And he went and told the people she was coming and they must be ready
for her.
Hawawk got ready in the early evening and dressed herself in a
skirt of soft buckskin. And over this she placed an overskirt of
deerskin, fringed with long cut fringes with deer-hoofs at the ends
to rattle. And then she ran to the dancing place; and the people
could hear her a long way off, rattling, as she came. And they were
already dancing when she arrived there, and she went and joined hands
with Ee-ee-toy.
And Hawawk was a great smoker, and Ee-ee-toy made cigarettes for her
that had something in them that would make folks sleep. And he smoked
these himself, a little, to assure her, but cautiously and moderately,
not inhaling the smoke, but she inhaled the smoke, and before the four
nights were up she was so sleepy that the people were dragging her
around as they danced, and then she got so fast asleep that Ee-ee-toy
carried her on his shoulder.
And all the time they were dancing they were moving across country,
and getting nearer the cave where she lived, and other people at the
same time were ahead of them carrying lots of wood to her cave. And
when they arrived at her cave in the mountain of Tahtkum they laid her
sleeping body down inside, and placed the wood in the cave between
her and the door, filling it all to the entrance, which they closed
with four hurdles, such as the people fasten their doors with, so
that she could not run out.
And then they set the wood on fire, and it burned fiercely, and when
the fire reached Hawawk she waked and cried out. "My grandchildren,
what have I done that you should treat me this way!"
And the fire hurt her so that she jumped up and down with pain, and
her head struck the ceiling of the cave and split the rock. And when
the people saw it they called to Ee-ee-toy, and he went and put his
foot over the crack, and sealed it up, and you may see the track of
his foot there to this day.
But Ee-ee-toy was not quick enough, and her soul escaped through
the crack.
And then for a while the people had peace, but in time her soul
turned into a green hawk, and this hawk killed the people, but did
not eat them.
And this made the people great trouble, but one day a woman was making
pottery and she had just taken one pot out of the fire and left another
one in the furnace, on its side, when this hawk saw her and came
swooping down from high in the air to kill her, but missed her, and
went into the hot pot in the fire, and so was burned up and destroyed.
And one day they boiled greens in that pot, the greens called
choo-hook-yuh, and the greens boiled so hard that they boiled over,
and splashed around and killed people. And they boiled all day and
stopped at night, and at daybreak began again to boil, and this they
did for a long time; boiling by day and stopping at night.
And the people sent for Toehahvs who lived in the east, and Gee-ah-duk
Seeven, or Strong Bow Chief, who lived where is now the ruin of
Aw-awt-kum Vah-ahk-kee, to kill the pot for them.
And when they arrived Geeahduk Seeven enquired if the pot slept. And
the people said: "Yes, it sleeps all night." Then said Geeahduk Seeven,
"We will get up very early, before the pot wakes, and then we will
kill it."
But Toehahvs said; "That is not right, to go and kill it at night. I
am not like a jealous woman who goes and fights her rival in the
darkness. I am not a woman, I am a man!"
And Toehahvs said to Geeahduk Seeven: "I will go in the morning to
attack the pot and I want you to go on the other side, and if the pot
throws its fluid at me, so that I cannot conquer it, then do you run
up on the other side and smash it."
Then Toehahvs took his shield and his club, in the morning, and went to
attack the pot. But the pot saw him, and, altho he held up his shield,
it boiled over, and threw the boiling choohookyuh so high and far
that some of it fell on Toehahvs' back and scalded it. And Toehahvs
had to give back a little. But at that moment Geeahduk Seeven ran in
on the other side and smashed the pot.
And there was an old man with an orphan grandson, living near there,
and when the pot was smashed these came to the spot and ate up the
choohookyuh. And at once they were turned into bears, the old man
into a black bear, the boy into a brown bear.
And these bears also killed people, and tho the people tried to kill
them, for a long time they could not do so. When they shot arrows at
the bears, the bears would catch them and break them up. And so the
people had to study out other ways to get the better of them. There
is a kind of palm-tree, called o-nook, which has balls where the
branches come out, and the people burned the trees to get these
balls, and threw them at the bears. And the bears caught the balls,
and fought and wrestled with them, and while their attention was
taken by these balls the people shot arrows at them and killed them.
And thus ended forever the evil power of Hawawk.