"This is a black one! They broke down the fence and ran away! They are
a strong people."
"Now, my brother," said the elder Katkatchila, "we will skin this
cloud, and you may have the skin. We will give it to you."
"I shall be glad to have it," said Olelbis.
They stripped the skin from the cloud, and, when giving it to Olelbis,
the elder one said, "You must tan this carefully."
"Make another fence," said Olelbis, "but make it stronger. You will
catch more of these people."
"A great many clouds have broken through our fence to-day and gone
north. Others went before we made the fence. We shall see these people
by and by," said Katkatchila. (He meant that clouds would stay in the
north and become another people; stay there always.)
Olelbis took the skin, turned toward home, and travelled on. He was
rubbing it in his hands, tanning it as he went. The brothers put the
body in a hole and buried it, not caring for the flesh. They wanted
only the skin.
Olelbis went along tanning the skin of the black cloud, and he walked
around everywhere as he tanned. He went away west, then north, then
south, then east. At last he came home with the skin well tanned. He
spread it and stretched it smooth. The two Katkatchila brothers had
not been able yet to catch another of the cloud people, but they were
working at it all the time. After Olelbis spread the skin on the
ground, he took it up and said to one of the old women,--
"My grandmother is always cold; let us give her this skin;" and he
gave it to her. Each of the two old women said,--
"My grandson, we are glad to have this skin. We shall sleep warm now."
"I must go," said Olelbis, "and see my brothers drive in more of the
cloud people." And he went.
"We cannot catch these clouds," said the older brother; "they go
through our fence, they escape, we cannot catch them; they have gone
to the north, they will stay there and become a new people. We have
caught only one, a white cloud. Those that have escaped will become a
new people; they will be Yola Ka" (snow clouds).
The Katkatchilas stripped the skin from the white cloud and gave it to
Olelbis. He went around north, south, east, and west, tanning it in
the same way that he had tanned the black skin. After he had tanned it
well he spread the skin, stretched it, straightened it; then he gave
it to the other grandmother.
Both old women were glad now. Both said: "We shall sleep warm at night
now all the time."
Next day the two brothers caught a third cloud, a red one, but they
kept that skin for themselves. They did not give it to Olelbis,
because he told them to keep it. We see this skin now often enough,
for the brothers hang it up when they like in the west and sometimes
in the east.
"Now," said the two old women, "we have this white skin and this black
one. When we hang the white skin outside this house, white clouds will
go from it,--will go away down south, where its people began to live,
and then they will come from the south and travel north to bring rain.
When they come back, we will hang out the black skin, and from it a
great many black rain clouds will go out, and from these clouds heavy
rain will fall on all the world below."
From that time the old women hang out the two skins, first the white,
then the black skin, and when clouds enough have gone from them they
take the skins into the sweat-house again; and from these two skins
comes all the rain to people in this world.
"The cloud people who went north will stay in the northwest," said
Olelbis, "and from them will come snow to people hereafter."
All this time the people in Olelpanti were singing and talking. Any
one could hear them from a distance. Olelbis had brought in a great
many different kinds of people, others had come themselves, and still
others were coming. After the tanning of the two cloud skins a man
came and took his place above the sweat-house door, and sat there with
his face to the east. This was Kar Kiemila. Right after him came
Tsararok, and took his place at the side of Kar. Next came Kau; then
the two brothers Hus came, and Wehl Dilidili. All these people in the
sweat-house and around it asked one another,--
"What shall we do? Where shall we live? We should like to know what
Olelbis will do with us."
"You will know very soon where we are going," said Toko and Sula.
"Olelbis will put us in our places; he is chief over all."
Next morning Olelbis said: "Now, my grandmothers, what do you think
best? What are we to do with the people here? Is it best for them to
stay in Olelpanti?"
"Our grandson," answered the old women, "send all that are not needed
here to the lower world; turn them into something good for the people
who are to come soon,--those fit for this place up here. The great
people, the best ones, you will keep in Olelpanti, and send down only
a little part of each of them to turn into something in the world
below and be of use to people there."
Olelbis called all who were in the sweat-house to come out, and he
began to send them to their places.
To Kar he said: "Go and live on Wini Mem. Be a gray heron there; that
is a good country for you." (Before white people came there were many
of these birds on that river.)
To Toko he said: "Go to Kawiken on Pui Mem. Be a sunfish and live
there always. You, Sula, go to the south of Bohem Puyuk on Wini Mem.
Be a trout, and live at Sulanharas."
To Torihas he said: "You will be a blue crane," and to Chalilak: "You
will be a goose. You both will have two places to live in, one in the
south and the other in the north. You will go north in the spring and
live there all summer; you will go south in the fall and live in the
south all winter. Do this always; travel that way every year."
To Kiriu he said: "Go and live along the water. You will be a loon,
and you will go up and down great rivers all your life."
To Katsi he said: "You will be a fish hawk, catch fish and eat them,
live along rivers."
