Dásläts California lion
Djakkonus A duck
Dohos A duck
Dútûte A duck
Isis
Kai Jack rabbit
Kládo Duck
Kols Badger
Kumush
Látkakáwas
Lok Bear
Mówatwas South wind place people
Mukus Owl
Nada A bird
Skakas Free toad
Tcíkas Wren
Tókwa Mole
Wálwilegas Butterfly
Látkakáwas and her five brothers lived on the south side of Klamath
Lake. The brothers went every day to fish from an island in the middle
of the lake. Látkakáwas stayed at home; she gathered wiwhi seeds and
burned the down from them to prepare them as food for her brothers and
for herself.
When Látkakáwas was at work, she looked like a common old woman, but
when she shook herself and went out of the house, she was young, blue
and beautiful.
The “Old Man” (Kumush) lived on the eastern side of Klamath Lake. On
the western side of the lake lived many people. Those people often saw
Látkakáwas standing on the top of her house, looking blue and nice, but
as soon as they went toward her she changed to an old hunchback woman.
The young men of the western village counseled together; then each day
they sent one of their number to try to steal up to Látkakáwas and
catch her before she could make herself old and ugly. They wanted to
talk to her; they wanted to ask her to take one of them for a
husband.—Every young man in the western village tried, but Látkakáwas
was never young when they came toward her.
One man started before daybreak; he wanted to get near the house and
hide till Látkakáwas came out. That day she stayed inside, an old
hunchback woman stringing beads. She knew when people were looking at
her or thinking of her; she even knew where they were.
Each morning Látkakáwas’ brothers went to the island to catch salmon,
and dry them, but as soon as it was dark they came home. One night
Látkakáwas said to her eldest brother: “Men come here to watch me, and
try to catch me; when they find me hunchback and ugly to look at, they
make fun of me. I don’t like that. It makes me feel badly.”
“How soon will you have seeds enough gathered?” asked her brother.
“To-morrow,” said Látkakáwas.
“When the seeds are ready, you will go with us to the island where
nobody can bother you,” said her brother.
On the west side of the lake there was a young man as blue and
beautiful as Látkakáwas herself. His father kept him in an underground
place; no one ever saw him except when he went out to bathe or swim.
When all the other young men had tried to get near Látkakáwas, and had
failed, the people said to this young man’s father: “Why don’t you send
your son? Maybe he could catch that beautiful blue woman.”
When the old man told his son about Látkakáwas, the young man said:
“There is no use of my going there. If all the others have failed I
should fail, too.”
“You are as blue and nice to look at as Látkakáwas is,” said his
father; “maybe she will like you and take you for a husband.”
The old man took his son out of the underground place, washed him and
got him ready, made him clothes from a wonderful cap, a cap that could
never be destroyed. When the young man put on those clothes, he was
beautiful beyond anything in the world; he was blue and gold and green,
like the clouds in the sky. He could run in the air and under the
ground. He had great power.
When he was ready to start, his father said to him: “When the sun comes
to the edge of the sky, Látkakáwas shakes herself and goes to the top
of the house to watch it. If you travel under the ground you will get
near her before she sees you.”
When Látkakáwas shook herself and stood on top of the house to watch
the sun, the young man was near by, under the ground, with one eye
looking out. She knew that he was there, but she didn’t change to an
old woman. She said to herself: “This man pleases me; he is not like
the others. He is the first man who hasn’t laughed and made fun of me.”
The young man watched Látkakáwas for a time and then went home.
When Látkakáwas’ brothers came, she said: “A young man, all blue and
gold and green, nice to look at, has been here to watch me, but he
didn’t make fun of me as the others did.”
The eldest brother said: “We will move to the island to-morrow. Just at
sundown we caught two big salmon; we will go early and dress them, then
we’ll come for you. While we are gone, you must pack up the beads and
skins.”
In the morning, before it was light, the brothers started for the
island. Just as the sun looked up over the edge of the sky, the young
man from the west came again. As Látkakáwas shook herself and came out
at the smoke hole on top of the house, a light shone in her face. It
was so strong that it dazzled her and she turned back. The young man
was brighter than before, for he was out of the ground.
When Látkakáwas went into the house, he peeped through a crack and
watched her. She knew he was there, but she didn’t turn old; she sat
down and assorted her beads according to color. Then she picked up her
mats and got ready to go to the island.
Early in the forenoon the five brothers came and began to pull down the
house.
