"I want some of you young men to try to go up and ask Sas if he knows
where my brother is. I think Sas must know."
"I will try first," said the old man at the western side of the door;
"I think that I have the longest rope."
"I will give you something for Sas," said Norwanchakus. "Here is an
arrow-straightener, a headband of silver gray-fox skin, and a
fire-drill. If you go to the top of the sky, you will see a road from
east to west. Sit at the south side of it under a tobacco tree which
is there. Soon Sas will come from the east, going west. He will stop
at the tree. Give him the three things."
The old man brought out a great coil of rope to unwind and go up with
it.
"Who is to stand and watch?" asked the other old man.
"Tsiwihl," said Norwanchakus.
Tsiwihl put oak leaves near the coil, lay on them, and looked up. Old
Lasaswa took one end of his rope, pulled it, and started. The rope was
unwinding, and he was going up. Tsiwihl kept his eyes on Lasaswa.
After a while he said, "Lasaswa is half-way up." A little later he
said, "He is more than half-way up!"
"But the rope is gone," said Norwanchakus.
"Lasaswa is coming down," said Tsiwihl.
The old man came to the ground. "My rope is too short. Some one else
must try now," said he.
"I will try," said the other old man. This one had more rope. Five men
had to help him roll it out of the house, there was so much. He took
the presents for Sas and began to go up.
Tsiwihl watched closely. The rope was unwinding and Lasaswa was going
up. "He is half-way up!" said Tsiwihl; "he is near where the first man
was." Tsiwihl moved his head a little, but never lost sight of
Lasaswa. "He is as high as the other was; he is higher; he is going
still higher!"
"But the rope has given out," said Norwanchakus.
"He is coming down!" cried Tsiwihl.
All were looking at the sky except the small boy, who was inside
making rope as before.
"We are old," said the second Lasaswa; "our ropes are too short. You
young men must try to-morrow."
Each old man had nine sons. Each person was one day making the
trial--all were twenty days trying--no one had a rope long enough.
"What shall we do now?" asked the old men on the twenty-first day.
"There is a boy in the house making rope yet; let him try," said
Norwanchakus.
"Oh, he is only playing. He hasn't much rope; he just makes ropes of
the shreds that others throw away," said one of the old men.
"Go in and ask him," said the second old man.
Norwanchakus went in and said, "You are a small boy, but will you try
your rope for me?" and he took hold of the boy's hand. He kept his
rope in a little basket. When Norwanchakus took his hand, he seized
the basket with the other hand and carried it out.
"Why do they bring out that little boy?" cried the young men. "He
hasn't any rope. We had long ropes, and all were too short; his rope
is only to play with."
"My cousin," said Norwanchakus, "you are small, but I think you know
something. Here are three presents. When you reach the sky, give them
to Sas." Then he told him what to do.
When Norwanchakus had finished, the boy bowed his head and said "Yes"
to him. "You men have long ropes, but they were too short. My rope may
not reach the sky, but I will try;" and he started.
Tsiwihl's breast and stomach were as blue now as the sky, and blood
was trickling from his eyes, he had looked so long and so hard. After
the boy was some distance up, those below could not see him, and they
said to Tsiwihl, "Tell us, tell us often what he is doing."
After a while Tsiwihl said: "He is almost as high as the others were.
He is as high; he is as high as the highest was."
They looked at his rope. There seemed to be more than when he started.
It seemed to grow all the time.
"He is higher than any--he is going and going."
"Do not lose sight of him," said Norwanchakus.
Tsiwihl's eyes were full of blood.
"How much rope is there?" asked Norwanchakus.
"Oh, there is plenty of rope," cried the others.
"He is going and going," said Tsiwihl.
"How far up is he? Can you see him?"
"He is high, very high, almost as high as I can see--he is nearly at
the sky."
"He will go to it, he will go to it!" cried some.
"He is at the sky," said Tsiwihl. "He is there, he is there! He has
his hand on it--he is on the top of it--he is there!"
There was plenty of rope on the ground yet.
"Well," said one of the old men, "he is on the sky. He never talked
much, that little boy, or seemed to know much, but he has gone to a
place where we could not go."
The sun was almost half-way up in the sky. Tsiwihl lay watching,
watching, looking hard. Sas had passed the middle of the sky when
Tsiwihl said: "I see the boy. He is coming down, he is coming nearer
and nearer."
Soon all could see him. At last he was standing on the ground.
"Now, my cousin," said Norwanchakus, "tell me. Let me know what you
saw and what you heard. What do you think of that country up there?"
"I went to the top," said the boy. "The country up there is good. I
saw a road from east to west. I went east a little, and at the south
of the road saw a tobacco tree. I sat under the tree and looked east.
