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This custom has gone on, generation after generation, all along until
now, and the places of the head men have thus been inherited. So it is
with this story.
A very long time ago there was a great village with many people. They had
only one chief. There was also his sister. They were the only two chiefs
in the large town. The chief also had a beautiful daughter, and the
chief's sister had a fine son. All the people of the village were glad to
see the young prince and the young princess growing up, and they expected
that these two would soon marry. Therefore the relatives of the prince
went and talked with the father of the princess, and they also went to the
uncles of the princess and talked to them.
Now, the relatives of the girl accepted, but the girl rejected the
proposal and said that she would not marry him; but the young prince loved
her very much, and still she refused him The young man loved her still
more, and he was always true to her. Moreover, he was very anxious to
speak to her, but the young woman rejected him.
Now, the princess wanted to make a fool of her cousin. One day she dressed
herself up and went to the end of the village to take some fresh air. The
young man saw her pass by his door, and he went after her. Soon he saw her
sitting under a large tree, and went up to her, and the girl was very kind
to him. She smiled when she saw him coming. Then the young man sat down by
her side under the tree as gently as he could. He asked her if she did not
want to marry him. The girl said, "If you make a deep cut in your cheek,
then you may marry me." Therefore the handsome young man took his knife
and cut down his right cheek. The girls laughed at him, and they went
home.
When the cheek of the young man was healed, the princess put on her finest
dress, passed the door of her cousin, and the young man saw her pass by.
He followed her, and saw her sit at the same place where he had met her
before.
He went to her; and she stretched out her hands to greet him, put her arms
around him, and kissed him once, since her cousin wanted to marry her.
Then the young man loved her still more because she had kissed him the
first time ever since he had loved her; and when the young man was
overflowing with love, she said, "If you love me so much, show your love
and make a cut down your left cheek; then I shall know that you really
love me." The young man did not like to do it.
However, he wanted to marry her, and so he took his knife and made a cut
down his left cheek. They went home, and the young man was always thinking
of her.
Soon his wounded cheek was healed. He did not mind his foolish acts. On
the following day he saw her passing his door. The young man followed her,
and she was sitting under the tree. She smiled at him when he was coming
to her, and said, "Do you come to me again, my beloved one_" and he
replied, "Yes, I come to marry you." Then he put his arms around her, and
she kissed him again. He asked her, "Do you love me, my dear cousin_" and
she replied, "Yes, you know how much I love you," and the princess asked
him, "Do you also love me, cousin_', and he replied, "Indeed, I love you
very much."
Thus said the young man, for he wanted to marry her. Then the princess
said to him, "Now, show me your love. Cut off your hair; then you may
marry me." So the young prince took his knife and cut off his beautiful
yellow hair. (In those days the young men and the old men wore their hair
as long as women's hair, and it was considered dishonorable to cut a man's
hair as we do it now.)
They went home, and on the following day the young man sent some one to
her, saying that he wanted to marry her now. Therefore the messenger went
to her and told her what her cousin had said; but the woman replied, "Tell
him that I do not want to marry a bad-looking person like him, ugly as he
is"; and she gave him the nickname Mountain With Two Rock Slides, as he
had a scar down each cheek. She laughed at him and scorned him' saying, "I
do not want to marry a man who cut his hair like a slave."
The young man's messengers came back to him and told him what she had
said. Therefore the youth was very much ashamed. He remembered that he
also was a prince, and he cried because his own cousin had mocked him.
Now, he decided to leave his father's house and his uncle's house, for he
was ashamed before his fellows of the scars which he had made on his own
cheeks by order of his beloved one. He went about, not knowing which way
to go. Day by day he went, and he came to a narrow trail. He walked along
it, and saw a small hut away off. He went toward it. Before it was evening
he reached there; and when he was near, he walked up to it quietly. He
stood outside and looked through a small hole.
Behold! a woman was sitting there by the side of a fireplace. She said,
"Come in, dear prince, if it is you who was rejected by his own cousin!"
So the young man went in, and the woman made him sit down on the other
side of the fire. She gave him to eat. When he started from home, four
young men, his own friends, had accompanied him on his way; but three of
them had gone back home, and only one, his dearest friend, followed him
all along the way until they came to the little hut.
After the old woman had given them to eat, she said to the young man,
"Soon you will arrive at the large house of Chief Pestilence, which is
just across the little brook yonder. Leave your companion at this side of
the brook, and you yourself go to the large house. When you get there,
push open the large door, then say this: 'I come to be made beautiful in
the house of Pestilence!' Shout this as loud as you can.
Then you will see that the house on both sides is full of maimed persons.
They will call you to come to their sides; but do not go there, because
they will make you like one of them. When they stop calling you, then
Chief Pestilence will call you to the rear of the house.
Follow his calling. He will make you beautiful." Thus said the old woman
to him. On the following day, after they had had their breakfast, they
started. As soon as they crossed the brook, the prince said to his
companion, "Stay here, and I will go on alone. Wait until I come back to
you!" So the companion staid there.
