In the beginning of the world, when people and animals were all the
same, there was only one tobacco plant, to which they all came for
their tobacco until the Dagûl`kû geese stole it and carried it far
away to the south. The people were suffering without it, and there
was one old woman who grew so thin and weak that everybody said she
would soon die unless she could get tobacco to keep her alive.
Different animals offered to go for it, one after another, the
larger ones first and then the smaller ones, but the Dagûl`kû saw
and killed every one before he could get to the plant. After the
others the little Mole tried to reach it by going under the ground,
but the Dagûl`kû saw his track and killed him as he came out.
At last the Hummingbird offered, but the others said he was entirely
too small and might as well stay at home. He begged them to let him
try, so they showed him a plant in a field and told him to let them
see how he would go about it. The next moment he was gone and they
saw him sitting on the plant, and then in a moment he was back again,
but no one had seen him going or coming, because he was so swift. "This
is the way I'll do," said the Hummingbird, so they let him try.
He flew off to the east, and when he came in sight of the tobacco
the Dagûl`kû were watching all about it, but they could not see him
because he was so small and flew so swiftly. He darted down on the
plant--tsa!--and snatched off the top with the leaves and seeds, and
was off again before the Dagûl`kû knew what had happened. Before he got
home with the tobacco the old woman had fainted and they thought she
was dead, but he blew the smoke into her nostrils, and with a cry of
"Tsâ'lû! [Tobacco!]" she opened her eyes and was alive again.