The people on the west side of the lake saw them at work and asked one
another: “Where are those brothers going? Why are they pulling down
their house?”
At midday, when the brothers were ready to start, they spread mats from
the house to the canoe, for Látkakáwas to walk on. When she got into
the canoe at the edge of the lake, she forgot all about the young man,
forgot that she had fallen in love with him that morning.
The brothers pushed the canoe to get it into the water, but they
couldn’t move it; the young man was holding it. He was right there by
them, but they didn’t see him. They worked for a long time. Finally he
let go of the canoe, and it started, but he pulled it back. He let them
push it out a second time, and a second time he pulled it back. They
started many times but each time, before they could get out into the
lake, they were back at the shore. They strove in that way till the
middle of the afternoon, then the young man freed the canoe and the
brothers rowed toward the island.
As the canoe went on, the young man swam behind it in the form of a
salmon. He was in love with Látkakáwas, and he wanted to look at her.
She sat in the middle of the canoe with one of her brothers; two
brothers sat at the end of the canoe and two in front.
As they rowed along, one of the brothers saw a beautiful salmon, all
blue and gold and green. He speared it and pulled it into the canoe,
and that moment the salmon turned to a young man; but right away he
died.
Látkakáwas cried and blamed her brothers. She knew the young man, and
she felt badly. The brothers felt badly, too. They went back to the
shore and the next day they put their beads and mats in one big pile
and burned them, together with the young man’s body. When the pile was
burned, there was a bright disk in the ashes. The disk was as bright as
the sun in the heavens. This was the crown of the young man’s head.
Látkakáwas saw it, and said: “Look, what is that bright thing in the
ashes?”
The brother who had speared the salmon took up the disk, gave it to
Látkakáwas, and said: “Take it to Kumush. He is in his sweat-house at
Nihlaksi. Kumush can bring a man to life if he has only one hair from
his head.”
Látkakáwas put the disk in her bosom, then she gave each of her
brothers a bundle of bone head-scratchers, and said: “If Kumush doesn’t
bring my husband to life, you will never see me again.”
Látkakáwas traveled all day; when night came she camped at Koáskise,
not far from Kumush’s sweat-house.
The next morning, just as the sun came up, Látkakáwas gave birth to a
child, a wonderfully beautiful boy. She strapped the baby on a board,
put the board on her back and went to Kumush’s sweat-house.
When Kumush asked why she came, she took the disk out of her bosom, and
said: “I want you to bring this to life.”
When Kumush saw the disk, he thought he had never seen anything that
was half as bright and beautiful. Látkakáwas wanted to gather wood to
build a fire in the sweat-house, but Kumush said: “You stay here; I
will get the wood.”
Right away he had a big fire; then he heated stones, and when they were
ready to put in the basket of water, he said to Látkakáwas: “Take your
baby and lie down in the corner; wrap yourself up and keep still.”
When she was wrapped up tight, Kumush put the hot stones into the
basket, and when the water boiled, he put in the disk. After a little
while the disk came to life, and became the young man again.
When Kumush saw how beautiful the man was, he wanted him to die, and
never come to life again. He thought he would get the disk and the
young man’s beauty. As Kumush wanted, so it was. The young man died.
When Látkakáwas unwrapped herself and saw that her husband was dead,
she cried, she felt so lonesome. She cried all the time Kumush was
gathering wood to burn the body.
When the body was half consumed, Látkakáwas asked Kumush to put more
wood on the fire. While he was picking up the wood, she strapped the
baby on to the board, put the board on her back and sprang into the
fire. Kumush saw her just in time to snatch the baby from her back.
Látkakáwas and the young man’s body were burned to ashes.
The baby cried and cried. Kumush called it by every name he could think
of. He called it Wanaga, Lákana, Gailalam-tcaknoles. When he called it
Isilámlĕs, it didn’t cry quite as hard; when he said Isis Uknóles, it
cried only a little; when he said Isis, the child stopped crying. The
name pleased it.
Kumush put the child on the ground and looked in the ashes for the
disk. He found it and was glad, but he didn’t know where to put it. He
put it on his knee, under his arm, on his breast, on his forehead, and
on his shoulders, but it wouldn’t stay anywhere. At last he put it on
the small of his back. The minute he put it there it grew to his body,
and right away he was beautiful and young and bright, the brightest
person in the world. The disk had become a part of him, and he was the
father of Isis, for the disk was the father of Isis.
