Gäk Crow
Kiúks An Indian Doctor
Kumal Pelican
Moi Squirrel
Ndukis Hawk
Pakol Deer
Wíle A Fawn
Wus Fox
Gäk was an old man and he was a doctor; his wife was young.
Off in the mountains there was a platform of rocks. Gäk lay on the
platform; he was sick. His medicines were the earth and the wind, and
he sang to them all the time, trying to get well.
One morning Gäk told his wife (Wíle) that he was going to die, and
asked her to call to her mother and father and aunts and uncles and
cousins, and tell them to come and see him for the last time.
Wíle stood on the rocks and called: “My mother, my father, my aunts and
uncles and cousins, come and see Gäk; he is going to die.”
Her father was away on the mountain, but he heard her and said: “That
sounds like my child’s voice.”
Right off Wíle saw hundreds of her people gathering and she called to
Gäk: “They are coming! They are coming!”
Gäk got up, turned around, and lay down so there was just room enough
for one person to sit on the edge of the rock. Then he said to Wíle:
“When they get here, have the fattest one, the one with the black spot
on his forehead, sit here by me. I am going to leave him everything I
have.”
When they were all standing around Gäk, he said to the one with the
spot on his forehead: “I want you to be the last man to bid me
good-by.” Then he covered up his head and made a sound like groaning.
The Pakols waited a long time to see him die. At last they began to say
good-by. There was such a crowd that it was sundown when they were
through. Then Gäk told the fat Pakol, the one with the spot on his
forehead, to say good-by.
Just as Pakol was getting up to go, Gäk kicked him off the rock; he
fell over the precipice and was killed. Wíle and all the Pakols were so
scared that they ran away. Gäk went down among the rocks and began to
eat Pakol’s body.
The Pakols said: “The greatest one of us has been killed,” and they
mourned for him. (The Gäk people can never get enough to eat; they feed
themselves with both hands.)
Wus was no longer a person, but he could still talk. He came to the
ledge of rocks, looking for something to eat. He saw Gäk eating and
called out to him: “My brother, how did you get so much meat? How did
you get down there among the rocks?”
“I shut my eyes and jumped. Come down and eat with me.”
“I am afraid.”
“Go back a little way, shut your eyes, run to the edge, and jump.”
Wus said, “Eg! Eg!” and ran, but just as he got to the edge of the
rocks he opened his eyes and stopped. He did that three times.
Gäk scolded, and said: “You must do as I tell you. If you open your
eyes when you jump, you will get killed.”
Wus tried again, then he said: “Oh, my brother, throw me a piece of
meat.”
Gäk said: “If you want to eat, you must come down here.”
“Well, this time I will come!”
Wus jumped, but he caught on the bushes, and climbed back.
Gäk said: “It is getting dark. If you don’t come, you will have nothing
to eat.”
“I will come this time.”
Wus went over the rock like a feather, but when he was half-way down,
he opened his eyes; then he fell and was torn to pieces. His head,
alive and with open eyes, was far away from the body.
Gäk felt badly; he and Wus had always been good friends. He said to the
head: “Wus, I thought you were the strongest person in the world; now
you are torn to pieces. You didn’t do as I told you to; you opened your
eyes.”
Gäk talked to his medicines, the earth and the wind, then he got his
red medicine basket, [16] picked up the pieces of Wus, joined them
together and stepped over the body three times. He covered the body
with the basket and told Wus to lie still, that the basket would cure
him, but he mustn’t get up till he came and took it off. Gäk went back
to eating.
At sundown Wus began to kick and to call: “I am well; come and take the
basket off!” He called many times. Each time Gäk said: “Lie still a
while longer; you needn’t be afraid. There is plenty of meat; we can’t
eat it in all night.” At last Gäk took the basket off.
After that Wus and Gäk lived together. The Pakols wanted to kill Gäk,
because he had killed their best man. All kinds of people hated him,
and wanted to kill him, but when any one got near him he wasn’t Gäk; he
turned into something and got away. One morning two small men started
to hunt for him; when he knew they were coming, he turned himself into
a bird and flew away.
Gäk had a blanket of bright rock (obsidian); he put the blanket around
him, turned into a man just like Ndukis, and sat down on a high rock in
sight of his enemies. He painted his face white, to make them believe
he was Ndukis. His enemies came and looked at him,—a long line of
people. All the people that walk, or crawl, or fly in the world were
there, and all had good eyes. Each man gave his opinion, and each
thought it was Ndukis.
Blaiwas said: “Nobody in the world can see plainer than I can; that is
Ndukis.” Old man Moi knew the man was Gäk, but he didn’t want to say
so. When they asked him what he thought, he said: “You have a wise old
man here” (he meant Kumal); “if he doesn’t tell you who that man is, I
will.”
Gäk sat perfectly still on the rock. He knew that Kumal was wise, and
that he had a blanket made of five kinds of stone. Gäk’s blanket was
made of four kinds of stone.
When Kumal came up, the people gave him a place where he could stand
and look at the man on the rock. He looked a long time, then said: “How
could you be fooled? That is Gäk, the man who killed Pakol. He has
painted his face white and made himself look like Ndukis, but don’t you
see his large mouth?”
Gäk came down from the rock, took his own form, and began to fight with
the crowd. He killed every one who fought with him; some wouldn’t
fight, they ran away.
Gäk struck at Kumal’s throat, cut through the old man’s stone blanket,
and killed him; he tore his body to pieces, threw the pieces in the
water, and said: “You will no longer be a person. You will be a fisher,
and live in the water.” The other bodies Gäk turned to rocks, then he
went off to the mountains. Wus had been eating the bodies of the men
Gäk killed. When the bodies turned to stone, he followed Gäk to the
mountains.