Part 5

The two looked along the ridge toward the south--it was before sunrise then--and they saw a person come a little way in sight, then turn and go back. He did not come nearer because he saw Olelbis. The cloud people are very timid; they can see a long distance, and have a very keen scent. When he saw Olelbis, this one ran away home.

"My brother," said Katkatchila to Olelbis, "we have been watching here to drive back these cloud people. We have watched night and day, I and my little brother. My brother is near the eastern slope of this ridge which runs north and south; he stays there and watches."

"What do you mean by cloud people?" asked Olelbis; "what kind of people are they? I have seen only the head and neck of one; what I saw looked well, seemed good. I wish you, my brothers, would catch one of these people, if you can."

"How is it that you do not know these people?" asked Katkatchila. "You ought to know them; you have seen every place, every person, everything; you ought to know these people. I will tell you how they came. My sister and I made the great world fire; we made the wakpohas because Torihas and his people stole my flint. I was angry. I told my sister to put her baby outside the house. We put pitch-pine around it, and fire blazed up from the baby. When the fire was burning all over the earth and there were great flames and smoke, a big water and a strong wind came; the water filled the whole world with steam, and the wind drove the steam and smoke from the great fire, and carried them far off to the south, where they became a people,--the cloud people. These people are red or white or black, all of them, and they are going north always. They have good heads and long necks."

"I should like to stand near some of these people and look at them," said Olelbis.

"I do not like to see them go north," said Katkatchila. "My brother and I are here trying to drive them back; but they go north in spite of us. My brother is on the other slope over there to frighten them back; but they turn to the east a little and go around him."

"Bring your brother here," said Olelbis.

Katkatchila brought his brother, and the two said,--

"These cloud people are very wild; we cannot go near them. But we should like to drive them back or catch them."

"Go west, my brothers," said Olelbis, "and get something to stop that gap on the east where the cloud people pass you and go north. Stop that opening on the east, and stop the western slope also, leaving only a narrow place for them to go through. Get yew wood, make a very high fence with it, and stop the eastern slope."

They brought the yew wood and made a very high fence on the eastern slope, and then one on the west, leaving only a narrow gap open.

"Go to the east now," said Olelbis, "get katsau, which is a strong, fibrous plant, and make strings of it. Make a rope of the string and set a snare in the opening of the fence across the western slope to catch those cloud people."

The elder brother was on the ridge near the western slope, and the younger on the ridge near the eastern slope. The brothers made the snare and set it on the western slope. Both watched and waited for the clouds to come.

"Now, my brother," said Olelbis, when he saw this work, "watch these people well, frighten them into the trap, and I will go back to Olelpanti."

Next morning early the two brothers were watching, and very soon they saw a great many cloud people coming. Both brothers were lying flat on the middle of the ridge, so that the clouds could not see them. The clouds watched closely. They came to the place where they had always turned east to go past little Katkatchila; they ran against the fence and could not pass. They turned and went toward the west to pass northward along the central ridge; but when both brothers stood up, the clouds rushed to the western slope and fell into the trap.

Olelbis saw this and said: "Now, my brothers are driving them in. I must go and see!" And he ran off quickly.

"Oh, my brother," said the Katkatchilas when he came, "we have caught one cloud. All the rest went through the fence. They broke it--we caught one; the others burst away."

Olelbis looked at the cloud and said,--

"This is a black one! They broke down the fence and ran away! They are a strong people."

"Now, my brother," said the elder Katkatchila, "we will skin this cloud, and you may have the skin. We will give it to you."

"I shall be glad to have it," said Olelbis.

They stripped the skin from the cloud, and, when giving it to Olelbis, the elder one said, "You must tan this carefully."

"Make another fence," said Olelbis, "but make it stronger. You will catch more of these people."

"A great many clouds have broken through our fence to-day and gone north. Others went before we made the fence. We shall see these people by and by," said Katkatchila. (He meant that clouds would stay in the north and become another people; stay there always.)

Olelbis took the skin, turned toward home, and travelled on. He was rubbing it in his hands, tanning it as he went. The brothers put the body in a hole and buried it, not caring for the flesh. They wanted only the skin.