Then Kumush left Nihlaksi and traveled toward the north. On the road he
kept thinking where he was to hide the baby. At last he hid it in his
knee, where it appeared as a boil. That night he stayed with two old
women who lived in a house at the edge of a village. All night he
groaned and complained of the boil on his knee. In the morning he asked
one of the old women to press the boil.
As soon as she began to press it, she saw bright hair. “What is this?”
asked she.
“I told you that wasn’t a boil,” said the other old woman.
They both pressed, and soon the baby came out. The women washed the
child, wrapped it up in a skin blanket and fed it.
Right away people found out that old man Kumush had a baby and
everybody wanted to know where he got it.
Kumush said: “The earth is kind to me. The earth gave this baby to me.”
Kumush took Isis and went to live on the southeast side of Tula Lake,
[1] and there he fished and worked and reared Isis.
When Isis was old enough to marry, the Mówatwas, a people from the
south, brought him a woman named Tókwa (mole). A great many people came
with her, for she was a powerful woman, the best worker in the world.
When the Mówatwas came, Kumush and Isis were at home. Isis was asleep;
he had been fishing, and children were carrying fish from the canoe to
the house. As the Mówatwas came in sight, Gäk saw them and said to the
children: “I wonder where all those people came from? They will never
come here again!”
That minute the Mówatwas and Tókwa turned to stone. Kumush and Isis
turned to stone, too, but their spirits came out and were men again.
Their bodies and the body of Tókwa are at Tula Lake now, near the
bodies of the Mówatwas people, who came with Tókwa.
Kumush took Isis to Lĕklis, [2] where he had a house. Then he said to
him:
“You must be wise, you must be great and powerful and strong. You must
go to the top of Lâniswi and swim in the pond of blue water that is
there. When you get to the pond, you must pile up stones and then stand
and talk to the mountain. Tell it what you think. The mountain will
hear you. Everything in the world will hear you and understand you.
After you have talked to the mountain, you must dive in the pond. Dive
five times to the bottom, and each time drink of the lowest water. When
you come out of the pond, build a fire, warm yourself and then sleep.
If you dream, don’t tell the dream to any one. When you wake up, start
for home. On the road don’t talk to any one, or drink any water. If you
do as I tell you, you will be as great as I am and do the things that I
do. You will live always. You will be the brightest object in the
world. If you endure these things, you will be able to bear every
suffering.”
Isis put on a dress made of the red bark of the teskot tree, and went
to the swimming place on the mountain. At night he piled up stones till
he was sleepy; then he stood by the pond and talked to the mountain.
After that he dived five times in the swimming pond. The fourth time he
felt something big and heavy, but he thought: “My father does not want
me to have riches in this world; he wants me to have mind.” The fifth
time he felt five kinds of gambling sticks and a large white feather.
He came out of the pond, built a fire and warmed himself; then he lay
down and went to sleep. He dreamed that he saw the gambling sticks and
the feather that he had felt in the water. When he woke up, he started
down the mountain. As soon as he got home, he began to tell his dream,
but Kumush said: “Don’t tell your dream now. If you were to gamble with
some one, then you might tell it.”
After this Kumush sent Isis to Slákkosi, a swimming place in a deep
basin on the top of a mountain. Kumush said: “When you get there, make
a rope of willow bark, tie one end around a tree and the other around
your body, and let yourself down into the whirlpool.”
When Isis got to the top of the mountain, he went five times around the
basin, then he made the rope and let himself down into the water. He
went five times around inside the basin. Five times he saw a bright
house that was nice to look at, and he saw lights burning in the water.
After swimming, he drew himself up and started down the mountain.
When Isis got home, Kumush sent him to Gewásni, a pond deep down among
the rocks on the summit of Giwásyaina. [3]
Kumush said: “Lok and Dásläts used to swim in Gewásni. When you get to
the top of the mountain, you must hold your right hand up and talk to
the mountain; ask it for mind and power. The mountain will hear you and
great thoughts will go in through the top of your head. When you have
talked to Giwásyaina, you can talk all day to other mountains and not
get tired or hoarse.”
When Isis got to the swimming place, he let himself down with a bark
rope, sat on a rock at the edge of the water and washed himself. Then
he drew himself up to the top and lay down. He couldn’t go to sleep. He
went to the place where he stood when he talked to the mountain, lay
down there and tried to sleep, but couldn’t; so he started for home.
