The gambler

The stranger took all he had won and departed, leaving the boy alone. This man was Water-Man (or Sea-Man). He took all the people to his house under a lake (or the sea). The boy had no one to gamble with, and nothing to bet. He wandered in and out of the houses, crying all the time. One day he saw smoke issuing from a bunch of grass. He found a house there, and a very small old woman inside. She was the small black mouse. She said,” Grandson, where are you going? What troubles you?” He answered, “I have gambled away everything I had, even my friends and all the people.” She asked him if he was hungry; and he answered, “Yes.” She put on a kettle, and split a single fish-egg with a wedge. She put half of it into the kettle to boil. When it was cooked, she put the food on a dish and placed it before the boy. He thought, “The food will not be enough;” but when he ate it, he found that he was quite satisfied. She told him to stay there that night, and added, “You must arise early in the morning, and wash just at daylight. Then go to the steep open place over there. You will see something growing there. Pull it out by the roots and eat it.” He did as directed, and after bathing went to the steep place, where he saw a beautiful plant growing. He ate it, and it made him sleepy. Next Mouse-Woman said, “Tomorrow morning bathe and go to the beach. There you will find something. Skin it, then take the skin, and push the body back into the water.” The boy returned with a sea-otter skin. He had fasted two mornings, and had used no fire at night. The old woman said to him, “Golden-Eyed Duck shall be your brother. When you play the stick-game, never point or choose a stick until he directs you.” He slept that night without fire, arose early, and continued to fast. As directed by Mouse-Woman, he went down to the edge of the sea, and challenged Water-Man to a game. The sea opened like a door, and Water-Man came out of his house. When it opened, the boy could see his parents and all the people working in a big house as slaves. He had hidden his duck-brother on his person. Water-Man had a trump-stick (eke’) which was really a fish; and when the boy pointed at it or chose it, it aways jumped aside. This was the reason he had always lost when playing with Water-Man. Duck noticed this, and warned the boy, who bet his otter-skin against his father. Duck instructed the boy to point a number of times near the fish-stick, so as to tire out the fish. Then he told him to point at it quickly. The boy won; and, acting on Duck’s advice, he won back his parents, relatives, and all the people and goods. They all returned to the village. This is why plants are used as charms to obtain good luck in gambling at the present day, and also this is why it is bad for young people to gamble too much.

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