Thunder lives in the west, or a little to the south of west, near
the place where the sun goes down behind the water. In the old times
he sometimes made a journey to the east, and once after he had come
back from one of these journeys a child was born in the east who, the
people said, was his son. As the boy grew up it was found that he had
scrofula sores all over his body, so one day his mother said to him,
"Your father, Thunder, is a great doctor. He lives far in the west,
but if you can find him he can cure you."
So the boy set out to find his father and be cured. He traveled long
toward the west, asking of every one he met where Thunder lived, until
at last they began to tell him that it was only a little way ahead. He
went on and came to Ûñtiguhi', on Tennessee, where lived Ûñtsaiyi'
"Brass." Now Ûñtsaiyi' was a great gambler, and made his living that
way. It was he who invented the gatayûsti game that we play with
a stone wheel and a stick. He lived on the south side of the river,
and everybody who came that way he challenged to play against him. The
large flat rock, with the lines and grooves where they used to roll
the wheel, is still there, with the wheels themselves and the stick
turned to stone. He won almost every time, because he was so tricky, so
that he had his house filled with all kinds of fine things. Sometimes
he would lose, and then he would bet all that he had, even to his
own life, but the winner got nothing for his trouble, for Ûñtsaiyi'
knew how to take on different shapes, so that he always got away.
As soon as Ûñtsaiyi' saw him he asked him to stop and play a while,
but the boy said he was looking for his father, Thunder, and had no
time to wait. "Well," said Ûñtsaiyi', "he lives in the next house;
you can hear him grumbling over there all the time"--he meant the
Thunder--"so we may as well have a game or two before you go on." The
boy said he had nothing to bet. "That's all right," said the gambler,
"we'll play for your pretty spots." He said this to make the boy
angry so that he would play, but still the boy said he must go first
and find his father, and would come back afterwards.
He went on, and soon the news came to Thunder that a boy was looking
for him who claimed to be his son. Said Thunder, "I have traveled in
many lands and have many children. Bring him here and we shall soon
know." So they brought in the boy, and Thunder showed him a seat
and told him to sit down. Under the blanket on the seat were long,
sharp thorns of the honey locust, with the points all sticking up,
but when the boy sat down they did not hurt him, and then Thunder knew
that it was his son. He asked the boy why he had come. "I have sores
all over my body, and my mother told me you were my father and a great
doctor, and if I came here you would cure me." "Yes," said his father,
"I am a great doctor, and I'll soon fix you."
There was a large pot in the corner and he told his wife to fill it
with water and put it over the fire. When it was boiling, he put in
some roots, then took the boy and put him in with them. He let it boil
a long time until one would have thought that the flesh was boiled
from the poor boy's bones, and then told his wife to take the pot
and throw it into the river, boy and all. She did as she was told,
and threw it into the water, and ever since there is an eddy there
that we call Ûñ'tiguhi', "Pot-in-the-water." A service tree and a
calico bush grew on the bank above. A great cloud of steam came up
and made streaks and blotches on their bark, and it has been so to
this day. When the steam cleared away she looked over and saw the
boy clinging to the roots of the service tree where they hung down
into the water, but now his skin was all clean. She helped him up
the bank, and they went back to the house. On the way she told him,
"When we go in, your father will put a new dress on you, but when he
opens his box and tells you to pick out your ornaments be sure to
take them from the bottom. Then he will send for his other sons to
play ball against you. There is a honey-locust tree in front of the
house, and as soon as you begin to get tired strike at that and your
father will stop the play, because he does not want to lose the tree."
When they went into the house, the old man was pleased to see the boy
looking so clean, and said, "I knew I could soon cure those spots. Now
we must dress you." He brought out a fine suit of buckskin, with belt
and headdress, and had the boy put them on. Then he opened a box and
said, "Now pick out your necklace and bracelets." The boy looked,
and the box was full of all kinds of snakes gliding over each other
with their heads up. He was not afraid, but remembered what the
woman had told him, and plunged his hand to the bottom and drew out
a great rattlesnake and put it around his neck for a necklace. He
put down his hand again four times and drew up four copperheads and
twisted them around his wrists and ankles. Then his father gave him
a war club and said, "Now you must play a ball game with your two
elder brothers. They live beyond here in the Darkening land, and
I have sent for them." He said a ball game, but he meant that the
boy must fight for his life. The young men came, and they were both
older and stronger than the boy, but he was not afraid and fought
against them. The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed at every
stroke, for they were the young Thunders, and the boy himself was
Lightning. At last he was tired from defending himself alone against
two, and pretended to aim a blow at the honey-locust tree. Then his
father stopped the fight, because he was afraid the lightning would
split the tree, and he saw that the boy was brave and strong.