Far off I saw an old man coming with a pack on his back. I sat
watching him. At last he came to where I was and passed without
looking at me, went forward a little, stopped, put down his pack on
the south side of the road, and then came toward me. I was sitting
with my face to the north. He sat down at my left side, looked at me,
looked at the headband, the fire-drill, and the straightener, and
laughed. 'What are you doing here?' asked he. 'From what place are
you? How did you come up to this land, where no one ever travels but
me, where I have never seen any one? You are small. How could you come
here?' 'I am here,' answered I, 'because Norwanchakus sent me. He sent
me because he has lost his brother, Keriha. He has looked for him all
over the world, has asked every one, and no one knows about Keriha. He
sent me here to ask you about Keriha. He said that you must know, for
you look over the whole world, see all people, see everything.' I put
the three things down before him and said, 'Norwanchakus told me to
give you these things for your trouble in telling about Keriha.' Sas
smiled again, took up the headband, the fire-drill and straightener,
held them in his hand, and said: 'These are good--I know all that is
passing in the world. I know where Keriha is. I have seen him every
day since he went from his brother--I know where he is now. The
Supchit woman took him one night, took him under the ground, came out
on the top of Bohem Puyuk, went down again, came out, travelled by
crooked roads westward, crossed the bridge made of one hair, went
under the sky to the other side, to the middle house in a large
village. She put Keriha in a little room in that house; he has been
there ever since, he is there now. He is very weak and will die
to-morrow unless some one saves him. Tell Norwanchakus to start
to-night and be there in the morning if he wants to save Keriha.'"
"Then Sas put his hand in his bosom and took out a kolchi bisi [sky
cap], gave it to me, and said, 'Take this to Norwanchakus, and tell
him to give it to Tsiwihl for his trouble.' Sas gave me also a piece
of the sky. 'This is for Tsiwihl, too,' said he; 'let him wear it on
his breast for a blue facing.'"
Norwanchakus gave these to Tsiwihl, and then made him a blanket of oak
leaves. He wears all these things to this day.
"My cousin, are you sure that Sas said this?" asked Norwanchakus.
"I am sure. Sas told me all this."
"Wait now, my cousin." Norwanchakus went northeast, stretched his hand
out; an armful of kúruti (silkweed which grows at the end of the
world) came on it. "Now, my cousin," said he, "I will pay you well
for your trouble. All your life you can make as much rope as you like
of this kúruti, and you can go up on it anywhere,--north, south, east,
or west."
Norwanchakus started at midnight, and went westward quickly. He knew
the way well. He crossed ridges and valleys, passed places where he
had found tracks of Keriha and lost them, went to the bridge of one
hair, sprang from the bank to the middle of the bridge. The bridge
swayed and swayed. Underneath was a wide, rushing river, but
Norwanchakus did not fall. With one spring more he touched the other
bank, ran swiftly till he reached the big village beyond the sky. He
saw the chief house, ran in through its door at the east, went to the
little room, and found Keriha with his head on the palm of the Supchit
woman's hand. He caught his brother and rushed out, shot past all the
people, and stopped only when he was far outside the village.
"Now, my brother," said he, "you told me always that you knew
something great, that you wanted to do something great, that you
wanted to be something great. What have you been doing here thirty
years? I have looked for you everywhere. You never let me know where
you were."
"Oh, my brother," said Keriha, "I am so drowsy, I was sleeping, I
didn't know where I was."
Norwanchakus crossed the river at a bound, without touching the bridge
of one hair. He went on then, never stopped till he reached Keri Buli.
Next morning at daybreak Keriha heard a voice from above. The voice
said,--
"Leave that place, Norwanchakus and Keriha. The world will change
soon. You two must come here. Leave that place down there quickly."
"Now, my brother," said Keriha, "you are so slow, I don't know where
you wish to go, or what you want to do."
"My brother," said Norwanchakus, "I will do the best I can, and do you
do the best you can. We have finished our work here. People to come
will know the names that you gave to rivers, mountains, rocks, and
hills. Hereafter they will call these places by the names we gave
them."
While in this world Keriha wore a duck-skin, and when they were ready
to go he threw off this skin on the other side of Bohema Mem, and from
it have come all the ducks on the rivers of this country.
Norwanchakus had always carried his ash stick from the fish-net. When
he was going, he thrust it into the ground at Tsarau Heril. "I will
leave this here," said he, "and people to come will make pipes of it."
There is plenty of ash to this day in Tsarau Heril.
At the other side of the sky the brothers parted. Norwanchakus went up
on high, and stayed there. Keriha went far away to the east, and is
living there now.