"You my people, we will all dance to-night and to-morrow morning we
will go to hunt. Do not leave home, any of you. Let all stay. We will
have a great hunt. Katkatchila, will you stay with us?" asked he. "I
shall be glad if you go and hunt with us."
"I will go with you," said Katkatchila. "I am glad to go."
They danced all night. Next morning, after they had eaten, and just as
they were starting off to hunt, the chief said to his people,--
"I will send my grandson with Katkatchila, and some of you, my sons,
stay near him."
Some said to others: "When Katkatchila shoots a deer, let us run right
up and take out of the deer the thing with which he killed it, and
then we won't give it back to him."
"Do you stay with him, too," said Torihas to Kaisus, who was a swift
runner.
The whole party, a great many people, went to Hau Buli to hunt. When
they got onto the mountain they saw ten deer. Katkatchila shot without
delay; as soon as he shot a deer fell, and Kaisus, who was ready, made
a rush and ran up to the deer, but Katkatchila was there before him
and had taken out the weapon.
He killed all ten of the deer one after another, and Kaisus ran each
time to be first at the fallen body, but Katkatchila was always ahead
of him. When they went home Kaisus carried one deer, and told of all
they had done, saying,--
"Now you people, go and bring in the other deer. I don't believe any
man among us can run as fast as Katkatchila; he is a wonderful runner.
I don't know what he uses to kill game, and I don't think we can get
it away from him."
That night Hau spoke up among his friends and said, "I will go with
Katkatchila to-morrow and see what I can do."
A great many of the people talked about Katkatchila that night,
saying,--
"We do not think that he will ever come to us again, so we must all do
our best to get his weapon while he is here."
Katkatchila was ready to go home after the hunt, but Torihas persuaded
him, saying: "Stay one day more. Hunt with us to-morrow."
Katkatchila agreed to stay. Next morning they went to hunt. Hau went
among others, and stayed near Katkatchila all the time.
On the mountain they saw ten deer again. Katkatchila stood back to
shoot. Hau was ready to spring forward to get the weapon. The moment
the weapon was shot, Hau ran with all his strength, reached the deer
first, took out the weapon and hid it in his ear.
That moment Katkatchila was there. "You have taken my flint!" cried
he. "Give it back!"
"I have not taken it," said Hau. "I have nothing of yours. I have just
come."
"You have it. I saw you take it," said Katkatchila.
"I took nothing. I only put my hand on the deer's head."
"I saw you take it."
"No, you did not. I haven't it."
Katkatchila kept asking all day for his flint, but Hau would neither
give it back nor own that he had it. At last, when the sun was almost
down, Katkatchila turned to Hau and said,--
"I saw you take my flint. It would be better for you to give it back
to me, better for you and very much better for your people. You want
to keep the flint; well, keep it. You will see something in pay for
this, something that will not make you glad."
He left the hunt and went away in great anger, travelled all night and
was at home next morning.
Torihas's people went back from the hunt, and Hau with the others. He
went into the sweat-house, took the flint out of his ear and held it
on his palm. Every one came and looked at it. It was just a small bit
of a thing.
"When I took this," said Hau, "Katkatchila got very angry; he left us
on the mountain and went home."
All the people stood around looking at the flint in Hau's hand.
"You have done wrong, you people," said Patsotchet. "Katkatchila is
very strong and quick; you will see what he will do. He has great
power, more power than you think, and he will have vengeance. He will
make us suffer terribly. He is stronger than we are. He can do
anything. You will see something dreadful before long."
"Now, my people," said Torihas, "come into the sweat-house and we will
see what we can do with that flint."
All went in. Hau went last, for he had the flint. He held it out,
showed it again, and said, "I took this because you people wanted it."
They passed the flint from one to another; all looked at it, all
examined it. One old man said: "Give it to me here, let me see it." He
got it in his hand, and said: "Now all go outside of the sweat-house."
This was Hilit Kiemila. They went out, leaving him alone. Patsotchet
kept on repeating, "Katkatchila is angry, he is malicious; before long
we shall see what will happen."
As soon as Hilit was alone in the sweat-house, he began to rub the
flint with his hands and roll it with his legs (Hilit was turned
afterward into a house-fly, and that is why house-flies keep rubbing
their legs against each other to this day). He wanted to make the
flint large. After he had rolled and rubbed the flint all night, it
was four or five feet long, and as thick and wide. He let the block
fall to the ground and it made a great noise, a very loud noise;
people heard it for a long distance. Hilit went out then and said,--
"Go in, all you people, and look at that good flint."
They went and looked. It was almost daylight at the time, and each one
said,--
"Well, I don't know what is best to do; perhaps it would be best to
send this off. It may be bad for us to keep it here; bad for us to
have it in the sweat-house or the village."
They did not know who could carry the great block, it was so heavy.
"Perhaps Patsotchet can carry it," said they.
Torihas went outside and called Patsotchet, saying: "Come into the
sweat-house a little while. You come seldom; but come now."