When Kumush saw Isis coming, he washed himself, and used nice smelling
roots; then he took food and went to meet him and fix a resting place
for him.
After Isis had eaten and rested, Kumush said: “I want you to go to
Adáwa. You must go to all the gauwams (swimming places); you will find
something in each one. Adáwa is Lok’s pond. He stays in the water
there. You must swim on the western side.”
When Isis got to the pond, he thought there was a great rock out in the
water. He swam out and stood on it. It was Lok and right away he began
to shake and move. Isis jumped into the water; into the middle of a
terrible whirlpool; the whirlpool was Lok’s medicine. It made Isis’
head feel queer and dizzy. He swam to the western side of the pond,
dived five times, got out of the water and went home.
Kumush said: “Now you must go to old man Mukus. Before Gäk turned him
into a rock Mukus was the greatest gambler in the world. Around him are
many rocks, the men he was gambling with when Gäk’s word was spoken.”
When Isis started, Kumush put the back of his hand across his forehead,
looked toward the place and talked to Mukus, asking him to be good to
Isis and give him whatever he had to give.
When Isis got to the rock, he stood and waited. After a while old Mukus
asked: “What did you come for?”
Isis made no answer.
Then the old man moved a little, and said: “I heard Kumush talking. I
have nothing but gambling to give,—my work. I will give you that.”
When Isis got home, he lay down. Kumush washed himself, then gave his
son food and drink. The next morning he sent him to get Tcok, the great
gambling medicine.
Kumush said: “Tcok is round and bright, like the sun. If a lazy man
tries to catch it, it will show itself in two or three places at the
same time, and he can’t overtake it; but if a strong man, who has been
to the swimming ponds, follows it, it will let itself be caught.”
Isis went for Tcok, caught it and brought it home. He held it so
tightly in his hand that it burned him, and blistered his hand.
Kumush said: “You must kill Tcok; if you don’t it will get away from
you. You want it, for if a man has it when he is gambling, it gives him
strength.”
When Isis had killed Tcok, Kumush said: “Now you must go to Káimpeos.
On the way you will come to a small pond. Don’t stop there, for it is a
bad place. In Káimpeos there are five Kais; they belong to the pond.”
When Isis got to Káimpeos, he saw the sun, the moon, the stars and big
fires down under the water. He dived five times; each time he felt a
Kai right near him. Under the arm of the fifth Kai there were gambling
sticks. When Isis came out of the water, he lay down on a rock and
tried to go to sleep, but he couldn’t, so he got up and went home.
While Isis was gone, Kumush made a sweat-house, and when Isis returned,
he said: “Take off your bark clothes and sweat, then paint your face
and body red and put on buckskin clothes and nice beads. You have been
to all the swimming places, and you might be a big chief, but I don’t
want that. Other people will come and it will be bad here. We will go
away where you can keep all the strength the mountains and swimming
places have given you, where you won’t get bad and dirty from the earth
and people.”
They went to the top of a high mountain and built a house among the
rocks. The house was red and nice to look at. Kumush thought that
people around Tula Lake would see his house, but couldn’t climb up to
it. Kumush had the north side, Isis the south side of the house; the
door opened toward the east.
Kumush didn’t know that Skakas and Nada lived on that mountain, but
they did, and both of them fell in love with Isis. They came to the
house and neither one of them would go away.
“What do you want?” asked Kumush.
“I want Isis for a husband,” said Skakas. Nada gave the same answer.
“Well,” said Kumush, “I will find out what you can do. Which of you can
bring water first from that lake down there?”
Both started. Skakas found water on the way, turned around and was back
first. When Nada came, she said to Skakas: “I didn’t see you at the
lake.”
“I got there first; I took some water and came back. We were not there
at the same time.”
“I am a fast traveler,” said Nada. “It is strange that you got back
first.”
Isis drank the water Nada brought, but wouldn’t touch the water Skakas
gave him.
Nada said: “We will go again. This time we will take hold of hands.”
They started in the morning, got the water and Nada flew back. Skakas
didn’t get back till midday.
Isis drank the water Nada brought, and said it was good, but he
wouldn’t drink the water Skakas brought. Kumush tore Skakas in pieces
and threw the pieces over the cliff into the lake. The pieces are in
the lake now; they became rocks.
