🧚 Wiske·djak Cycle., part 2 · page 2

Pretty soon Wiske·djak did wake up, as he had slept enough.85 He got up and looked about.86 Nobody was around and things looked quiet.87 “I guess my food is pretty well cooked by this time,” said he.88 Then he pulled up one of the duck legs from the sand, and ate the meat on the shank.89 He went all around pulling the fowls’ legs out of the sand and eating them.90 “They are very well done to pull off so easily.91 Oh, they must be nice and tender!” thought he.92 The only thing he noticed was that the legs came very freely from the sand.93 “They must be very well cooked to come out of the sand so freely.”94 He took a digging stick and commenced to dig them out.95 He commenced shovelling away the sand where one of his ducks was, but found the hole empty, and he dug all around in the sand but found they were all taken away.96 He could not find one bird.97 At last he got tired of searching and then ano suo dixit, “So I thought I left you to watch for me while I was asleep!”98 Et anus [5]respondit, “When I was watching for you and woke you up, you were not satisfied.99 You gave me a scolding.100 So when the Indians did come, I thought I would leave you to do your own watching.”101

Then Wiske·djak grew angry and planned anum suum castigare.102 He got wood and made another big fire.103 He got it burning well until there were a lot of red coals.104 “Now,” ano suo dixit, “I’ll give you a little punishment for letting my ducks and geese go to the Indians.”105 He went over to the fire and straddled his legs over the fire-place, sitting over the red coals.106 Anum suum paulum urere incepit ut eum castigaret, but he stood the pain the fire gave him.107 Soon his flesh commenced sizzling, making a sputtering noise “Tsii!” as it roasted nicely.108 He heard it squealing.109 “You can squeal all you like till you get enough of a scorching,” ano suo dixit Wiske·djak.110 When he thought it was burnt enough, he got up and started walking off.111 He started off to look for something else to do, ano suo maxime dolente.112

He wandered across swamps and mountains and around lakes, suffering with his burns.113 All at once he came upon a little flock of partridges newly hatched, and their mother was away.114 “Kwe!” said Wiske·djak, “What are you doing here?”115 “Nothing,” said the little Partridges, “just staying here.”116 “Where is your mother?” asked Wiske·djak.117 “Away hunting,” replied they.118 “What’s your name?” he asked of one.119 Each little Partridge told him its name until he came to the last, the youngest one.120 “What’s your name?” he demanded.121 “Kuckuŋge·′sįs, suddenly frightened!” answered the little Partridge.122 “Oh you!” said Wiske·djak, “what can you frighten?”123 Then he took a lump of soft mud and threw it over all the young Partridges, so that he almost covered them with the dirty mud.124 “What can you frighten now?” said he.125 Then he left and walked along until he came to a high mountain.126 He was getting very sore from his burns and anus [6]maxime doluit.127 When he climbed to the top of the mountain he found a nice breeze blowing across it.128 He found a high rock swept by the cooling breeze.129 “Now,” thought he to himself, “if I can find a nice place on the highest of these rocks I can rest myself and let the cool breeze cool my burns.”130 So he searched around the mountain until he came to a place clear of trees where there was a great chasm below, hundreds of feet deep, with a nice cool breeze coming over.131 Here he lay down right on the edge where most of the breeze was.132 He found the wind very good.133 He got relief from his suffering burns.134 His pains had been so bad and he had walked so far that he was very tired and sleepy.135 Soon he was fast asleep on the brink of the cliff.136

By this time the old Partridge had got home to his young and found them all covered with black mud.137 The old Partridge said to his young, “What has happened to you?138 Where did you go?139 Anywhere?”140 “No,” they answered, “nowhere.”141 “Well, what did this?” he asked.142 “Well, Wiske·djak came along to-day after you went away.143 He commenced asking us questions and we answered him as well as we could.144 He asked us our names and we all told him.145 But one, our youngest brother, was the last to be asked, and when he told his name Wiske·djak got angry and said, ‘What could you frighten?’146 Then he got mud and threw it over us and left us in this mess.”147 So the old Partridge was angry.148 He cleaned the young ones up, washed and dried them, and gave them their food which he had brought back for them.149 Then he asked them which way Wiske·djak went and they showed him the direction.150 Then the old Partridge took the trail the little ones showed him and followed Wiske·djak across the swamps, over the mountains, and around the lakes.151 He tracked him to the big high mountains.152 He kept on until he reached the high rock of the cliff, and there he saw Wiske·djak lying on the edge of the rock sleeping soundly.153 The old Partridge went alongside of him on the upper side of the rock, above him.154 He spread his wings and went right up close to Wiske·djak’s ears, and shouted, screeched, and clapped his wings.155 Wiske·djak woke up with a start and jumped up.156 He saw something above him making a terrible noise and took such a fright that he fell over the edge of the rock.157 “Now,” said the old Partridge, “you will know better what Kuckuŋge·′sįs is now.”158

So poor Wiske·djak tumbled down the cliff, banging and sliding on his hind-quarters, and scraped all the scabs off his burns.159 When he fell to the bottom of the rocky cliff, he lay stunned for some time, but after a while he arose.160 He started to crawl away on his hands and knees.161 Soon he saw a lake at the bottom of the cliff.162 His sores pained him very badly.163 Thought he to himself, “There’s a nice lake; now I’ll go down there and cool myself in the water.”164 He started crawling toward the shore.165 Before he came to the edge of the water there were a lot of low willows he had to crawl through.166 As he went over them, he looked back where he had come and saw all his blood from the sores stuck on to the willow twigs.167 Then said he, “Now you young willows will be called ‘red willows’ from this time on.168 And when the Indians get short of tobacco they will cut you and scrape the bark off you and dry you and use you to smoke for their tobacco.”169 He looked up higher toward the rocks where he fell down.170 There he saw his scabs sticking to the rocks where he had stuck, some large, some small.171 Said he to the rocks, “You will hold on to these scabs.172 Don’t ever let go.173 And when the Indians are hard put to it for something to eat, you will give them some of my scabs and tell them to wash them in cold water and boil them with rabbit meat or any kind of meat or fish.174 It will furnish them with fine soup, those small ones.175 And now the biggest scabs—you can tell them that if they have any kind of oil they can oil them a little and roast them before the fire and that it will give them good nourishment when they are hard put to it for something to eat.”176 So from that time the Indians have used red willow bark to smoke and the “rock weed” to eat when they have needed them.177 [7] By this time anus Wiske·djaki magnopere doluit and he thought he would go into the water for a while and cool his burns.178