"I want this house to grow, to be wide and high, to be large enough
for all who will ever come to it."
Then the house began to extend and grow wider and higher, and it
became wonderful in size and in splendor. Just as daylight was coming
the house was finished and ready. It stood there in the morning dawn,
a mountain of beautiful flowers and oak-tree branches; all the colors
of the world were on it, outside and inside. The tree in the middle
was far above the top of the house, and filled with acorns; a few of
them had fallen on every side.
That sweat-house was placed there to last forever, the largest and
most beautiful building in the world, above or below. Nothing like it
will ever be built again.
"Now, my grandson," said the old women, "the house is built and
finished. All the people in the world will like this house. They will
talk about it and speak well of it always. This house will last
forever, and these flowers will bloom forever; the roots from which
they grow can never die."
The world fire began on the morning after the sweat-house was
finished. During the fire they could see nothing of the world below
but flames and smoke. Olelbis did not like this.
"Grandson," said the old women, "we will tell you what to do to put
out that terrible wakpohas. There is a very old man, Kahit Kiemila,
and he lives far north toward the east, outside the first sky. He
stays there in one little place; he is all alone, and always in the
same place. Tell him what to do, and he will do it. If you don't like
the fire and smoke down below, tell the old man to turn his face
toward you, to come this way and to bring with him Mem Loimis. He sits
with his head between his hands and his face to the north, and never
looks up. The place where he sits is called Waiken Pom Pui Humok Pom."
The first person who came to Olelbis on the day of the fire was Kiriu
Herit. He came about daylight.
"You have finished the sweat-house, my nephew," said he.
"I have," said Olelbis, "but we are going to have trouble, and do you,
my uncle, go up on the west side of the sweat-house, look around
everywhere, and tell me what you see."
Kiriu went to the top of the house and looked. Soon another man came
and said, "My brother, you have finished the sweat-house."
"Yes," said Olelbis, "and do you, my brother, go up on the east side
of the house, stand there, and call to Kahit."
This was Lutchi Herit. Two more came and saluted Olelbis. "Go into the
sweat-house," said he. These were the two brothers, Tilichi. A fifth
person came, Kuntihle, and then a sixth, Sutunut, a great person.
Lutchi kept darting around, looking toward the north and calling:
"Kahit cannot take me! Kahit cannot take me!" Kahit was getting angry
by this time, and thinking to turn and look at Lutchi, for though far
away, he heard the noise of his darting and his calling. "That old
Kahit may come out, but he cannot catch me!" called Lutchi, as he
darted around, always watching the north.
Now Olelbis called Lutchi and Sutunut, and said: "You, Lutchi, go
north, pry up the sky and prop it; here is a sky pole and a sky prop."
Turning to Sutunut, he plucked a feather from each of his wings and
said: "Go to Kahit in Waiken Pom Pui Humok Pom; tell him to come south
with Mem Loimis. She lives not far from him. Her house is in the
ground. And tell him to blow his whistle with all his breath. Put
these two feathers on his cheeks just in front of his ears."
Lutchi went quickly. No one could travel as fast as he. He reached the
sky on the north, raised and propped it. Sutunut gave the message to
Kahit, who raised his head from between his hands slowly and turned
toward the south. Sutunut put the feathers in his cheeks then, as
Olelbis had commanded.
One person, Sotchet, who lived just south of Kahit, spoke up now and
said,--
"Go ahead, Kahit. I am in a hurry to see my father, Olelbis. I will
follow you. I am drinking my mother's milk." (He was doing that to
bring great water.) His mother was Mem Loimis.
"Come with me, Mem Loimis," said Kahit to Sotchet's mother. "When I
start, go ahead a little. I will help you forward."
Olelbis was watching, and thought, "Kahit is ready to start, and Mem
Loimis is with him."
Olelbis made then an oak paddle, and hurled it to where Sotchet was.
Sotchet caught the paddle, made a tail of it, put it on, and went
plashing along through the water. Not far from Kahit lived an old
woman, Yoholmit Pokaila. She made a basket of white willow, and
finished it just as Mem Loimis was ready to start. In the same place
was Sosini Herit, just ready to move. In one hand he held a bow and
arrows, with the other he was to swim.
Olelbis saw all this,--saw and knew what people were doing or
preparing to do. "Grandmothers," said he, "Mem Loimis is ready to
move. Kahit is ready. All the people around them will follow."
The great fire was blazing, roaring all over the earth, burning rocks,
earth, trees, people, burning everything.
Mem Loimis started, and with her Kahit. Water rushed in through the
open place made by Lutchi when he raised the sky. It rushed in like a
crowd of rivers, covered the earth, and put out the fire as it rolled
on toward the south. There was so much water outside that could not
come through that it rose to the top of the sky and rushed on toward
Olelpanti.
Olelbis went to the top of the sweat-house and stood looking toward
the north. Sula Kiemila and Toko Kiemila had come that morning. "Take
your places north of the sweat-house," said Olelbis, and they did so.
Olelbis saw everything coming toward him in the water from the north,
all kinds of people who could swim. They were so many that no one
could count them. Before he had built the sweat-house, the two
grandmothers had said to Olelbis: "Go far south and get pilok, which
is a tall plant with a strong fibre, and make a cord." He did so, and
twisted a strong cord from pilok. Of this he made a sling. He put his
hand to the west, and kilson came on it, a round white stone an inch
and a half in diameter. He put the stone in the sling, tied the sling
around his head, and kept it there always.
He took this sling in his hand now, and stood watching ready to throw
the stone at something that was coming in the water. Olelbis threw
with his left hand. He was left-handed, and for this reason was called
Nomhlyestawa (throwing west with the left hand).
Mem Loimis went forward, and water rose mountains high. Following
closely after Mem Loimis came Kahit. He had a whistle in his mouth; as
he moved forward he blew it with all his might, and made a terrible
noise. The whistle was his own; he had had it always. He came flying
and blowing. He looked like an enormous bat, with wings spread. As he
flew south toward the other side of the sky, his two cheek feathers
grew straight out, became immensely long, waved up and down, grew till
they could touch the sky on both sides.
While Kahit flew on and was blowing his whistle, old Yoholmit lay in
her basket; she floated in it high on the great waves, and laughed and
shouted, "Ho! ho!"
"How glad my aunt is to see water; hear how she laughs!" said Olelbis.
And he gave her two new names, Surut Womulmit (hair-belt woman) and
Mem Hlosmulmit (water-foam woman). "Look at my aunt," said Olelbis
again. "She is glad to see water!"