Isis and Kumush didn’t want to live where people could come, so they
left their home and traveled toward the northeast. Not far from the
house they put down their baskets, fish-spears, canoes and everything
they had used in fishing. Those things turned to stone and are there on
the cliff to-day. Kumush and Isis traveled for a long time before they
came to the river that is now called Lost River. Kumush made a basket
and caught a salmon in it. Then he said: “I want salmon always to be in
this river, and many of them, so people will have plenty to eat.” At
Nusâltgăga he made a basket and caught small fish, and said the same
thing, so that there should always be plenty of small fish in the
river. He multiplied the histis, a kind of fish which Klamath Indians
like.
When Isis and Kumush got to the third camping place, Kumush called it
Bláielka and the mountain he called Ktáilawetĕs. He said to Isis: “You
must swim in the swimming pond on this mountain, and pile up stones,
and talk to the mountain.”
Isis went to the pond and while he was in the water he saw nice
gambling sticks and felt them touch his body. When he was through
swimming and was coming out, Gäk flew by. He saw Isis standing in the
water, and he thought: “I wonder where that bright thing in the water
came from. It won’t come here again!” That minute Isis was turned to
stone, but his spirit escaped, and went to his father’s camping place.
Isis and Kumush stayed a long time at Bláielka, then Kumush said: “I
must travel around and work; you can stay here.” Kumush left Isis on
Dúilast, a mountain on the eastern side of Tula Lake and he started off
for the west.
While Kumush was gone, many women came to live with Isis. Among his
wives were Tókwa, Wéakûs, Djakkonus, Tcíktcikûs, Kládo, Tseks, Dohos,
Dúdûte, Tcíkas, Kols, Nada and Wálwilegas. The first wife to have a
child was Tcíkas, who had a little boy. Tcíkas was uneasy about Kumush;
she was afraid something had happened to him.
Isis said: “Nothing can hurt Kumush. He will be here soon. He can go
around the world in two days.”
The next morning Kumush came, bringing in his hands little bundles of
seeds of every kind. He threw those seeds in different directions, and
talked to the mountains, the hills, the rivers and springs, to all
places, telling them to take the seeds, to care for them and keep them
forever. And he told them not to harm his grandson.
Isis’ wives were so nice to look at that Kumush fell in love with them
and began to think how to get rid of Isis.
One day when he was hunting, Isis used his last arrow. Kumush said: “I
will make some arrows, but you must get eagle feathers to put on them.
When I was coming home I saw an eagle’s nest on the top of a tree.
There were eggs in it; the eggs are hatched by this time. You can get
some of the young eagles.” And he told him where the tree was.
When Isis came to the tree, he took off his buckskin clothes and
climbed up to the nest. He found the eagles and threw them to the
ground. As he threw the last one, he looked down, and he nearly lost
his mind, for at Kumush’s word the tree had grown so tall that it
almost touched the sky. Isis’ clothes were under the tree. He saw
Kumush come and put them on, then pick up the eagles, and start for
home.
Before leaving the house, Kumush had said to Isis’ wives: “I am going
for wood.” When he came back, the women thought he was Isis. When he
asked: “Where is Kumush?” they said: “He went for wood and hasn’t come
back.”
Kumush hurried the sun down and right away it was dark. All the women
except Wálwilegas, Kols, Tcíkas and Tókwa thought he was Isis.
The next morning Tcíkas asked Wálwilegas what she thought.
“He isn’t Isis,” said Wálwilegas.
“That is what I think,” said Tcíkas.
Kols cried and tears ran down her cheeks. “Tears,” said she, “are a
sign that Isis is in trouble.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Kumush. “Hurry up and get me
something to eat. I don’t want people to come here to gamble; we will
go where they are.”
After Kumush had eaten enough, he and all the women, except Wálwilegas,
Kols and Tcíkas, started for Pitcowa, the place where Isis always went
to gamble. (A broad flat northeast of Tula Lake.)
As Kumush traveled, he set fire to the grass; the smoke went crooked.
People saw it, and said: “That is not Isis. Isis’ smoke always goes
straight up to the sky.”
Kumush knew their thoughts. He tried to make the smoke go straight;
part went straight and part went crooked.
Then they said: “Maybe that is Isis.”
When he got near, the people asked: “Where is Kumush?”
“He stayed at home; he didn’t want to come.”
Some thought: “This man doesn’t look just like Isis,” but they began to
gamble with him.
