The Gift of “Tsow”

Farther back than the memory of the oldest Red Man there once lived an old woman named Cowoh. She was very proud for she was the daughter of a great chief. She had three sons and one daughter. They lived in the village of Naha, which was built along one side of a creek. On the other side, the length of twenty canoes away, was the village of Tee-hi-ton (Cedar Bark).

Now in the time of falling leaves, as was their custom, the three sons went up on the mountain to hunt groundhogs. Each of the young men had his own lodge and a fine hunting ground in the valley. They set their traps and three days later the two younger brothers found their traps full, but those of the eldest brother, Koot-da-nah, were empty. This continued for as many days as there are fingers on both hands.

Then the hearts of the two young men were heavy and in sorrow for their brother they proposed that they should give up hunting groundhogs and hunt beavers instead.

So the next morning they went down to a nearby lake where the beavers had made a big dam with a great tree to keep it from breaking.

Koot-da-nah said, “I shall knock down the tree and you boys stand ready to club the animals when the water breaks and forces them out.”

His brothers were fearful and warned him to be careful, but as the tree fell Koot-da-nah caught his foot in its roots and, pitching forward into the lake, was drowned.

Atch-koog-tdoo-cha shook-ka (he-who-swims-like-a-fish) found the body face downward on the bottom of the lake. Sorrowfully the brothers carried it to their lodge.

Then Too-ke-tni-ka (the-fearless-one) said, “Some evil has fallen upon my brother’s family in his absence and caused his death. I shall go down to the village and find out what has happened.”

So that night Too-ke-tni-ka stole down to the village and, unseen, crept into his mother’s house.

When Cowoh heard that her eldest son was drowned, she was full of trouble and said, “Koshu, son of Chief Yee-khoo, from the village of Tee-hi-ton has looked with evil eyes upon the wife of Koot-da-nah while he has been absent and has visited her every night.”

Then Too-ke-tni-ka said, “I shall kill this man. Do not tell anyone I am here. I shall hide in the forest and tomorrow I shall come limping into the village as if my leg were broken. I shall lie down beside the fire. Tell everyone I am suffering so they will go to bed early.”

The next day when the shadows lay short on the grass Too-ke-tni-ka appeared in the village with his leg bound about with the bark of the cedar tree and went to his mother’s lodge.

That night, when everyone was asleep, he wrapped himself in his blanket and waited with his eyes fixed on the door of the lodge.

Long after darkness like a black curtain had settled down over the village Too-ke-tni-ka crouched by the dying coals and his eyes were red in the darkness and his ears were like the ears of the deer in the forest.

At last there was a faint sound like the far-off cry of the night hawk in the woods. The door of the lodge was pushed open and a dark shadow stole across and entered the room of Kah-ook-too-ni, the Beautiful One.

Too-ke-tni-ka’s heart beat fast with anger. He listened long and then rose and crept noiselessly into the room of his brother’s wife. By the light of his beechwood stick he saw that indeed it was the chief’s son who lay sleeping by the side of Kah-ook-too-ni. Then he drew his hunting knife and cut off the head of the wicked one and taking it with him sped like the wind through the sleeping-village to the hunting lodge in the mountains where his brother awaited him.

Now Kah-ook-too-ni was awakened by the trickling of the warm blood across her hand. When she saw what had happened she was afraid. Knowing that when the chief’s son did not come home there would be a great outcry and searching parties would be sent out, she rose and in great haste dug a grave beneath the bed and buried the body.

“To Left-Handed was given a Sun House”

Meanwhile, after Too-ke-tni-ka had told his brother all that had happened, the two young men went down to the village and placed the head of the chief’s son over the door of their lodge facing inside.

In the village of Tee-hi-ton there was much loud talking and angry looks directed toward Naha when the tidings spread that Koshu, the son of their chief, was missing. Searching parties were sent out, but as the waves wash out footsteps in the sand, so had disappeared Koshu, the fleet-footed.

Then Chief Yee-khoo called a council of his people. It was decided that Wook-ya-koots (he-of-the-sharp-eyes) should be sent to Naha to get a fire and see if he could discover what had become of Koshu.

Wook-ya-koots walked boldly across the frozen creek and entered the lodge of Too-ke-tni-ka. As he bent over the fire to light his stick, he looked stealthily around but saw nothing. But as he paused by the door on his way out he felt the drip, drip of something on his feet. He went outside, and, stooping, touched it with his finger.

It was blood!

Pretending to stumble, he put out his fire and again returned to the lodge. As he bent over the coals with his hair falling over his eyes, he looked and saw the head of the chief’s son over the door.