Olelbis went along tanning the skin of the black cloud, and he walked around everywhere as he tanned. He went away west, then north, then south, then east. At last he came home with the skin well tanned. He spread it and stretched it smooth. The two Katkatchila brothers had not been able yet to catch another of the cloud people, but they were working at it all the time. After Olelbis spread the skin on the ground, he took it up and said to one of the old women,--

"My grandmother is always cold; let us give her this skin;" and he gave it to her. Each of the two old women said,--

"My grandson, we are glad to have this skin. We shall sleep warm now."

"I must go," said Olelbis, "and see my brothers drive in more of the cloud people." And he went.

"We cannot catch these clouds," said the older brother; "they go through our fence, they escape, we cannot catch them; they have gone to the north, they will stay there and become a new people. We have caught only one, a white cloud. Those that have escaped will become a new people; they will be Yola Ka" (snow clouds).

The Katkatchilas stripped the skin from the white cloud and gave it to Olelbis. He went around north, south, east, and west, tanning it in the same way that he had tanned the black skin. After he had tanned it well he spread the skin, stretched it, straightened it; then he gave it to the other grandmother.

Both old women were glad now. Both said: "We shall sleep warm at night now all the time."

Next day the two brothers caught a third cloud, a red one, but they kept that skin for themselves. They did not give it to Olelbis, because he told them to keep it. We see this skin now often enough, for the brothers hang it up when they like in the west and sometimes in the east.

"Now," said the two old women, "we have this white skin and this black one. When we hang the white skin outside this house, white clouds will go from it,--will go away down south, where its people began to live, and then they will come from the south and travel north to bring rain. When they come back, we will hang out the black skin, and from it a great many black rain clouds will go out, and from these clouds heavy rain will fall on all the world below."

From that time the old women hang out the two skins, first the white, then the black skin, and when clouds enough have gone from them they take the skins into the sweat-house again; and from these two skins comes all the rain to people in this world.

"The cloud people who went north will stay in the northwest," said Olelbis, "and from them will come snow to people hereafter."

All this time the people in Olelpanti were singing and talking. Any one could hear them from a distance. Olelbis had brought in a great many different kinds of people, others had come themselves, and still others were coming. After the tanning of the two cloud skins a man came and took his place above the sweat-house door, and sat there with his face to the east. This was Kar Kiemila. Right after him came Tsararok, and took his place at the side of Kar. Next came Kau; then the two brothers Hus came, and Wehl Dilidili. All these people in the sweat-house and around it asked one another,--

"What shall we do? Where shall we live? We should like to know what Olelbis will do with us."

"You will know very soon where we are going," said Toko and Sula. "Olelbis will put us in our places; he is chief over all."

Next morning Olelbis said: "Now, my grandmothers, what do you think best? What are we to do with the people here? Is it best for them to stay in Olelpanti?"

"Our grandson," answered the old women, "send all that are not needed here to the lower world; turn them into something good for the people who are to come soon,--those fit for this place up here. The great people, the best ones, you will keep in Olelpanti, and send down only a little part of each of them to turn into something in the world below and be of use to people there."

Olelbis called all who were in the sweat-house to come out, and he began to send them to their places.

To Kar he said: "Go and live on Wini Mem. Be a gray heron there; that is a good country for you." (Before white people came there were many of these birds on that river.)

To Toko he said: "Go to Kawiken on Pui Mem. Be a sunfish and live there always. You, Sula, go to the south of Bohem Puyuk on Wini Mem. Be a trout, and live at Sulanharas."

To Torihas he said: "You will be a blue crane," and to Chalilak: "You will be a goose. You both will have two places to live in, one in the south and the other in the north. You will go north in the spring and live there all summer; you will go south in the fall and live in the south all winter. Do this always; travel that way every year."

To Kiriu he said: "Go and live along the water. You will be a loon, and you will go up and down great rivers all your life."

To Katsi he said: "You will be a fish hawk, catch fish and eat them, live along rivers."

