Djáudjau Flying Squirrel
Wálwilégas Butterfly
Wus Fox
Wus and his mother lived at Wusnésee. Wus was a middle-aged man. There
was a spring of water right by their house, at the foot of a high
mountain. It was a nice place to live, and Wus and his mother had been
there a long time.
One day Wus asked his mother: “Is there a swimming pond on any of the
mountains around here?”
“Why do you want to know?” asked his mother.
“I want to go and swim.”
“You are too old to go; only young men, who want to be great gamblers
or doctors, go to those swimming places.”
Wus had fallen in love with a Wálwilégas girl that he had seen near the
spring, but his mother didn’t know that.
He kept asking the old woman to tell him where the swimming ponds were,
and which were the best ones. She wouldn’t tell him; she always said:
“It is too late for you to go to such places. You are too old. You
should have gone when you were young. There are no swimming ponds near
here.”
“I don’t care how far away they are,” said Wus. “I’m going. You must
send for old Djáudjau to come and make holes in my ears and nose.”
“There is no use in making holes in your ears and nose,” said the old
woman. “You are too old to go to the swimming ponds. The earth and the
mountains won’t listen to what you say.”
When she told old Djáudjau what her son wanted, he said: “It is too
late, but let him try; maybe he can get something out of this earth. If
the earth pushes him away, he will come home. But I think he is after
some woman, and is trying to fool you.” The old man made holes in Wus’
ears and nose, and tied a deerskin blanket around him.
When Wus was ready to start, he asked: “Where are the most powerful
swimming places?”
“The first swimming place is on the top of Mlaiksi, the other one is on
Mlaiksi’s brother,” said the old man. “But I don’t think you will get
to either place.”
“No matter how far away they are,” said Wus, “I can get there.”
“I don’t think you will go far,” said the old man. “I think you are in
love with some woman. But if you go, you must do right; don’t stop on
the road, except at night, and don’t touch anything. When you get
there, you must pile stones and talk to the mountains and the earth.
When I was a young man I went to all the swimming places. I talked to
the mountains, to the earth, to the trees, and to the rocks. They gave
me power and made me strong, but I did just what old people told me to
do. If you do your own way, the earth will push you away. I wouldn’t
have thought of these things, but you have wakened me out of old age.
These things were told to us when the world was made. After you leave
here, you mustn’t think of yourself. You must lose yourself. You
mustn’t think of what you have in your heart. I can see your heart. I
know that you are trying to fool us. After you have been on the
mountains and done your work, there will be time enough to get a wife.
You must sing on the way and sing as you go around on the mountains;
say: ‘My father, I have come to you; I want to be your son. I want you
to give me all you can; I want you to put good thoughts in my head.’”
When Wus started, old Djáudjau walked behind him and called to the
mountains: “Wake up! wake up! Wus is coming for you to see him and take
care of him. You have ears to hear with. I want you to listen to him,
and give him all that is in this world.”
When Wus got to the foot of the mountain, he saw that the mountain was
covered with snow. It looked so high and cold that he almost turned
back. He didn’t think he could live to get to the top, but he kept on
walking. He camped ten nights. As he traveled, he sang the song the old
man had taught him. All the way the words of old Djáudjau pushed him
along. At first he didn’t mean to go, he was fooling his mother. When
he was near the top of the mountain, he was so weak that he fell and
rolled back—that was because he was too old—but he got up and went on.
At dark he was at the top; he piled up stones and talked to the
mountain, to the earth, to the sky, to the clouds, to the trees, and to
the rocks. Then he lay down and went to sleep.
Wus dreamed that the mountain was a white-headed old man who asked:
“What are you doing here? I am the biggest of all the mountains,” said
he. “I shall live always. I shall never grow old or die. Is that the
kind you want to be? I will give you your life because you have called
me father, but you must live where the sun goes down, for other people
are coming to live where you are living now.”
When Wus woke up, he started for home. He had been gone a long time,
and his mother thought he was lost, but old Djáudjau said: “I know
where he is. He has made no mistake.”
