till she came to a log; when she was climbing over the log, she saw Wus; he was hunting for mice. Tcutûk stood still, for she didn’t know what to do. As soon as Wus saw her, he came up, and right away he began to tease her to tell him what was in her bag, to open it and let him see.
At last Tcutûk said: “I am carrying off people you have met, and they have made you shiver. I am going to destroy them.”
“Let me have them,” said Wus, “I will eat them. I can eat anything in the world, all the people that crawl, or fly. I can eat Wind and Air. You haven’t anything in that bag that I can’t eat. I can eat Clouds and Rain,—everything.”
“Are you sure that you can eat all kinds of people?” asked Tcutûk.
“There isn’t anything in the world that I can’t eat.”
“I am carrying the Witsduks; you don’t want to eat them, do you?”
“Yes. Open the bag and let them out; I will eat them right away.”
Wus talked and teased. Tcutûk tried to make him let her pass. He got mad and caught hold of her head-strap and pulled on it till it cut her forehead. When she couldn’t keep the bag any longer, she said: “Take the bag and untie it! But don’t untie it till I am across the flat over there.”
She dropped the bag from her back and ran as fast as she [[87]]could, but before she was half-way across the flat Wus loosened the string. Right away the Witsduks began to come out. Wus caught them, one by one, and ate them. Before Tcutûk reached the end of the plain, he loosened the string a little more; then the Witsduks came out fast. Wus caught them all; he ran around, snapped his mouth in every direction, ate as fast as he could,—ate till he was so full he couldn’t eat any more. The string came off from the bag, and the rest of the Witsduks rushed out in a crowd. They were mad; they went everywhere, covered the whole world. Wus ran away, but they overtook him and killed him. The Witsduks he had eaten came out through his mouth and ears and nose and eyes.