Then Kut-o-yis´ spoke to all the living and said to them, "You who
still draw a little breath try to move your heads in time to the
song that I shall sing; and you who are still able to move stand up
on your feet and dance. Take courage now; we are going to dance to
the ghosts."
Then Kut-o-yis´ tied his knife, point upward, to the top of his
head and began to dance, singing the ghost song, and all the others
danced with him; and as he danced up and down he kept springing
higher and higher into the air, and the point of his knife cut Wind
Sucker's heart and killed him.
Then Kut-o-yis´, with his knife, cut a hole between Wind Sucker's
ribs, and he and all those who were able to move crawled out through
the hole. He said to those who could still walk that they should go
and tell their people to come here, to get the ones still alive but
unable to travel.
To some of these people that he had freed he said, "Where are there
any other people? I want to visit all the people."
"There is a camp to the westward, up the river," they replied; "but
you must not take the left-hand trail going up because on that trail
lives a woman who invites men to wrestle with her and then kills
them. Avoid her."
Now, really, this was what Kut-o-yis´ was looking for. This was what
he was doing in the world, trying to kill off all the bad things.
He asked these people just where this woman lived and how it was
best for him to go so that he should not meet her. He did this
because he did not wish the people to know that he was going where
she was.
He started, and after he had travelled some time he saw a woman
standing not far from the trail. She called to him, saying, "Come
here, young man, come here; I want to wrestle with you."
"No," he replied, "I am in a hurry; I cannot stop."
The woman called again, "No, no; do not go on; come now and wrestle
once with me."
After she had called him the fourth time, Kut-o-yis´ went to her.
Now on the ground where this woman wrestled with people she had
placed many sharp, broken flint-stones, partly hiding them by the
grass. The two seized each other and began to wrestle over these
sharp stones, but Kut-o-yis´ looked at the ground and did not step
on them. He watched his chance and gave the woman a quick wrench,
and threw her down on a large sharp flint which cut her in two; and
the parts of her body fell asunder.
Kut-o-yis´ then went on, and after a time came to where a woman had
made a place for sliding downhill. At the far end of it she had
fixed a rope which, when she raised it, would trip people up, and
when they were tripped they fell over a high cliff into a deep
water, where a great fish ate them.
When this woman saw Kut-o-yis´ coming she cried out to him, "Come
over here, young man, and slide with me."
"No," he replied, "I am in a hurry; I cannot wait." She kept calling
to him, and when she had called him the fourth time he went over
where he was to slide with her.
"This sliding," said the woman, "is very good fun."
"Ah, yes," said Kut-o-yis´, "I will look at it."
As he went near the place he looked carefully and saw the hidden
rope. He began to slide, and holding his knife in his hand, when he
reached the rope he cut it just as the woman raised it and pulled on
it, and the woman fell over backward into the water and was eaten
up by the big fish.
From here he went on again, and after a time he came to a big camp.
A man-eater was the chief of this place.
Before Kut-o-yis´ went to the chief's lodge he looked about and saw
a little girl and called her to him and said, "Child, I am going
into that lodge, to let that man-eater kill and eat me. Therefore,
be on the watch, and if you can get hold of one of my bones take it
out and call all the dogs to you, and when they have come to you
throw down the bone and say, 'Kut-o-yis´, the dogs are eating your
bones.'"
Then Kut-o-yis´ entered the lodge, and when the man-eater saw him he
called out, "Oki, oki!" (welcome, welcome!) and seemed glad to see
him, for he was a fat young man. The man-eater took a knife and
walked up to Kut-o-yis´ and cut his throat and put him into a great
stone pot to cook. When the meat was cooked he pulled the kettle
from the fire and ate the body, limb by limb, until it was all
eaten.
After that the little girl who was watching came into the lodge and
said, "Pity me, man-eater, my mother is hungry and asks you for
those bones." The old man gathered them together and handed them to
her, and she took them out of the lodge. When she had gone a little
way, she called all the dogs to her and threw down the bones to the
dogs, crying out, "Look out, Kut-o-yis´, the dogs are eating you,"
and when she said that, Kut-o-yis´ arose from the pile of bones.
Again he went into the lodge, and when the man-eater saw him he
cried out, "How, how, how! the fat young man has survived!" and he
seemed surprised. Again he took his knife and cut the throat of
Kut-o-yis´ and threw him into the kettle. Again when the meat was
cooked he ate it, and when the little girl asked for the bones again
he gave them to her. She took them out and threw them to the dogs,
crying, "Kut-o-yis´, the dogs are eating you," and again Kut-o-yis´
arose from the bones.
When the man-eater had cooked him four times Kut-o-yis´ again went
into the lodge, and seizing the man-eater, he threw him into the
boiling kettle, and his wives and all his children, and boiled them
to death.
The man-eater was the seventh and last of the bad things to be
destroyed by Kut-o-yis´.