The boy told his father how Ûñtsaiyi' had dared him to play, and had
even offered to play for the spots on his skin. "Yes," said Thunder,
"he is a great gambler and makes his living that way, but I will see
that you win." He brought a small cymling gourd with a hole bored
through the neck, and tied it on the boy's wrist. Inside the gourd
there was a string of beads, and one end hung out from a hole in the
top, but there was no end to the string inside. "Now," said his father,
"go back the way you came, and as soon as he sees you he will want to
play for the beads. He is very hard to beat, but this time he will
lose every game. When he cries out for a drink, you will know he is
getting discouraged, and then strike the rock with your war club and
water will come, so that you can play on without stopping. At last
he will bet his life, and lose. Then send at once for your brothers
to kill him, or he will get away, he is so tricky."
The boy took the gourd and his war club and started east along the road
by which he had come. As soon as Ûñtsaiyi' saw him he called to him,
and when he saw the gourd with the bead string hanging out he wanted
to play for it. The boy drew out the string, but there seemed to be
no end to it, and he kept on pulling until enough had come out to
make a circle all around the playground. "I will play one game for
this much against your stake," said the boy, "and when that is over
we can have another game."
They began the game with the wheel and stick and the boy won. Ûñtsaiyi'
did not know what to think of it, but he put up another stake and
called for a second game. The boy won again, and so they played on
until noon, when Ûñtsaiyi' had lost nearly everything he had and was
about discouraged. It was very hot, and he said, "I am thirsty," and
wanted to stop long enough to get a drink. "No," said the boy, and
struck the rock with his club so that water came out, and they had a
drink. They played on until Ûñtsaiyi' had lost all his buckskins and
beaded work, his eagle feathers and ornaments, and at last offered
to bet his wife. They played and the boy won her. Then Ûñtsaiyi'
was desperate and offered to stake his life. "If I win I kill you,
but if you win you may kill me." They played and the boy won.
"Let me go and tell my wife," said Ûñtsaiyi', "so that she will receive
her new husband, and then you may kill me." He went into the house,
but it had two doors, and although the boy waited long Ûñtsaiyi' did
not come back. When at last he went to look for him he found that
the gambler had gone out the back way and was nearly out of sight
going east.
The boy ran to his father's house and got his brothers to help
him. They brought their dog--the Horned Green Beetle--and hurried
after the gambler. He ran fast and was soon out of sight, and
they followed as fast as they could. After a while they met an old
woman making pottery and asked her if she had seen Ûñtsaiyi' and
she said she had not. "He came this way," said the brothers. "Then
he must have passed in the night," said the old woman, "for I have
been here all day." They were about to take another road when the
Beetle, which had been circling about in the air above the old woman,
made a dart at her and struck her on the forehead, and it rang like
brass--ûñtsaiyi'! Then they knew it was Brass and sprang at him, but
he jumped up in his right shape and was off, running so fast that he
was soon out of sight again. The Beetle had struck so hard that some of
the brass rubbed off, and we can see it on the beetle's forehead yet.
They followed and came to an old man sitting by the trail, carving
a stone pipe. They asked him if he had seen Brass pass that way and
he said no, but again the Beetle--which could know Brass under any
shape--struck him on the forehead so that it rang like metal, and the
gambler jumped up in his right form and was off again before they
could hold him. He ran east until he came to the great water; then
he ran north until he came to the edge of the world, and had to turn
again to the west. He took every shape to throw them off the track,
but the Green Beetle always knew him, and the brothers pressed him
so hard that at last he could go no more and they caught him just as
he reached the edge of the great water where the sun goes down.
They tied his hands and feet with a grapevine and drove a long stake
through his breast, and planted it far out in the deep water. They
set two crows on the end of the pole to guard it and called the place
Kâgûñ'yi, "Crow place." But Brass never died, and can not die until the
end of the world, but lies there always with his face up. Sometimes he
struggles under the water to get free, and sometimes the beavers, who
are his friends, come and gnaw at the grapevine to release him. Then
the pole shakes and the crows at the top cry Ka! Ka! Ka! and scare
the beavers away.