After each name is given that of the beast, bird, or thing into which
the personage was changed subsequently.
=Dokos=, flint; =Hus=, turkey buzzard; =Klak=, rattlesnake; =Sedit=,
coyote; =Wima=, grizzly bear.
* * * * *
There were two brothers Hus in Olelpanti, and Olelbis had given them a
place in his sweat-house. Now, when Olelbis had made up his mind to
send all things down to the earth, the people in Olelpanti were
talking and saying,--
"What shall we do now? How will it be in the world? Dokos Herit, Klak
Loimis, and Wima Loimis have done wrong. They are angry and think bad
things. They will make trouble."
"Come into the sweat-house, you my people," said Olelbis, "and talk.
Say what you think is best to do."
All who were in Olelpanti at that time went into the sweat-house,
where they talked five nights and five days. On the sixth morning
Olelbis called the two Hus brothers and said,--
"I have a great work for you. Go down to Tsarauheril, where the first
tree is. Right there a people will come up out of the earth, and they
will come soon. A little above that place, you two brothers must go
to work and make a stone road from the earth up here to Olelpanti. You
will find stones and pile them firmly. Make the building very strong.
The road itself will be like steps, one higher than another. When you
have built half-way up to Olelpanti, you will make a place in which
people may spend a night. Put good water there. When you have finished
the whole road, people will come up out of the earth, and when they
have come up they will go around on the earth everywhere, and live and
grow old. When they are old, they can go to the beginning of the road
made by you and climb the steps. When they are at the water, which is
half-way, they will drink of it, rest one night, and next day travel
on till they come here to Olelpanti.
"I will put two springs of water at this end,--one for them to bathe
in, the other to drink. If an old man is coming up, he will drink of
the water half-way, he will drink and feel better, and when he reaches
this end and comes to the water here, he will bathe in one spring,
drink from the other, and come out young, fresh, and strong. If an old
woman comes, she will drink and bathe and come out a young girl. Then
they will go down to the earth again young and healthy. When they grow
old a second time, they will come up, drink, and bathe again, and be
young a second time; and it will be this way forever. Nobody will die.
No man will have a wife, no woman a husband; all will be as brothers
and sisters. When the trees grow large which are small now, there will
be no limbs except at the top, and the acorns on those trees will
have no shells. They will be ready to eat without husking or cracking,
and it will be so on all trees,--no husks or shells on the acorns;
nobody will need to climb; the nuts will fall ready to be eaten."
When Olelbis had finished talking, he sent away the two brothers. "Go
now," said he, "and make that great road."
The two brothers started. They came down at Sonomyai, looked around,
and said,--
"This must be the place of which Olelbis told us. This must be the
place where we are to work: we will begin here."
"My brother," said the elder Hus, "I will bring stones to you; plenty
of them; big stones. You will put them together,--lay them in order
and make the walls."
They began to work. On the first day they piled the road up as high as
a big house. Next day they piled all day; made the road as high as a
tall tree. The third day it was very high; the fourth still higher. It
was rising very fast. The brothers worked well, and had great power.
The building was already the largest ever seen on this earth. On the
fifth day the top could hardly be seen. On the sixth day it was
touching the clouds.
A little before noon of the sixth day the two brothers saw something
moving from the southwest. When it came near they saw a man with
mempak around his neck. He wore an otter-skin headband, an otter-skin
quiver, and a Sedit skin, which he wore like a coat. He had on
buckskin leggings ornamented with kobalus, and his shirt was stuck
full of kobalus, the sharp end of the shell out. He was dressed
beautifully. When this man had come near, he watched the two brothers
at work. They did not speak to him.