"Water, you be big! Grow all the time! Be deep so that I can float and
float on, float all my life."
Olelbis was watching everything closely. Sosini Herit was coming. He
held a bow and arrows in one hand and swam with the other. He was next
behind old Yoholmit.
"Look at my brother, Sosini, look at him swimming," said Olelbis. When
mountains of water were coming near swiftly, Olelbis said to the two
old women, "Go into the sweat-house." The two brothers, Kuntihle and
Tede Wiu, went in also. Olelbis stood ready to use his sling. When
Yoholmit was coming near, he hurled a stone at her. He did not hit
her. He did not wish to hit her. He hit the basket and sent her far
away east in it until the basket struck the sky.
When the water reached Toko, it divided, went east and west, went no
farther south in Olelpanti. At this time Olelbis saw a hollow log
coming from the north. On it were sitting a number of Tede Memtulit
and Bisus people. Just behind the log came some one with a big
willow-tree in his mouth, sometimes swimming east, sometimes swimming
west. He slapped the water with his new tail, making a loud noise.
This was Sotchet, the son of Mem Loimis. Olelbis struck the log with
a stone from his sling, and threw it far away west with all the
Memtulits on it except one, which came to the sweat-house and said,--
"My brother, I should like to stay with you here." This was Tede
Memtulit.
"Stay here," said Olelbis.
Next came Wokwuk. He was large and beautiful, and had very red eyes.
When Kahit came flying toward the sweat-house, and was still north of
it, Olelbis cried to him,--
"My uncle, we have had wind enough and water enough; can you not stop
them?"
Kahit flew off toward the east and sent Mem Loimis back. "Mem Loimis,"
said he, "you are very large and very strong, but I am stronger. Go
back! If not, I will stop you. Go home!"
Mem Loimis went back north, went into the ground where she had lived
before. Kahit went east, then turned and went north to where he had
been at first, and sat down again in silence with his head between his
hands.
When Mem Loimis and Kahit had gone home, all water disappeared; it was
calm, dry, and clear again everywhere. Olelbis looked down on the
earth, but could see nothing: no mountains, no trees, no ground,
nothing but naked rocks washed clean. He stood and looked in every
direction,--looked east, north, west, south, to see if he could find
anything. He found nothing. After a time he saw in the basin of a
great rock some water, all that was left. The rock was in Tsarau
Heril.
"My grandmothers," asked Olelbis, "what shall I do now? Look
everywhere, there is nothing in the world below but naked rocks. I
don't like it."
"Wait awhile, grandson," said they. "We will look and see if we can
find something somewhere. Perhaps we can."
On this earth there was no river, no creek, no water in any place but
that water at Tsarau Heril. This was the morning after Mem Loimis had
gone home.
Now a person came from the east to Olelpanti, Klabus Herit. "My
uncle," said Olelbis to Klabus, "I am looking all over the world
below, but can see nothing on it. Do you know any place beyond the sky
on the north, south, east, or west, where there is earth?
"I know no place where there is earth," said Klabus.
Soon another person, Yilahl Herit, was seen coming from the west. When
he came up, Olelbis asked,--
"My uncle, do you know of earth, or trees, or people in any place
beyond the sky?"
"I do not," answered Yilahl. "But are you all well here?"
"We are well and unharmed," answered Olelbis.
"How did you come here? Which way did you come? Where did you stay
that the world fire did not burn you?" asked Klabus of Yilahl.
"I will tell you," said Yilahl. "When the fire began, I went west, I
went under the sky where it touches the lower world, I went out to
the other side. The fire did not go there. There is earth now in that
place."
"My uncles," said Olelbis, "I want you both to go down, to go west,
and get that earth for me."
"I will go," said Klabus; and turning to the two old women he said:
"Give me two baskets, very large round baskets."
The old women made two very large baskets. Klabus took these and went
west with Yilahl. As soon as they started Olelbis took a great sky net
(kolchi koro), and it spread out; it reached to the ends of the sky in
every direction; it was full of small, fine holes, like a sieve. He
spread it out in Olelpanti; put it under his sweat-house. It is above
this world yet, but we cannot see it.
Klabus and Yilahl went west to where the earth was. Klabus dug it up
and filled the baskets quickly; went to the north side of the
sweat-house and threw the earth into the great net, then hurried back
and brought more earth and threw it on the net. It went through the
net and fell down here, fell on the rocks in this world like rain.
Klabus hurried back and forth very quickly, carrying one basket on
each arm. He was going and coming for five days and five nights; fine
earth was falling all this time, till the rocks were covered, and
there was plenty of earth everywhere.
Yilahl gave no help. He went down the first time with Klabus, showed
him the earth, and stayed there, but he did not help to carry earth or
to dig it.
When Klabus had covered all the rocks with good earth, Olelbis told
him to rest.
"Go west and tell Yilahl to help you," said Olelbis to Klabus the next
morning, after he had rested. "Tell him to work with you, fixing the
earth which you have thrown down. Go, both of you; make mountains,
hills, and level country; arrange everything."