Patsotchet left his house, which was near by, and went into the
sweat-house.
"What are you going to do?" asked he. "It is too late to do anything
now. I have known a long time about Katkatchila. He is very strong. He
will do something terrible as soon as daylight comes."
"Patsotchet," said Torihas, "you are a good man. I wish you would take
this big flint and carry it far away off north."
"I don't want to take it," said Patsotchet. "It is too heavy."
Torihas went to Karili, who lived a little way off, and said: "Come
into the sweat-house. I wish to talk with you."
Karili went in. "Take this block," said Torihas. "No one is willing to
carry it away, but you are strong. Carry it north for me."
Karili took up the flint, but when he had it outside the house he
said: "I cannot carry this. It is too heavy. I am not able to carry
it."
Torihas called in Tichelis, and said: "My uncle, will you take this
north for me?"
"Why will not others take it? Why are they unwilling to carry it?"
asked Tichelis. "Well, I will take it," said he, after thinking a
little; and he made ready.
"Take it and start right away," said Torihas. "Daylight is coming. Go
straight. I will go, too, and when I am on the top of Toriham Pui
Toror I will shout, and show you where to put the block."
Tichelis put the flint on his back and hurried away with it.
When Katkatchila reached home he told his brother-in-law, Tilikus, and
his brother-in-law's brother, Poharamas, and Yonot, his sister, how
his flint had been stolen.
It was just before sunrise. Tilikus and Poharamas went out in front of
the house and swept a space clean and smooth; then they ran off to the
east and got pine as full of pitch as they could find it. They brought
a great deal of this, split some very fine, and made a large pile
there on the smooth place.
Just at this time Torihas's people were in his sweat-house talking
about the theft. "Nothing will happen," said most of them; "old
Patsotchet is always talking in that way, foretelling trouble. We will
dance to-day. Tichelis has carried that thing far away; all will be
well now."
Yonot, Katkatchila's sister, had one child, a little baby which she
called Pohila (fire child). The woman never left the house herself,
and never let any one carry the child out.
"Now, my sister," said Katkatchila, "bring your child here; bring my
nephew out, and put him on that nice, smooth place which we have swept
clean; it will be pleasant there for him."
She brought the boy out, put him on the smooth place. Poharamas was on
the southeast side all ready, and Tilikus on the southwest side. As
soon as Yonot put down the baby, they pushed pitch-pine sticks toward
it. That instant fire blazed up. When the fire had caught well
Poharamas took a large burning brand of pitch-pine and rushed off to
the southeast; Tilikus took another and ran to the southwest.
Poharamas, when he reached the southeast where the sky comes to the
earth, ran around northward close to the sky; he held the point of his
burning brand on the ground, and set fire to everything as he ran.
When Tilikus reached the southwest, at the place where the sky touches
the earth, he ran northward near the sky. The two brothers went
swiftly, leaving a line of flame behind them, and smoke rose in a
cloud with the fire.
After the two had started Yonot snatched up Pohila, and as she raised
the boy a great flame flashed up from the spot. She ran into the house
with her son, and put him into the basket where she had kept him till
that morning.
Torihas's people had begun to dance. Some time after sunrise they saw
a great fire far away on the east and on the west as well.
"Oh, look at the fire on both sides!" said one.
"It is far off, and won't come here," said another.
"I feel the heat already!" cried a third.
Soon all saw that the fire was coming toward them from the east and
the west like waves of high water, and the line of it was going
northward quickly. The fire made a terrible roar as it burned; soon
everything was seething. Everywhere people were trying to escape, all
were rushing toward the north. By the middle of the forenoon the heat
and burning were so great that people began to fall down, crying
out,--
"Oh, I'm hot! Ah, I'm hot!"
Torihas made a rush toward the north, and reached the top of Toriham
Pui Toror. When he saw the fire coming very near he called out to
Tichelis, who was struggling along with the great block of flint on
his back,--
"Go ahead with the flint! Go on, go on, the fire is far from here, far
behind us!"
Tichelis heard the shouting, but said nothing; kept going northward
steadily. When he was northeast of Bohem Puyuk, he saw the fire coming
very fast, a mighty blaze roaring up to the sky. It was coming from
the south, east, west. Tichelis could go no farther; there was no
place for escape above ground; the fire would soon be where he was.
The flint had grown very hot from the burning; he threw it down; it
had skinned his back, it was so hot and heavy. He ran under the
ground, went as far as he could, and lay there. Presently he heard the
fire roaring above him, the ground was burning, he was barely alive;
soon all blazed up, earth, rocks, everything.
Tichelis went up in flames and smoke toward the sky.
When the brothers Tilikus and Poharamas had carried the fire around
the world and met in the north, just half-way between east and west,
they struck their torches together and threw them on the ground. The
moment before they joined the burning brands two persons rushed out
between them. One was Klabus and the other Tsaroki, who had carried
the invitation from Torihas to Katkatchila. They just escaped.
