Máidikdak Snowbird
Wus Fox
Máidikdak and her two daughters lived in the south. The old woman knew
that five chiefs lived in the north, with their father, who was a
chief, too. She wanted her daughters to marry those five brothers, so
she made them ready for the road. To one daughter she gave a basket of
food; to the other beads, nice shells, and porcupine quills.
When the girls were ready to start, she said: “If you see a man coming
from the east, you will know he is Wus. Don’t stop to talk to him. He
is a powerful man; he can do any thing he likes. If he gets mad, he
will turn you into an animal or a bird. Don’t go on the west side of
the lake. Follow the trail on the east side.”
When the girls came to the lake, the west side looked nicer, the trail
was brighter. The elder sister wanted to follow it, but the younger
sister said: “Our mother told us not to go on that side.”
The elder sister said: “You can follow the other trail if you want to.
I am going on this trail; it is nicer.”
The younger girl didn’t want to be alone, so she went with her sister.
When they passed Wus’ house she was frightened. She said: “I feel as if
somebody were looking at me.”
“I feel that way too,” said the elder sister. Presently they saw a
young man coming toward them.
“What nice girls those are,” thought Wus. When he came up to them, the
younger sister said to the elder: “Don’t stop. Go right on. This is the
man our mother told us about. Don’t speak to him.”
But the elder girl stopped. Wus made her stop. The younger went on a
little way, then she turned back; she was afraid to go on alone.
“Where are you going?” asked Wus.
“To the chief’s house,” said the elder sister.
“What chief is there out this way? I am the only chief here. I am the
chief of this world.”
“You are not the chief we are going to. That chief never travels
around. Our mother told us there was a bad man on this side of the
lake. His name is Wus; he doesn’t smell good.”
“I know that man,” said Wus. “He is not bad. He has power and can do
anything he wants to.”
“We are not going to stop here,” said the elder sister. “We are going
to the chief who lives in the north, and has five sons.”
“Go on, if you want to,” said Wus.
When the girls started, Wus watched them till they went out of sight;
he was saying things in his mind. As they traveled, they became old
women, with humps on their backs; their bodies shriveled up, there was
no flesh on their bones, they could scarcely move; their hair turned
white, and their teeth fell out. Their beautiful clothes turned to
dirty straw; their strings of beads were twisted bark; their baskets
looked old and broken and the roots in them turned to moldy skins; the
shells and porcupine quills were bits of bark.
The younger sister said: “We didn’t go the way our mother told us to.
That man was Wus; he has done this. If we had gone on the east side of
the lake, we shouldn’t have met him. We should have done as our mother
told us; she is old, and she knows more than we do.” After a long time,
they got to the chief’s house. The five brothers were out hunting. The
chief didn’t know what to give the women to eat; he thought they were
too old to eat roasted liver (old people’s food). When he gave them
some, they pushed it away. They lay down to sleep, and while they were
sleeping the five brothers came. They knew Máidikdak’s daughters and
knew who had made them old.
The youngest brother asked: “Did you give these women anything to eat?”
“I gave them liver,” said the old man, “but they couldn’t eat it; they
haven’t any teeth.”
The young man was glad they had come; he sat down and watched them.
About midnight they turned to beautiful girls. In the morning, when
they woke up, they were old women again.
The chief said to himself: “What kind of a man is my son? Why does he
stay by those dirty old women?”
The young women heard his thoughts and they felt badly. At last they
crawled up and went out to wash in the river. The elder sister said:
“If we swim, maybe it will make us young again.”
They took off their dirty, ragged clothes and old torn moccasins and
began to swim. Right away they turned to beautiful girls; their long
hair floated on the top of the water. As they swam, they talked and
laughed, for they were glad to be young again. They made sport of their
father-in-law, and said: “That big chief thought we were old women; he
fed us liver!”
The young man heard this and said to his father: “You fed those girls
dirty liver. Did you think they were old women?”
The girls kept diving down in the water and coming up, and soon they
began to change. They became green-headed ducks, and floated off toward
home. The young man felt badly; he didn’t want them to go.
Old Máidikdak heard them coming, and when they were near the house, she
said: “My daughters, you didn’t do as I told you. I told you about that
bad man. If I hadn’t this would be my fault; now it is yours.” She
tried to catch them, but couldn’t. At last she went under the water and
caught hold of their legs. She pulled off their feathers and they were
girls again.
The next morning the young man said to his father: “I am going to carry
my wives’ clothes and beads and porcupine quills to their mother.”
When he got to Máidikdak’s house the two sisters were off gathering
wood. The old woman saw him sitting on top of the house and she asked:
“Who are you?”
“I am one of the five brothers who live in the north.”
“Are you the youngest?”
“Yes, I have brought back your shells and porcupine quills. Wus changed
your daughters to ducks.”
“Come in, son-in-law, my daughters have gone for wood.”
The young man was glad. When the girls came, he said: “I have left my
father and brothers. I will live here now.” Ningádaniak. [10]