No fire was visible anywhere; every bit had been quenched by the flood
which came in after Lutchi propped up the sky. Yilahl came out into
this world below from under the edge of the sky in the west, and
Klabus came out from under it in the east. Both met and went to work.
Yilahl made the small hills and fixed the rolling country. Klabus
raised the great mountains and mountain ranges. There was nothing but
earth and rock yet; no people at work only these two, Klabus and
Yilahl.
Olelbis stood watching and looking; he looked five days, found no fire
in any place. Next day he saw a little smoke in the southwest coming
straight up as if through a small opening. Olelbis had a Winishuyat on
his head tied in his hair, and the Winishuyat said to him,--
"My brother, look; there is a little fire away down south; a woman
there has fire in a small basket."
This woman was Yonot, the mother of Pohila, who had gone back to live
in her old house.
"My brother," said Olelbis, turning to Tede Wiu, "do you see that
place there? Go and bring fire from it."
Tede Wiu went quickly to the place where Olelbis had seen the smoke.
He found a house, and looking through a crack he saw the glow of fire,
but not the fire itself.
Tede Wiu stayed five days and nights watching. He could not get into
the house where the basket was. That house was closed firmly, and had
no door. At last he went back to Olelpanti without fire.
"I should like to catch the fish which I see jumping in that southern
water," said Kuntihle, "but we could not cook fish if we had it, for
we have no fire."
"You would better go yourself and try to get fire," said Olelbis.
Kuntihle went and watched five days. He could not get into the house,
and no fire fell out. He went back to Olelpanti.
"We need fire," said Olelbis, "but how are we to get it? Go again and
try," said he to Tede Wiu; "watch till fire falls out, or go in and
take some."
Klabus and Yilahl were at work yet.
Tede Wiu went, crept under the house, watched five days and nights,
stayed right under the basket in which Pohila was. On the sixth
morning, very early, just at daybreak, a spark of fire fell out. Tede
Wiu caught the spark, ran off quickly to Olelbis, and gave it to him.
They had fire in Olelpanti now, and were glad. Neither Yonot, the
mother, nor Tilikus, the father of Pohila, knew that fire had been
carried away to Olelpanti.
Klabus and Yilahl were still at work making the mountains and
valleys, and had almost finished.
Now that there was fire in Olelpanti, Kuntihle said: "I will go and
see that fish. Tilitchi, will you come with me?"
Tilitchi went. Before they started Olelbis gave them a fish net. They
caught a fish, and went back, dressed, cooked, and ate it.
"This is a good fish," said Olelbis. "How did it get into that water?
That pond in the rock is small and round; there is no water to run
into it. Grandmothers, what shall we do with this pond and the fish in
it?"
"We will tell you," said the old women. "Go to the west under the sky,
break off a strip of the sky, bring it here, and make a pointed pole
of it."
Klabus and Yilahl were just putting the top on Bohem Puyuk; all the
other mountains in the world were finished.
Olelbis went west, got the sky pole, and pointed one end of it. He
stuck the pole down at the foot of Bohem Puyuk, drew the point of it
along southward, making a deep furrow. Then he stuck the pole far
north, and made a second furrow to join the eastern end of the first
one. There was no water in either furrow yet, and Olelbis said,--
"Now, my grandmothers, what shall I do next?"
"Take this grapevine root," said they. "Throw it to the place where
you thrust in the pole at the foot of Bohem Puyuk."
He threw the root. One end of it went into the mountain, the other
hung out; from this water flowed.
"This will be called Wini Mem," said the grandmothers. "The country
around it will be good; many people will go there to live in the
future."
The grandmothers gave a second root, a tule root, and Olelbis threw
this far up north, where one end stuck in the ground as had the
grapevine root, and from the other end flowed Pui Mem--there is much
tule at the head of Pui Mem to this day.
Olelbis took his sky pole again and made deep furrows down southward
from Bohema Mem, large ones for large rivers and smaller ones for
creeks. Water flowed and filled the furrows, flowed southward till it
reached the place where Kuntihle found the first fish; and when the
large river reached that little pond, fish went out of it into the
river, and from the river into all creeks and rivers.
When the rivers were finished, and water was running in them, Olelbis
saw an acorn tree in the east, outside the sky. He looked on the north
side of the tree and saw some one hammering. He hurled a stone from
his sling, struck down the person, and sent Tilitchi to bring him.
Tilitchi brought him.
"Of what people is this one?" asked he of the old women.
"He is of a good people," answered they. "Put him on the central
pillar of the sweat-house; we call him Tsurat."
Tsurat was only stunned. When Tsurat was taken to the central pillar,
he climbed it, stopping every little while and hammering. The sound
which he made, "Ya-tuck! ya-tuck!" was heard outside the
sweat-house,--a good sound; all liked to hear it.
Olelbis saw on the same tree another of the same family. When he was
brought, the old women said, "This is Min Taitai; put him on the
ground east of the fire"--the fire was in the middle.
Min Taitai began to talk to himself. They could hear two words, "Wit,
wit!" (coming back, coming back).
Olelbis stunned a third person, who was brought by Tilitchi. The old
women said, "He, too, is of a good people, he is Hessiha; let him be
with Min Taitai, and put a basket of red earth and water near them."