The flint rock that Tichelis dropped lies there yet, just where it
fell, and when the Wintu people want black flint they find it in that
place.
Poharamas and Tilikus ran home as soon as they struck their torches
together.
Katkatchila had a little brother. He put the boy on his back, and went
beyond the sky where it touches the earth in the south.
Yonot, the mother of Pohila, took her son and went behind the sky; her
husband, Tilikus, went with her. Poharamas went to Olelpanti. He flew
up to where Olelbis is.
Olelbis looked down into the burning world. He could see nothing but
waves of flame; rocks were burning, the ground was burning, everything
was burning. Great rolls and piles of smoke were rising; fire flew up
toward the sky in flames, in great sparks and brands. Those sparks
became kolchituh (sky eyes), and all the stars that we see now in the
sky came from that time when the first world was burned. The sparks
stuck fast in the sky, and have remained there ever since the time of
the wakpohas (world fire). Quartz rocks and fire in the rocks are from
that time. There was no fire in the rocks before the wakpohas.
When Klabus escaped he went east outside the sky, went to a place
called Pom Wai Hudi Pom. Tsaroki went up on the eastern side of the
sky,--ran up outside.
Before the fire began Olelbis spoke to the two old women and said: "My
grandmothers, go to work for me and make a foundation. I wish to build
a sweat-house."
They dug out and cleared a place for the sweat-house the day before
the world-fire began. Olelbis built it in this way: When the two women
had dug the foundation, he asked,--
"What kind of wood shall I get for the central pillar of the house?"
"Go far down south," said the old grandmothers, "and get a great young
white oak, pull it up with the roots, bring it, and plant it in the
middle to support the house."
He went, found the tree, and brought it.
"Now, my grandmothers, what shall I do next?"
"Go north and bring a black oak with the roots. Go then to the west,
put your hand out, and there you will touch an oak different from
others."
He went north and west, and brought the two trees.
"Now," said Olelbis, "I want a tree from the east."
"Go straight east to a live-oak place, you can see it from here, get
one of those live-oaks." He brought it with the roots and said,--
"Now I want two trees more."
"Go to the southeast," said they, "where white oaks grow, and get two
of them."
He went and got two great white oak trees, pulled them up with the
roots, brought them with all the branches, which were covered with
acorns.
Olelbis put the great white oak from the south in the middle as the
central pillar; then he put the northern black oak on the north side;
he put it sloping, so that its branches were on the south side of the
house; over against this he put a southeastern white oak sloping in
like manner, so that its head came out on the north side. The western
oak he planted on the west side, sloping so that its branches hung on
the east side; then he put up the two white oaks from the southeast on
the east side: six trees in all. The top of each tree was outside
opposite its roots; acorns from it fell on the opposite side. Olelbis
wished to fasten the trees firmly together so they should never
loosen.
"Stop, grandson," said one of the old women. "How will you bind the
top?"
"I have nothing to bind it with," answered Olelbis.
She put her hand toward the south, and on it came humus koriluli (a
plant with beautiful blossoms). She took it with roots, stem, and
blossoms and made a long narrow mat, the stem and roots all woven
together inside and the blossoms outside. "Here, grandson," said she,
"put this around the top of the house and bind the trees with it
firmly."
He did this. The binding was beautiful and very fragrant. He wrapped
it around the trees where they came together at the top of the house
inside.
The two old women made four very large mats now, one for each side of
the house. They wove first a mat of yosoü (a plant about a foot high,
which has no branches and only a cluster of red flowers at the top).
When they had finished it they told Olelbis to put it on the north
side of the house.
"Now, my grandmothers," said Olelbis, "I want a cover for the east
side."
"My grandson," said each, "we are sorry that you are alone, sorry that
you have no one to help you in building this house. Now take this mat
and put it on the east side."
They gave him a mat made of the same plant that was used for a binding
to hold the top of the house.
"I want a cover now for the south side."
The old women put their hands to the east, and a plant came to them a
foot high with white blossoms, of very sweet odor. A great deal of
this plant came, and they made a mat of it. They put all the blossoms
outside. The mat covered the south side.
"Now, how shall I cover the west side?"
"We have the covering here already, made of kin-tekchi-luli" (a plant
with blue and white blossoms).
They put that mat on the west side, the blossoms turned outward.
The old women gave him all kinds of beautiful plants now, and flowers
to form a great bank around the bottom of the sweat-house. All kinds
of flowers that are in the world now were gathered around the foot of
that sweat-house, an enormous bank of them; every beautiful color and
every sweet odor in the world was there.
When they went into the sweat-house, the perfume was delightful. The
two old women said then:
"All people to come in the world below will talk of this house, and
call it Olelpanti Hlut when they tell about it and praise the house on
high."
Olelbis said: "I want to lay something lengthwise on each side of the
door. What shall I get?"
The two said: "We will get sau" (acorn bread made in a great round
roll like a tree-trunk).
They got sau, and put a roll at each side of the door; these rolls
were put there for people to sit on.