On the shore of Tula Lake many chiefs were living,—the first people.
(They are now turned to fowls and animals.) With them lived an old
woman and her grandson. The boy was called “Big Belly;” Tusasás rubbed
dirt on him and laughed at him because he was small and fat.
A Skoks traveled every evening along the eastern side of the lake. The
Skoks wore a straw blanket, and made a great noise, crying as he went
along. The minute anybody saw him, he vanished. If he passed a man
whose right shoulder was toward him, that man died at once, for the
spirit stole his life, but if the spirit passed on the other side, the
person was senseless a while and then came to life.
One evening people heard the Skoks coming. It made such a noise that
they heard it when it was a long way off. They were scared; they
crowded together and each person wanted to be inside. Tusasás wanted to
be under all the rest; they pulled him up and threw him out, but he
crawled under again. The people shivered; it was so cold they were
nearly frozen. It was always cold when that Skoks screamed; he made it
so. Fires went out and grass wouldn’t burn.
The old woman took the hull of seeds and made a fire for the little
boy. She cried while she was making it, and said: “My grandson, all the
people here are going to die.” The little boy didn’t seem to know what
she meant; he got up and stood by the fire. She said: “Sit down, my
grandson, you mustn’t stand up or go out; if you meet this Skoks, you
are sure to die.” The old woman threw ashes toward the voice of the
Skoks.
The little boy told his grandmother to tie a skin around him and roll
him up so he could go and meet the Skoks.
“My grandson,” said the old woman, “what can you do? You have no
power.” But she got a buckskin blanket, tied it around him, and said:
“Don’t let the Skoks pass on the right side; be sure that your left
shoulder is toward him. He will try to make you go on the other side,
but don’t you go.”
Every time the Skoks shouted, it was like throwing ice into the house,
and Tusasás cried out: “Oh, let me go under; I am cold.”
When the boy started, his grandmother said: “You must take some ordure
in your hand, and if the Skoks tries to make you go on the wrong side,
throw it at him.”
Soon the boy saw the Skoks. His head reached the sky and he looked as
if he were carrying a load of clouds. One side was painted white, the
other black. He came very fast. The boy had hard work to get by. When
he pushed into Skoks, Skoks darted forward. At last both fell, and
their bodies turned to rock, but their spirits came out of the rocks.
The boy was holding up the ordure, and that turned to rock, too.
When the sun rose the next morning, the boy’s spirit went home. He was
a young man now and wore a panther-skin blanket that came to his feet.
(After a person meets a Skoks, he looks strange; he loses his old
body.) As soon as the young man got home, it was warm; fires burned,
and right away it was summer. The people made him chief and he had
control of the place.
After that two men went north to visit their kin; one of the men was
killed. When the people heard about it, they asked the chief if they
should demand pay for the man’s life. He said: “Yes, and if they don’t
pay, I will punish them.” The men refused to pay, and messengers were
sent to the chief.
He took a long obsidian knife and started. When nearly there, he said
to his men: “Don’t be frightened; the Skoks is getting mad and ready to
move.” (The Skoks was the chief’s medicine.)
When the chief came to the enemy, they said: “We are men, not women; we
are not afraid of you. We won’t pay for the man we killed.”
Both sides were ready to fight. The chief said to his men: “When I
shout, fall on the ground and don’t move.” He shouted like Skoks and
all of his people fell. His enemies were terribly frightened. Right
away they were freezing.—The chief could see the Skoks, but nobody else
could see him.—The chief killed a great many men; they were so cold
they couldn’t run away; he cut them to pieces with his obsidian knife.
After that, there was no trouble with the northern people; they had
found that there was a powerful chief in the south, a man who could
kill them easily.