Olelbis plucked one small feather from the neck of Moihas. This he threw down and said, "Be an eagle, and live on high mountains." All bald eagles on earth came from that feather, but the great Moihas remained above with Olelbis, where he is now.

From Lutchi Olelbis plucked one feather, threw it down, and said: "You will be a humming-bird. Fly around in spring when the green grass comes and the trees and flowers bloom. You will be on blossoms and dart from one to another everywhere." Lutchi himself stayed in Olelpanti.

Olelbis pulled a feather from Kau, threw it down, and said: "You will fly along rivers, be a white crane, and live near them always." The great Kau stayed in Olelpanti with Olelbis.

From the elder Hus brother Olelbis plucked a feather from the right side, sent the feather down on this earth, and said,--

"You be a buzzard down there, and in spring go up on Wini Mem and look for dead salmon and other fish along Pui Mem, Bohema Mem, and other rivers, eat dead salmon and other fish. When people kill a snake or something else which they do not like, you will go and eat the snake or other dead thing. The Wintu, the coming people, will feed you always with what is dead."

Tilitchi had been sent for three persons, and now he brought the first.

"Who is this?" asked Olelbis of the old women.

"This is Dokos," said they; "he is bad."

Dokos was placed a little northeast of the sweat-house. He sat looking toward the west. Tilichi brought in a second and third person.

"Who are these?" asked Olelbis.

"These are both bad people," said the old women. "These are Wima Loimis and Klak Loimis."

"Put them with Dokos," said Olelbis. After he had called all the people out of the sweat-house to send them to their proper places, Olelbis had put something on their teeth to make them harmless.

"Come here, Wima Loimis," said Olelbis. "I have something to put on your teeth so that they may harm no one."

"I want nothing on my teeth," said Wima Loimis. "If something were put on them I could not eat." He asked again, but she shook her head, saying: "I want nothing on my teeth, I could not eat if anything were put on them."

"If she will not come, come you, Klak Loimis." Klak Loimis would not go to him.

"Why not come when I call you?" asked Olelbis.

"My sister Wima will not go. She says that she could not eat if her teeth were touched. I want nothing on my teeth. I am afraid that I could not eat."

"Very well," answered Olelbis, "you, Wima, and you, Klak, want to be different from others. Come, Dokos, I will touch your teeth."

"My sisters, Klak and Wima, want nothing on their teeth. I want nothing on mine. I am angry at my sisters; my heart hates them. I do not wish to be good. I am angry at my sisters. I will be wicked as well as they." Then turning to his sisters he said: "After a while people will employ me against you whenever they are angry at you. Whenever you bite people or hurt them, they will call me to fight against you, and I will go with them. I will go into your bodies and kill you. Then you will be sorry for what you have done to-day. Olelbis asked you to be good. He wants you to be good, but you are not willing. I will be bad to punish you."

When the two women heard these words they cried, and Wima said, "Well, my brother, we can put something on our teeth yet."

Dokos placed his head between his hands and sat awhile in that posture. Then he straightened himself and said,--

"You two have talked enough; you would better stop. You are not like me; I am stronger than both of you, and I shall be so always. You, Wima, and you, Klak, will hate people only, but I shall hate all living things. I shall hate you, hate every one; kill you, kill every one. I want nothing of any one. I want no friend in any place."

"Well," said Olelbis, "you go as you are."

"I will go first," said Dokos.

"Go," said Olelbis, "to Koiham Nomdaltopi, be flint there, and spread all around the place. You, Klak Loimis, will go to Klak Kewilton, be a rattlesnake there, increase and spread everywhere. I will send you, Wima, to Wima Wai Tsarauton; you will be a grizzly bear there. After a while a great family will come from you and spread over all the country. You will be bad; and, Klak, you will be bad, but, Dokos, you will be the worst, always ready to hurt and kill; always angry, always hating your sisters and every one living.

"You, Klak, and you, Wima, when you see people you will bite them, and people will take Dokos to kill you, and Dokos will go into your bodies, and you will die. Wima, you will be sorry that you would not let me change your teeth. You, Klak, will be sorry. You will bite people, and they will kill you because you cannot run away from them. Your dead body will lie on the ground, and buzzards will eat it.

