Blaiwas Eagle
Tusasás Joker (Skunk)
Five Blaiwas brothers started off to hunt for deer. When they got to
the top of the first high mountain, they took out their fire-drill to
make a fire. As they turned the drill they talked to the mountains, to
the trees, to the rocks and the bushes, and asked for good luck, but
they forgot to ask the drill to keep Yahyáhaäs away. They made a fire,
cooked their meat, and then got ready to hunt. When they were leaving
the camp, they hung their dry meat and their seeds on a tree where they
could get them when they came back in the evening.
After they had gone some distance, one of the brothers said: “That is
the place where Yahyáhaäs comes. He starts from the east; when he sees
any one he walks slowly, but he can go around and come up in front of a
person. He can disappear like a flash. Sometimes his face is painted
red, and he carries a red cane with red feathers on the end of it.
Maybe he will come while we are gone and will eat our meat and seeds.”
The men were sorry that they had forgotten to tell the drill to keep
Yahyáhaäs away.
Just then one of them looked east, and said: “There he is; he is coming
now!”
The men were scared; they didn’t dare to run away, so they sat down and
waited. When Yahyáhaäs came to them, he said:
“Well, well, I thought I would never see people again, but I see them
now. I am glad you are here. Why don’t you start a fire?”
“We forgot our drill.”
“I thought people never forgot their drills. What are you here for?”
“We came to hunt for deer and rabbits.”
“I have looked around all the morning,” said Yahyáhaäs; “I have been
everywhere, but I haven’t seen a deer track.”
“We may as well give up hunting and go home,” said one man to another.
“Can’t you feed me smoke?” asked Yahyáhaäs.
“We have no tobacco.”
“This earth will make people trouble if they don’t carry a fire-drill
and tobacco,” said Yahyáhaäs. “If you can’t feed me with smoke, you
must wrestle with me.”
“We have no pipe or fire-drill to make smoke with,” said the eldest
Blaiwas brother. “How can we feed you with smoke when we can’t start a
fire? We are in a hurry. We didn’t come here to wrestle or play games,
we came to hunt.”
“This is my way,” said Yahyáhaäs. “If people don’t feed me smoke and
make me glad. I wrestle with them and throw them; then I am glad. Will
you feed me smoke?”
“We can’t,” said Blaiwas. “We have no tobacco.”
“Then we will wrestle,” said Yahyáhaäs.
The men didn’t want to wrestle; they said they didn’t know how. But
Yahyáhaäs kept talking about wrestling, talked till half a day was
gone.
Yahyáhaäs was red from head to foot. His red cane was sharp at both
ends, and on his back was a red quiver full of red, sharp-pointed
arrows.
At last Blaiwas said to his brothers: “We had better wrestle with him.
It is just as well for us all to die here. If we start for home, he
will kill us.”
Yahyáhaäs fixed a place for his leg and piled up stones on a cliff
above the lake. The eldest brother was chief; he was the first man to
wrestle. He said: “Be strong, my brothers, you can’t save yourselves.
If he throws me over the cliff into the lake, don’t get weak. Be strong
and all die together.” Then he sent a young boy to the village to tell
the people that Yahyáhaäs was going to kill him and his brothers.
Right away Yahyáhaäs threw Blaiwas over the cliff. As he sank in the
lake, his bones boiled up to the top of the water, washed against the
rocks, and rattled terribly.
Yahyáhaäs threw over one man after another. As each man sank, he turned
to bones and the bones floated against the rocks, struck hard and made
a great noise.
In Blaiwas’ house there was an old medicine woman. She woke up, and
said: “I dreamed that I saw people crying and putting ashes on their
heads. Our men have been killed. At noon to-morrow we shall get word of
it.”
“Women always have bad dreams,” said Tusasás. “There is nobody in the
world strong enough to kill the five brothers.” At noon the next day a
boy came along the trail; he was crying and screaming. When he got to
Blaiwas’ house, he said: “The five brothers are killed. By this time
not one of them is alive.” He went to the next village and told the
same news.
Tusasás threw dirt on his head and rolled in the ashes. The people cut
off their hair and mourned. The next morning they said: “Let us go and
see the place where our men were killed.”
Blaiwas’ little boy was sleeping by the fire; his sister shook him, and
said: “Wake up and wash your face; we are going to see the place where
Yahyáhaäs killed our people.”
When his face was washed, the boy said: “Fix my feet; I want to go
too.”
“You are too small,” said his mother. “Why do you want to go?”
“I want to die with my uncles. I am lonesome; I don’t want to live any
longer.”
“You are too small to go. Yahyáhaäs could take you up with one finger
and throw you over the cliff.”
“I am going where my uncles were killed,” said the boy. “Paint me with
red paint right in the center of my head, where my thoughts come in and
teach me.”
