Gáukos Moon
Kówe Frog
Kûlta Otter
Lok Bear
Weketas A Small Green Frog
Gáukos and Kûlta had a house among the rocks on the east side of
Klamath Lake. On the west side of the lake lived the ten Kówe sisters,
beautiful little women. Their clothes were covered with beads and
porcupine quills. They were powerful women, too; they could do anything
they wanted. A Weketas woman lived with the ten sisters. She was big
and ugly, and the only thing she could do was to bring people to life.
Gáukos grew lonesome. He was tired of living in the world. Kûlta said:
“I will go and tell the ten sisters that you want a wife. With a woman
to cook for us, it won’t be lonesome.”
Kûlta went to the ten sisters, and said: “A young man on the east side
of the lake wants one of you for a wife, but he don’t know which one.”
Each one of the ten sisters got ready to go; they cooked nice roots and
pounded sweet seeds. They put on new moccasins and dresses, pulled
their canoe into the water, and started. Weketas had nothing to cook
and nothing new to wear. She had on a ragged old cap, and was half
naked, but she went to row the canoe. The sisters kept pushing her, and
saying: “Row faster, ugly thing! Row faster!”
Gáukos sat on the rocks where he could watch the sisters. When they
reached land, they left the canoe, one by one. To the first one Gáukos
said: “Not you; another.” To the second sister he said the same, and so
on to the last.
Kûlta told them to go back to the canoe; then he said to Gáukos: “Tell
me which one you want.”
“The one at the end of the canoe.”
“What do you want of that ugly thing?” asked Kûlta. “You should take
one of those nice girls.”
“I will take the one I know will be best for me, the one that will live
in my heart and always save me.”
“Don’t take that ugly Weketas woman,” said Kûlta.
“I don’t want to live around here,” said Gáukos. “Every night, I see
some of the big-mouthed people. They are watching me; they like to eat
such men as I am.”
“How can that ugly Weketas woman save you?” asked Kûlta.
“If there should be only a little bit of me left in Lok’s mouth, she
would bring me to life,” said Gáukos.
Kûlta was willing now, but the ten sisters wouldn’t let the Weketas
woman pass them. She crept along on the edge of the canoe, and each
sister pinched her as she passed; they made her arms and legs bleed.
Gáukos wiped the blood off, rubbed her with deer tallow, and gave her a
nice blanket. Then he put her in his bosom and started off toward the
east. As he left, he said to Kûlta: “You will see me every month; I
shall live always and will always travel on the sky.”
To this day Gáukos travels and he always will travel. People can see
Weketas, for Gáukos still carries her in his bosom. Sometimes they can
see Weketas’ children lying near her. When Súbbas comes, and Gáukos is
still in the west, he gets eaten up by the big-mouthed people, but
Weketas always brings him to life and will do so just as long as he
carries her in his bosom.