"Dokos, you will go to your place and increase. People will go there and get you to kill your sisters and others for them, and when you have pleased them and killed all the people they wished you to kill, when they want you no longer, they will throw you down on a rock and break you to pieces, then you will be nothing. You will be dead forever. Now go!"

To all those who let their teeth be made innocent, Olelbis said: "You will go to where I send you,--one here, another there." And he gave their places to all. To some he said: "After a while the new people will use you for food," and to the others he said: "The new people will use your skins, and you will be of service to them, you will be good for them."

The first person taken up to Olelbis's sweat-house was Tsurat; and now Olelbis spoke to Tsurat last of all and said,--

"Pluck one feather from your back."

Tsurat plucked it.

Olelbis threw the feather to the earth and said,--

"The place where this falls will be called Tsurat-ton Mem Puisono. This feather will become woodpeckers, and their place will be there. Their red feathers will be beautiful, and every one will like their red scalps and will use them for headbands. The woodpeckers will be also called Topi chilchihl" (bead birds).

All people that were good on this earth only, of use only here, Olelbis sent down to be beasts, birds, and other creatures. The powerful and great people that were good in Olelpanti and useful there he kept with himself, and sent only a feather or a part of each to become something useful down here. The good people themselves, the great ones, stayed above, where they are with Olelbis now.

OLELBIS AND MEM LOIMIS

One character in this myth is of great importance in actual Indian belief, the Hlahi or doctor, the sorcerer. The position and power of the Hlahi are explained at length in the notes to this volume. Sanihas Yupchi, the archer of Daylight, is Tsaroki Sakahl, the messenger sent by Torihas to invite Katkatchila to hunt; he appears also as the friend and messenger of Waida Dikit, who assembled the world concert in which Hawt proved the greatest musician.

PERSONAGES

After each name is given that of the beast, bird, or thing into which the personage was changed subsequently.

=Hubit=, wasp; =Hus=, buzzard; =Kahit=, wind; =Kaisus=, gray squirrel; =Kiriú=, loon; =Kopus=, small-horned owl; =Kuntihlé=, small hawk fishes in muddy water; =Kut=, unknown; =Lutchi=, humming-bird; =Mem Loimis=, water; =Móihas=, bald eagle; =Pákchuso=, the pakchu stone; =Patkilis=, jack rabbit; =Pori Kipánamas=, another name for =Kopus Sútunut=, black eagle; =Sánihas=, daylight; =Sotchet=, beaver; =Toko=, sunfish; =Tsaroki Sakahl=, green snake; =Tsárorok=, fish-hawk; =Tsudi=, mouse; =Tsurat=, red-headed woodpecker; =Winishuyat=, foresight; =Wokwuk=, unknown.

* * * * *

One evening a woman came to Olelpanti. Her name was Mem Loimis.

"Why are you here?" inquired Olelbis; "and from what place have you come?"

"I have come from my home in the earth to ask if I may live with you. I have come from the north."

"You may live here," said Olelbis; and she stayed there. She lived with Olelbis, became his wife, and had two sons: the first was Wokwuk, the second Kut.

Kut was still small, when one day the woman went out a little to one side of the house to get something, and a man came to her and said, "Come with me--come right away!" And he took her, took her quickly, took her toward the north, to the place where Kahi Hlut is. This man was Kahit, and Kahi Hlut was his house.

Olelbis knew not where his wife had gone; he knew not which way she went; he had not seen her going out and had not seen her afterward. He inquired of every one who lived in Olelpanti. All they knew was that she had gone west a little way to get something.

For five years after the woman was carried away the people in Olelpanti had no water to drink. This woman had given them water, and now some one had taken her, and without her there was no water.

"I cannot tell what to do without water," said Olelbis. "I don't think my children can live without water. I don't know what yapaitu likes my wife and has taken her."

The people in and around Olelpanti talked a great deal about Mem Loimis.

"I don't know how we are to live now," said Toko Kiemila to Olelbis. "Some one has taken your wife away. I cannot live without water much longer."

