Young-Man Wolf and Old-Man Gull

He looked around and saw some deer; and, although it was the first time that he had ever seen any, he was not afraid, but went straight down to them, without making any attempt to conceal himself. He did not know how to use the bow and arrows, so when the deer ran, he threw down the bow and ran after them, and finally caught one by the neck, and strangled it, and put it on his shoulders and took it to his camp. On his way back, he picked up his bow and arrows and took them along with him. When he reached camp, he cut off the feet of the deer, and stripped off the skin, as one skins a rabbit. Then he tied a string around the ends of the hind-legs, and pulled them on for trousers, and wiggled himself into the skin. Then he ate some of the flesh to satisfy his hunger, but by and by the sun came up, and his new clothes began to shrink and grow stiff, so that he had hard work to keep the joints soft, so that he could move about.

After he had his clothing fixed to his satisfaction, he went off to look for a good place to live, leaving the deer-meat where the camp was made. He went on until he came to a fine river, and ascended it until he found a place which suited him. Then he made a winter house and a cache, and started in to get his living by hunting. He killed deer and bear by choking them to death. He took the meat and the skins to his house; and as his old garments wore out, he made himself new ones. He was an industrious hunter, and got abundance of meat and skins. He remained at this place all winter.

Toward spring he began to wonder whether there were any other people in the world beside himself; and he made up his mind that he would try to find out, and that he would never stop looking until he found some one. So he started off, walking day after day, and camping when night overtook him. One evening, as it was about time for him to go into camp, he came upon a waterhole, and concluded that at last he had come to a place where he should find human beings. So he hid his pack, and followed the path from the water-hole up the bank, and found that it led to a large house, like a kashime. At first he was afraid; but when he went in, he found no one inside. After he had waited a while, he heard a noise outside, and a little old man came in. This man turned and saw the young man; and at first he was surprised, for this was the first time that a stranger had ever come to his house. “My child!” said he; and then he told the young man that he had come because he had been wishing so earnestly for him. He had known of him, and showed the young man that he knew of all his adventures. Then the young man told the older one that he had come to him weeping, for his great desire for human companionship. The old man told him that he was to stay, and the fire should be made immediately. So the curtain was removed from the smoke-hole, but without the agency of hands; and in the same way wood was brought in, and laid for the fire. The young man wondered how this should be, but he said nothing. When everything was ready, the old man told the younger one that he was about to take a bath, and asked him to go out for a while; so he went out, and walked around, but found no house where he could go in and sit down. He looked through the grass that stuck out of the snow at the edge of the bank, thinking that he might find a path, but he found none. Finally, when he thought that the old man had finished his bath, he went back, and found that the coals had been thrown out and the curtain put back; so he went in, and found the old man there.

So they sat down together, and the old man told him all about himself and how he made his living. As they sat talking, the skin that covered the entrance-hole in the middle of the floor was pushed aside, and a delicate, white hand appeared, holding a dish of food, which the young man saw to be fine whitefish. The old man got down and took the dish, and the hand disappeared. The young man found the fish so good, that he ate it all; and then the old man took the dish and set it down again near the curtain, and the same hand appeared and took it away. The two men sat together for some time, the younger one wondering all the time to whom the hand might belong. At length the old man said that he was going out, but that the younger one was to stay where he was. The young man urged the other not to leave him; but the old man said, “No,” that he must go, and that the young man was to stay, but that he would send two children in to stay with him, and that he must never leave them.

So the old man went out; and the young man sat for some time, waiting for the children to come in. At length he heard two children talking together outside, each urging the other to go in first. The house was of the kind that has the entrance in the middle of the floor. At last two beautiful girls came up through the entrance. They had bowls of food; and they went to the young man in the most friendly manner, and offered it to him, and sat down on either side of him. Neither of them said anything; and the young man said nothing, but he thought how kind it was of the old man to send in such beautiful girls, when he had been expecting boys. After they had eaten, they all went to bed.

In the morning they all got up, and the two girls went out; and when they returned, each brought in a dish of fish. When they had eaten this, they said that they would cook some more, and they went out again. While, they were gone, the old man came in and greeted the younger one, and asked him how he had passed the night. “Why,” said he, “I thought that you were going to send two boys in to stay with me. That is why I said that I would stay when you said that you would send in two children.” Then the old man told him that the mother of the two girls would not show herself to him until he. had taken the girls up to his own village and brought them back again. He also told the young man that all he would be expected to do while he remained with them would be to sit in the house and make a fish-net. The young man answered that he could not do this, because he was a hunter, and this was work to which he was not accustomed; but the old man said that he must do as he told him, “for,” said he, “I have given you the two girls. This is the way we live, and you must do as we do.” So he gave him some twine made of willow-bark, and showed him how to make a net, and told him that his own work was to go to the nets and take out the fish, and that he did nothing else from sunrise until sunset.

So after the old man had left to look after his nets, the young man set to work to make a net; but he found it tiresome, and after a little he stopped working and went out to see what had become of the girls. He went all around the place, looking for their tracks; and finally, under some overhanging grass, he found a narrow trail, which led him back, and up a little slope; and there he saw a house, with sparks coming out of the smoke-hole. He was curious to see the mother of the two girls, so he crept cautiously up to the top of the house and peeked down through the smoke-hole. He saw the two girls cooking some fish, and in one corner of the room sat a woman whose hair was so long that it afforded her a cushion. The young man took some snow and wet it in his mouth, and threw it down and struck her. Then he ran down off the house as fast as he could, toward the house where he had been at work on the net; but he heard the roar of water following him, and he kept on across the river, and up a hill on the other side. Still the water followed him up the hill; but just as he reached the top, it stopped, and when he turned around, he saw nothing but water where the houses had been, and three gulls flying around over the place. They flew directly over where he stood; and then he heard the voice of the old man, asking him why he had not done as he told him. Then they flew away, and the young man began to walk around; and soon he found that fur was growing out upon the back of his hands, and he turned into a wolf.

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