Creation Myths of Primitive America Part 41

"Your son has a very big bird. It fell down from the sky to him. We are afraid of that bird. We could not lift such a big bird."

Old people ran down; saw the boy handling Komos Kulit. "How did you get that bird?" asked they. "Did he fall to you?"

"Yes. I saw the shadow of a big bird on the ground. I looked up. It fell, and was here."

The old people talked,--talked much, talked a long time. There were many of them.

"We do not know what to do; we do not know what to think. We do not know why that bird fell," said some. "We ought not to talk about the bird, but we ought to think about this boy, find out what he is doing."

"Oh," said others, "he made that bird fall by blowing at it. That boy will be a great Hlahi."

The boy killed the bird with a yapaitu dokos (spirit flint); he wanted its wings.

The father and mother of the boy said: "Two wise men should pull out the longest wing feathers for the boy. He wants them; he wants them to keep."

"Let that be done," said the people; and they found two men to pull out the two longest wing feathers. The boy went to one side while they were pulling them, pretended not to see or care what they were doing; but the two men knew that he knew why he did so. When the two men had pulled out the feathers, the boy said to his father,--

"I like those feathers; save them for me; I want them."

His father took the feathers home and saved them.

Another time this boy was walking up Wini Mem--some time before he had been at a Hlahi dance, and had seen there beautiful collars of flicker-tail feathers, and remembered them. He walked forward and said to himself,--

"I wonder where that man found those feathers. I would like to have feathers like them."

"Pluck a bunch of gra.s.s with your mouth," said the yapaitu, "drop it into your hand, and look at it."

He did so, and flicker feathers were in his hands. He counted them, and found five hundred. "These are nice feathers; I will keep them,"

said the boy.

"Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi is your name," said the yapaitu. "You will be the greatest Hlahi on Wini Mem, but you must obey us. You must listen to our words, you must do what we tell you."

Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi took the flicker feathers and walked westward, walked across a wide gulch till he came to a black-oak tree above Norpat Kodiheril.

"I like that oak-tree," said Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi. "I think that is a good place for my mother to get acorns." He blew then, and said: "You must be very big, wide, and high, give many acorns every fall. I will call your place Olpuhlchiton" (blowing upward place, _i. e._ wis.h.i.+ng place).

He went home then, and gave the flicker-tail feathers to his mother.

"Now, my mother," said he, "I wish you to keep these feathers for me."

"Where did you find them, my son?" asked she. "You are always doing something. You did not find these yourself; the yapaitu got them. I will keep them. I am sorry for you, but I cannot stop what you are doing. You cannot stop it yourself. But I will keep these feathers for you; I will keep them safely."

All the people talked much of Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi now.

Once there was a doctor's dance, and the boy remained at home till one night when the yapaitu came to him and he began to hlaha. His father and mother did not know what the trouble was.

"Bring him here," said the oldest doctor.

"He is a Hlahi," said the doctors, when they saw him. "Sak hikai [the rainbow] is his yapaitu. You must give him to us till the yapaitu leaves him. While the yapaitu is with him, let him stay inside."

They were five or six days making Hlahis (doctors). The boy stayed in the sweat-house six days, never eating, never drinking; some others ate and drank, but Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi neither ate nor drank.

"Something must be done to make that yapaitu leave him. You must put a band around Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi's head," said the chief, "and the yapaitu will leave him."

They got a white wolf-tail headband. The yapaitu did not go. "This is not the right kind of a headband," said the doctor, after a while.

They tried fox, wildcat, coyote, a white-deer band, without effect.

"We don't know what he wants," said some Hlahis.

Next they tried otter, fisher, c.o.o.n, badger, black bear, grizzly bear, silver-gray fox, mink, beaver, rabbit, red-headed woodp.e.c.k.e.r.

"What does he want?" asked some.

"Now," said the old doctor, "you ought to know that this boy should have food and drink, and he cannot have them till the yapaitu goes.

You should know that the headband that his yapaitu wants is a tsahai loiyas" (woman's front ap.r.o.n made of maple bark, painted red).

They brought this ap.r.o.n, made the headband, and tied it on his head.

"This is the one," said the yapaitu.

Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi began to sing; the Hlahi danced a few minutes. The boy blew then, and the yapaitu left him. Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi ate venison first and drank water, then took other kinds of food. From that time on Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi was a Hlahi.

Soon after the great Hlahi dance, perhaps two weeks, Notisa, chief of Norpat Kodiheril, fell sick; he began to have a bad feeling at midday, and in the evening all his friends thought he would die. In the early night people in Norpat Kodi saw a light going to Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi's house.

"People are coming; there must be some one sick in the village," said the boy's father and mother. "People are coming. See, there is a big light moving this way."

Two men came to the door. "Come in," said Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi's father. "We thought some one was sick when we saw your light coming."

"We are here because Notisa is sick," said the men. "He got sick at noon."

The two men spread out a marten skin and said: "We brought this to show it to you and your son. We have heard that he is a powerful Hlahi. The chief gave us this skin to show you. We are afraid that Notisa will die. We want your son to go with us to see him."

They gave the skin to Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi. It was the best skin in the chief's house.

"We will go," said Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi's father. "I do not say that my son is a Hlahi, but he can do something."

They waked the boy, made him ready to go. "Come," said his mother; and she carried him to the chief's house.

"My mother, put me down," said Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi, when they had come near the house.

"I do not like to put you down," said the mother.

"Put me down, put me down a moment," said the boy.

His mother put him down. Then he saw some one looking around Notisa's house, pus.h.i.+ng about, looking, watching in the dark, lurking around, holding arrows. This was a yapaitu, ready to shoot Notisa and kill him.

Kol Tib.i.+.c.hi called his own yapaitu, who went to the one who was watching and said: "What are you doing here? What do you want at this house?"

"I am doing nothing," answered the yapaitu.