Another man who lay inside the sweat-house at the west end, an old man, stood up and said,--

"I do not know what people are to do without water. I do not know how you, Olelbis, are to live without it. I cannot live unless I have water. I am very dry. Why do you not try to get water again? There is a man in Hlihli Pui Hlutton whose name is Kopus. You can see his house from here. He is a great Hlahi. He sings and dances every night. Let him come here to sing and dance. Perhaps he will be able to bring water back to us."

The old man who said this was Hubit. He was suffering from thirst so much that he had tied a belt of sinews around his waist and tightened it till he was nearly cut in two.

Olelbis went to the top of the sweat-house and spoke to all the people.

"We must send for this Hlahi," said he. "Let him come here to sing and bring water back to us. Some of you young men who walk fast must go for him to-morrow."

That night they talked about the person who should go. One said to a second, "You walk fast; you ought to go."

"I do not," said the second; "but you walk fast. You are the person to go."

And so they spoke one after another, till at last Lutchi said, "I cannot walk fast, but I will go."

Early next morning he went out to the top of the sweat-house and said, "I am going!" and he shot away to the southeast.

He found the old Hlahi. He had not finished his night's work yet. This Hlahi was Kopus Kiemila.

"Old man, you must stop awhile," said Lutchi. "Olelbis lost his wife, Mem Loimis, years ago. He has two children, and he and all the people are very dry; they are thirsting, they are dying for want of water. He wants you to come and see if you can tell us what to do to bring water back to Olelpanti. Olelbis will give you five sacks of acorns for your pay. You must sing five nights for these five sacks. They are old acorns."

"I will do that," said Kopus. "I will go with you."

Lutchi returned to Olelpanti with Kopus, who was called also Pori Kipanamas, which means a man wearing a headband of fresh oak leaves with two green acorns thrust in on each side. His face was painted with acorn mould. A great many people were waiting there, all very dry, very thirsty,--all hoping for water.

"I sent for you to come," said Olelbis, "and you must hlaha[2] five nights. All my people, all my children, are dry. I am dry myself. I lost my wife five years ago. I don't know where she went, and we have no water since she left us. I want you to sing and to dance. I want you to find out where my wife is."

[2] Hlaha means, "to perform as a Hlahi, or doctor."

When night came, Olelbis gave a pipe filled with tobacco to Kopus and said, "Now you must hlaha."

Kopus smoked, became tunindili,--that is, possessed. A Tsudi yapaitu came to him and began to chant. The yapaitu, speaking through Kopus, said,--

"I have looked all around the world, I have looked everywhere; every smell has come to my nose, every sight to my eyes, every sound to my ears, but to-night nothing comes to me. I cannot see, I cannot hear, I cannot smell." And he stopped.

"I am going to dance the spirit dance," said Kopus. "Who will sing for me?"

"Let these two Tsudi girls sing," said Olelbis.

Hubit was lying on the east side of the sweat-house, and he said,--

"Make haste, you two girls, and sing for that Hlahi. I am nearly dead, almost cut in two, I am so dry."

He had tightened his belt a little that evening. Kopus danced all night, and the two girls sang for him.

"I have not found out which way that woman went," said he, next morning.

He danced five days and nights, and then said: "I can tell nothing. I know nothing about this woman, Mem Loimis."

Every bola heris[3] that was lying inside the sweat-house was terribly thirsty. One old man got up and said,--

[3] Bola means "to tell one of the creation myths;" bolas means "one of the myths;" bola heris is an actor in any of them, a personage mentioned or described in a creation myth.

"What kind of a Hlahi have you here? What kind of a Hlahi is Kopus? He is here five days and nights and can tell nothing, knows nothing. If you wish to learn something, bring a Hlahi who has knowledge of water."

"This old Kopus knows nothing of water," said Toko. "Old Kopus is a good Hlahi for acorns and for the Tsudi and Kaisus people; that is all he is good for. I know this Kopus well. Get a Hlahi who knows more than he does."

"You bola herises tell us," said Olelbis, "who is a good Hlahi for water, and we will get him. Look at my children; they are almost dying of thirst. Tell us where their mother, Mem Loimis, is."