When all the women had gone except Wálwilegas and Tcíkas and Kols, Kols
began to track her husband. Wálwilegas followed her. Tcíkas put her
baby on her back and started for Pitcowa. She felt lonesome. She
traveled slowly, digging roots as she went along.
Kols tracked Isis to the tree. Then she said: “He is up in this tree,
but he must be dead.”
“He is alive,” said Wálwilegas. “I hear him breathe. He loved his other
wives and didn’t care for us. They have gone off with another man; now
he will find out who loves him.”
Kols tried to dig the tree up, but couldn’t; then Wálwilegas began to
make a basket. When the basket was ready, Kols strapped it on her back
and flew up part way to try it. She came back, got something for Isis
to eat and bear’s fat to rub him with, then she started again. She flew
in circles around the tree, camped one night and reached Isis the next
night. He was almost dead. She gave him seeds and rubbed him with
bear’s fat. The next morning she put him in the basket and started
down; she got home at midday.
Kols and Wálwilegas fed Isis well. Every night they rubbed him with
bear’s fat and soon he was well again. Then they fixed a sweat-house
and he sweated till his skin was nice and soft. It became rough while
he was on the tree. After he had sweated, they put nice clothes on him.
Isis asked: “How did Tókwa and Nada and the others act while I was
lost?”
“They didn’t care much,” said Kols; “they were not sorry.”
When the people at Pitcowa had gambled long enough, they began to play
ball. Some thought that the man they were playing with was Isis; others
thought he was Kumush.
Kumush had the disk on his back. It looked like a great scar. One day,
while the people were disputing, some saying that he was Isis, others
that he was Kumush, a man hired a doctor to make the south wind blow.
When Kumush ran north after the ball and stooped down to pick it up,
the wind raised his blanket and everybody saw the scar. Then they knew
Kumush. They shouted, whooped and laughed. They stopped the game and
gathered around him.
After Isis had sweated, he said: “We will go and see what Kumush is
doing.” He went ahead of Kols and Wálwilegas, and as he traveled he set
fire to the grass. The smoke went straight up to the sky. People saw
the smoke, and said: “That is Isis! Isis is coming now!” Kumush saw the
smoke and was scared; he trembled and almost lost his mind.
Tcíkas had been camping and digging roots. She was mourning for Isis.
The child saw Isis coming and called out “Tsutowas” (father).
“Don’t call your father,” said Tcíkas, “your father is dead.”
The boy called again, and again. Tcíkas shook him and scolded him.
“Why do you do that?” asked Isis.
Tcíkas turned and saw Isis. She was glad, for she thought he was lost
or dead. “Where were you?” asked she. “How did you get back?”
“Wálwilegas and Kols, the wives I didn’t care for, saved me.” Then he
told her how Wálwilegas found him in the eagle’s nest, and how she and
Kols carried him home and cured him.
When Isis got to the gambling place, Kumush wanted to talk to him,
wanted to be friendly. But Isis was angry; he wouldn’t let Kumush come
near him. He had Kols and Wálwilegas gather wood and build a big fire;
then he called to his wives who were with Kumush and told them to come
to him. They wouldn’t come, for they were afraid. Then he willed that
they should come, and they had to; his word drew them, and they
couldn’t help going.
He burned their feet and made them red; then he said: “You will no
longer be people; you will be birds and will scatter over the world.
People will kill you, for you will be good to eat.” They turned into
ducks and water birds and flew away. Then Isis threw Kumush into the
fire and covered him with burning wood. He burned him to ashes, but in
the ashes was the disk.
The next morning the morning star, Kumush’s medicine, called out to the
disk: “Why do you sleep so long? Get up, old man!” That minute Kumush
was alive—he will last as long as the disk and the morning star.
Isis knew now that Kumush would never die, that nothing could kill him.
Isis wandered off among the mountains, and as he traveled he sang a
beautiful song, that no one else could sing. People could imitate it,
but they couldn’t repeat it or understand it.
Kumush followed Isis everywhere for years. At last he overtook him. He
wanted to be kind, and live as before, but Isis said: “After what you
did to me you may go wherever you want to in the world, and I will go
where I want to. You are not my father. I feel that. I hope that of the
people, who are to come into the world hereafter, no father will ever
treat his son as you have treated me.”
Kumush went to Tula Lake to live. Then Isis turned one of his three
faithful wives to a butterfly, another to a badger and the third to a
wren, and then he went to live alone on Tcutgósi, a high mountain.