Then he made great haste back to his village and told what he had seen. Chief Yee-khoo called all his braves together. They put on their war paint and brandishing their war clubs, rushed across the creek and fell upon the village, killing everyone in it and setting fire to their lodges.

Only Cowoh and her daughter, who had hid under their lodge, were saved. When at last the wild chant of the savage war dance of their enemies ceased, they stole like black shadows through the forest to the lodge in the mountains.

But after a time Cowoh’s heart was troubled.

“Who now will marry my daughter?” she asked herself. “There is no man of my people left for her to wed.”

One day as she walked in the forest with her daughter, At-ku-dakt (modest-little-one) she cried aloud, “Who now will marry my daughter?”

At once a little red bird came flying down and said: “I will marry your daughter.”

But Cowoh heeded him not.

Then a squirrel ran down from a tree, a rabbit came out of the woods, a deer paused in his flight, and each in turn said, “I will marry your daughter.”

But Cowoh would have none of them.

Then Hoots, the great brown bear, came and said, “I can pull up huge trees by the roots. I can tear a man’s head and body apart. I shall marry your daughter.”

At-ku-dakh was terrified and hid behind her mother. Then the earth began to tremble and the lightning flashed, and in the midst of it appeared a handsome youth who said, “I shall marry your daughter and take her up to my father, the Almighty One. You, Cowoh, I shall take under one arm and At-ku-dakh under the other. Look not out or evil may come upon you.”

Cowoh heeded not the warning. When they were passing a cloud she heard a sound like the roaring of a waterfall and stuck out her head.

As quickly as thunder follows the lightning, they found themselves again upon the earth. The stranger was angry, and, pulling out one of the branches of a tree, put Cowoh in the hole, saying, “Here you shall stay as long as the world shall last. People shall always hear you crying in the wind.”

Taking the young girl, the youth flew up to heaven where the Almighty One welcomed her as his son’s wife.

When the first son was born, the grandfather, the Great Spirit, baptized him with water so he would have magic power. Then he put his feet on the feet of the child. Immediately the baby grew and grew until he was tall and straight like a young pine tree that grows on the hillside. He named the child Left-Handed.

Four boys and two girls were born and in the same way the grandfather endowed them each with magic power. He taught the boys how to use the spear and bow and arrow and the girls how to nurse the sick. He taught Left-Handed how to stick gamble until his skill was so great that none could equal him.

Then the grandfather built in the heavens a Sun House which he gave to Left-Handed. He built a Star House for the second boy. For the third boy he built a Rainbow House and for the fourth boy a Sky House. Each house had a round door. Within were blankets and food and rich robes of fur.

Calling his four grandsons to him the Almighty One gave them a small box “tsow” saying, “The time shall come when you will have to fight the wicked, worldly people of the earth. Then take this box, open one end of it and they will at once become as the dry leaves in autumn when the wind crumbles them into dust.”

The Almighty One took the Sun House with the eldest boy and his sister and dropped it upon the earth in the center of the deserted village of Naha. Then he took the Moon, Star and Rainbow Houses and dropped them down beside the Sun House.

In Tee-hi-ton the people heard a loud noise like a clap of thunder. This they heard as many times as there are fingers on one hand.

The young people began to jeer, but the elders made them keep silent. “It is nothing,” they said. “It is only Skanson the thunder bird singing his war song.” So they wrapped themselves in their blankets and went to sleep.

The next morning a thick fog hung over the creek so they could not see the length of their canoe in front of them. But when the mist lifted they shouted in amazement, for there among the ruins of the deserted village were four houses, painted with strange figures such as they had never seen before.

As they watched they saw young men and maidens going in and out of the houses. Then they crowded together, asking each other fearfully, “Are these the spirits of our enemies returned to punish us?”

After many days Wook-ya-koots, the keen-eyed, said, “I, Wook-ya-koots, shall go alone to Naha to speak with the strangers and learn from whence comes these lodges which glimmer in the dusk like the water when we paddle idly along in the moonlight.”

The people waited eagerly for Wook-ya-koots’ return, but the sun was high overhead before he appeared. Showing them a piece of meat he said, “Look, this is real meat. The strangers are not spirits. They gave me dried fish, the meat of the mountain sheep and berries to eat. They are lonely and invite you to a great feast tonight.”

The feast lasted until the moon hid her face and the stars began to fade from the sky. The next night Chief Yee-khoo and his braves came again and for many nights after.

Then Left-Handed said, “Are there any stick gamblers among you? Tomorrow you shall teach me how to stick gamble.”

The sun was slipping down behind the mountains when Chief Yee-khoo and his people arrived, for in those days the salmon might leap in the streams and the beavers build their dams unheeded while the Red Men gambled away their blankets and food and even their canoes.

“Within the Sky House were food and rich robes”

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