When Wus was on the way home, his mother saw a big fire on the top of
the mountain. It looked as if it went way up to the sky. Wus didn’t
build that fire; the mountain built it to show his mother that Wus had
been there. She thought he had gone off somewhere else.
When old Djáudjau knew that Wus was near home, he heated stones and
sweated; then he went to meet him. He said: “If you dreamed anything
bad, you must tell it; but if you dreamed of the mountain talking to
you, you mustn’t tell the dream. The mountain talked to me when I was
young. It said that I should never die, that my spirit would live
always, that I should live among the mountains—but I shall not have
this form much longer.”
Wus was changed. He didn’t look as he did when he went away; he looked
better and stronger.
The old man said: “You mustn’t eat meat for ten days. If medicines
appeared to you in your dream, you mustn’t eat meat for twenty days.”
“I don’t know about any of the medicines that travel around on this
earth,” said Wus.
The old man said: “After ten days I want you to try and get one of
those nice-looking Wálwilégas girls for a wife.”
When the ten days were over, Wus sweated, then Djáudjau painted his
face and body red and gave him nice clothes. The old man was glad that
Wus was the Mountain’s son. He said: “Take your bow and arrows and
shoot birds. Don’t pick up the first one you shoot; don’t pull the
arrow out; leave the bird right there, as if you threw it away.”
Wus killed a yellow-footed duck and left it on the ground; then he
killed other ducks and took them home. The old man had deer meat ready
and Wus ate. He was glad to eat; he hadn’t eaten anything since he
started to go to the mountain.
When he had eaten enough, he said: “I want to go and see people.” He
started out but hadn’t gone far, when he saw a crowd of Wálwilégas
girls; they were washing roots in the creek. He watched the girls a
long time, then he said: “How beautiful those girls are. They are too
small, but they are beautiful. I don’t know which one I like best.”
The girls were on each side of the creek; some of them saw Wus and
called out: “There is Wus. He is coming here!” Others said: “No, that
isn’t Wus.” The nicest-looking one of all the girls said: “No, that
isn’t Wus.” Another girl said: “Yes, it is the same old Wus, but he has
been on the mountains; that is why he looks differently.”
Wus went to the bank of the creek and sat down among the girls. That
minute all the youngest and nicest-looking girls got up and went away.
One of the largest and oldest called out: “Why do you go away? Why
don’t you stay here and finish washing your roots?” But they had
scattered and gone.
Wus was mad in his heart; he got up and started for home. On the road
he came to a house and went in to see who lived there. He found Gíuwas
and his wife. They were glad to see him. The woman was kind. She asked:
“Have you had anything to eat?”
“No,” said Wus, “I haven’t been hunting. I have been down by the creek
where there was a crowd of girls.”
“Those are bad girls,” said the woman. “They act proud, as if they
thought every man must fall in love with them; they never feed anybody.
How did they treat you?”
“They got up and flew off,” said Wus. “Hereafter, they will travel in
that way, but they will be people no longer.”
All the old Wálwilégas women were crying, for their daughters were no
longer people. The girls had lost their minds. They had become common
butterflies.
After Wus had eaten enough, he said: “I am going now.”
The woman was afraid he would turn them all to animals; she told her
husband to hurry to the river where their son was fishing and tell him
to get out of the way.
Wus knew their thoughts; he could hear them as if they talked aloud,
and he said: “I won’t hurt you or your son.”
When the young man saw Wus coming he hid and Wus went by, didn’t see
him.
When Wus got home, his mother asked: “Did you see those nice-looking
girls? Did they give you roots to eat?”
“No, they treated me meanly. They are nothing now. They have no minds.”
Wus and his mother moved away from the foot of the mountain, but
Djáudjau wouldn’t go. He said: “I am named for the mountains and I will
never leave them.”
Old Djáudjau is hunting on those mountains yet. People who travel on
high mountains often hear him calling his own name. Wus and his mother
went to Klamath Lake, and people say that they live there now.