Olelbis plucked one small feather from the neck of Moihas. This he
threw down and said, "Be an eagle, and live on high mountains." All
bald eagles on earth came from that feather, but the great Moihas
remained above with Olelbis, where he is now.
From Lutchi Olelbis plucked one feather, threw it down, and said: "You
will be a humming-bird. Fly around in spring when the green grass
comes and the trees and flowers bloom. You will be on blossoms and
dart from one to another everywhere." Lutchi himself stayed in
Olelpanti.
Olelbis pulled a feather from Kau, threw it down, and said: "You will
fly along rivers, be a white crane, and live near them always." The
great Kau stayed in Olelpanti with Olelbis.
From the elder Hus brother Olelbis plucked a feather from the right
side, sent the feather down on this earth, and said,--
"You be a buzzard down there, and in spring go up on Wini Mem and look
for dead salmon and other fish along Pui Mem, Bohema Mem, and other
rivers, eat dead salmon and other fish. When people kill a snake or
something else which they do not like, you will go and eat the snake
or other dead thing. The Wintu, the coming people, will feed you
always with what is dead."
Tilitchi had been sent for three persons, and now he brought the
first.
"Who is this?" asked Olelbis of the old women.
"This is Dokos," said they; "he is bad."
Dokos was placed a little northeast of the sweat-house. He sat looking
toward the west. Tilichi brought in a second and third person.
"Who are these?" asked Olelbis.
"These are both bad people," said the old women. "These are Wima
Loimis and Klak Loimis."
"Put them with Dokos," said Olelbis. After he had called all the
people out of the sweat-house to send them to their proper places,
Olelbis had put something on their teeth to make them harmless.
"Come here, Wima Loimis," said Olelbis. "I have something to put on
your teeth so that they may harm no one."
"I want nothing on my teeth," said Wima Loimis. "If something were put
on them I could not eat." He asked again, but she shook her head,
saying: "I want nothing on my teeth, I could not eat if anything were
put on them."
"If she will not come, come you, Klak Loimis." Klak Loimis would not
go to him.
"Why not come when I call you?" asked Olelbis.
"My sister Wima will not go. She says that she could not eat if her
teeth were touched. I want nothing on my teeth. I am afraid that I
could not eat."
"Very well," answered Olelbis, "you, Wima, and you, Klak, want to be
different from others. Come, Dokos, I will touch your teeth."
"My sisters, Klak and Wima, want nothing on their teeth. I want
nothing on mine. I am angry at my sisters; my heart hates them. I do
not wish to be good. I am angry at my sisters. I will be wicked as
well as they." Then turning to his sisters he said: "After a while
people will employ me against you whenever they are angry at you.
Whenever you bite people or hurt them, they will call me to fight
against you, and I will go with them. I will go into your bodies and
kill you. Then you will be sorry for what you have done to-day.
Olelbis asked you to be good. He wants you to be good, but you are not
willing. I will be bad to punish you."
When the two women heard these words they cried, and Wima said, "Well,
my brother, we can put something on our teeth yet."
Dokos placed his head between his hands and sat awhile in that
posture. Then he straightened himself and said,--
"You two have talked enough; you would better stop. You are not like
me; I am stronger than both of you, and I shall be so always. You,
Wima, and you, Klak, will hate people only, but I shall hate all
living things. I shall hate you, hate every one; kill you, kill every
one. I want nothing of any one. I want no friend in any place."
"Well," said Olelbis, "you go as you are."
"I will go first," said Dokos.
"Go," said Olelbis, "to Koiham Nomdaltopi, be flint there, and spread
all around the place. You, Klak Loimis, will go to Klak Kewilton, be a
rattlesnake there, increase and spread everywhere. I will send you,
Wima, to Wima Wai Tsarauton; you will be a grizzly bear there. After a
while a great family will come from you and spread over all the
country. You will be bad; and, Klak, you will be bad, but, Dokos, you
will be the worst, always ready to hurt and kill; always angry, always
hating your sisters and every one living.
"You, Klak, and you, Wima, when you see people you will bite them, and
people will take Dokos to kill you, and Dokos will go into your
bodies, and you will die. Wima, you will be sorry that you would not
let me change your teeth. You, Klak, will be sorry. You will bite
people, and they will kill you because you cannot run away from them.
Your dead body will lie on the ground, and buzzards will eat it.
"Dokos, you will go to your place and increase. People will go there
and get you to kill your sisters and others for them, and when you
have pleased them and killed all the people they wished you to kill,
when they want you no longer, they will throw you down on a rock and
break you to pieces, then you will be nothing. You will be dead
forever. Now go!"
To all those who let their teeth be made innocent, Olelbis said: "You
will go to where I send you,--one here, another there." And he gave
their places to all. To some he said: "After a while the new people
will use you for food," and to the others he said: "The new people
will use your skins, and you will be of service to them, you will be
good for them."
The first person taken up to Olelbis's sweat-house was Tsurat; and now
Olelbis spoke to Tsurat last of all and said,--
"Pluck one feather from your back."
Tsurat plucked it.