They painted him and got him ready to go. Tusasás cut a long cedar
tree, tied it on his head, and went with the others. He started off as
if going to gamble; he laughed, jumped, and whooped. The people said:
“Yahyáhaäs will hear you and he will kill us all.”
“It won’t be hard for me to kill Yahyáhaäs,” boasted Tusasás. “I will
throw him over the cliff quickly.” Then he said to the boy: “Why are
you here? I sha’n’t need your help. You are too small to go to the
mountains; you had better go home.”
The boy didn’t look at Tusasás; he said to his mother: “You must stop
crying. I want all the people to stop crying and follow me.” He went
ahead.
The people looked at him and stopped crying. When they got to the lake,
Yahyáhaäs was not there, but he was not far off. The people hunted for
the place where the men had been killed, but they couldn’t find it.
Then the little boy said: “Here it is! Yahyáhaäs is coming. You can’t
see him, but I can. He will soon show himself in the east.”
Tusasás said: “I will be the first man to wrestle with him; I will
throw him into the lake.”
The people said: “It is bad to make fun of our chief and the men that
were killed here. You will make trouble for us.”
Right away they saw Yahyáhaäs coming from the east. He had on a pale
yellow coat that rattled as he hopped along. He had a yellow cane, and
his face was painted yellow. When he came to the people, he said: “I
like to see men and women. I don’t like to walk around and see no one;
it makes me lonesome. Will you feed me smoke?”
“We have nothing to make smoke with,” said one of the men.
“Did you come to play with me?” asked Yahyáhaäs. “I like to wrestle.
The last man I saw threw me, and went away somewhere.”
The little boy sat on the edge of the cliff; he didn’t say anything,
just looked at the water. At last he began to see men swimming around
under the surface; then he saw the five brothers and lots of other
men,—his own people. He felt strong and glad when he saw them.
Tusasás said: “You want to fight, don’t you? You think you can kill
Yahyáhaäs, don’t you?”
“Let the boy alone,” said his mother. “Don’t make fun of him; maybe he
can teach us things.”
Yahyáhaäs kept asking the men to wrestle with him. At last they said:
“We may as well get killed here. If we start for home, he will follow
us.” And they began to wrestle. Soon every man was over the cliff,
except Tusasás. One man was very strong; he nearly broke Yahyáhaäs’
leg. Yahyáhaäs screamed out: “That is not the way to wrestle. You
shouldn’t twist my leg!”
“It is right for me to throw you any way I can,” said the man. “You
have killed a great many of my people.” Yahyáhaäs laughed, threw the
man,—took him up with one hand, and flung him over the cliff.
When Tusasás began to wrestle, he held tight to Yahyáhaäs.
“Look out! Don’t hold me so tight,” said Yahyáhaäs.
“I have always seen men hold tight,” said Tusasás, and he clung
tighter. But Yahyáhaäs loosened his hold and threw him into the lake.
The little boy told the women to go home, then he sat there alone.
“Why do you sit there so long?” asked Yahyáhaäs. “I wonder if such a
little fellow can wrestle. Come and try.” Yahyáhaäs caught hold of the
boy and began to throw him up and play with him.
“Why do you make fun of me?” asked the boy. “Wait till you get
through.” He caught hold of Yahyáhaäs, twisted his leg, broke it off,
and pushed him into the lake.
Then the boy called: “Come out, my people. Come out of the water!”
There was a great noise, then all the men came out of the lake. The boy
called to them: “Don’t look back! Don’t look back! If any man looks
back, he will die.” As they climbed up the cliff, the boy stood on the
edge and said to each one: “Don’t look back. If you do, you will die.”
When all were up he followed them and kept calling out: “Don’t look
back! Don’t look back!”
Yahyáhaäs came out of the water and screamed to the people, “You
haven’t thrown me yet! I am standing in the same place. Why do you run
away? Come back and throw me!”
The boy said: “Yahyáhaäs is dead; that is his spirit. It will kill us
if we look back.” They were far off, but still they heard the call:
“Come back and wrestle! Look back and see me! The boy lies; he didn’t
throw me. Men don’t run away. Come back!”
The boy said: “Don’t look back!” He talked to the spirit without
turning his face toward it. He said: “You will not treat my people in
this way again; but you will always live. You will always be on the
mountains and by the water; you will walk around by the lakes and
rivers; but you will never be a person again.”
Then the boy said to his people: “It is hard work to live in this
world; we will be birds and live in the air.” That moment they all
became birds. The boy is a medicine bird. Doctors often see him, and he
helps them cure sick people.
Yahyáhaäs is a great medicine; if a doctor has him for a medicine, he
can cure a dying man.