Now he went on alone. Soon he saw a large house in the distance, and went
as quickly as he could. He pushed open the door, ran in, and shouted at
the top of his voice, "I came to be made beautiful, Chief Pestilence!"
Then all the maimed people on both sides of the house beckoned to him and
shouted. Those on one side would say, "Come this way, come this way!" and
those on the other side said, "Come, come, come!" The prince remained
standing in the doorway. There were many good-looking women among these
maimed persons. They shouted and called him; but he stood still, waiting
until Chief Pestilence should come forth from his room in the rear of the
large house.
Soon the noise of the maimed people ceased. Then the door of the chief's
room was opened, and, behold! Chief Pestilence came forth with his
beautiful daughter. He said, "Dear prince, come this way!" Then the young
man went to him and sat down on his right side.
Then Chief Pestilence ordered his attendants to bring his bathtub. They
brought him a large tub full of hot water. Then the chief took the young
man, put him into this tub, and, as soon as he was in the tub, the water
began to boil and the water boiled over the tub, boiling of its own
accord. When the dross was all off, the chief took the bare bones of the
young man, put them on a wide board, joining them together, and after he
had done so, he called to his young daughter, who leaped over the bones.
Then the young man was alive again. His features were changed, and
his body was as white as snow.
Then the chief said, "Bring me a nice comb!" and his attendants brought
him a comb of crystal. The chief took it and combed the prince's hair down
to his loins. His hair was red, like tongues of fire. He was the most
beautiful of all.
The chief did not want to let him go at once, but kept him in his house
for two days. The young man thought he had been there two days, but in
reality two years had passed. Then the young man remembered his friend
whom he had left by the brook before he entered the house of Chief
Pestilence. Now, the prince told the young woman that he loved his friend
by the brook; therefore the young woman said, "Let us go to see him!"
They went together; and when they came to the place, they found the man's
bare bones heaped up there. Therefore the young prince wept, but the young
woman commanded him to take the bare bones to her father's house. The
young man did what the young woman had told him, and took the bare bones
to the chief. The chief ordered his attendants to bring his bathtub.
They brought it to him, and he put the bare bones into the tub. Then the
water began to boil, and the dross of the bare bones boiled over the tub.
Thus the young man saw what the Chief Pestilence had done to him.
Then the chief took out the bones and placed them on a wide board and
joined them together; and the young woman leaped over them four times,
and the young man was alive again.
Next the chief asked for his own comb. They brought it to him, and the
chief asked what color of hair he wanted. The man said, "Dark-yellow
hair." He also asked him how long he wanted it; and the man said, "Right
down to the knee." So the chief combed his hair down to his knees; and
this man was lighter color than the other. Now they started for home. It
was not many days before they arrived at their home. The prince looked
like a supernatural being, and his friend too was handsomer than any of
the other people. They came and visited them; and all the people talked
about these two men who had just come back from the house of Chief
Pestilence, who had transformed them and given them great beauty.
The young people coveted their beauty, and they questioned them one day to
know how far the house of Chief Pestilence was from their village. Then
the prince's friend told them that it was not very far away.
Now, let us go back to the princess who years ago had refused to marry her
own cousin. She was very anxious to see her cousin who had just come home
from the house of Chief Pestilence. People were talking about it, that he
was more beautiful than any other person in the village; and she heard the
people say that he looked like a supernatural being. Therefore the young
woman tried hard to see him. One day the chief, the father of the
princess, invited his nephew to his house.
The prince went with some of the chief's head men; and as soon as the
prince entered his uncle's house, the young princess looked at him. Oh,
how fine he looked! and more beautiful than any of the people. Then she
tried to make her rejected cousin turn and look at her, but the young man
took no notice of her courting. His hair was like fire, and his face shone
like the rays of the sun.
Now, the young woman came down from her room, and walked to and fro behind
the guests, laughing and talking, trying to make the beautiful prince look
at her; but he took no notice of her. As soon as the feasting was over, he
arose and went home, and the young princess felt full of sorrow.
The following day she sent her maid to call the beautiful prince. When the
girl came to him and told him what her mistress had said to the prince, he
did not answer a word, and the maid went back to her mistress and told her
that the prince would not answer her a word.
She sent to him again; and when the girl came to him, she told him that
her mistress wanted him to come and see her. But he said to the girl, "Go
and tell her that she rejected me then, so I will not go to her now." Then
the girl went and told her mistress what the prince had said.
The princess sent her girl again. "Go and tell him that I will do whatever
he desires me to do." She went and told him what her mistress had said:
"My mistress says that whatever you desire her to do she will do." Then
the prince said to the girl, "Go and tell her that I desire her to cut
down her right cheek, and I will come and be her guest."
Therefore the girl went and told her mistress what the prince had said. So
the princess took her knife and cut down her right cheek. She said to her
maid, "Go and tell him that I will do whatever he wants me to do." She
went and told the prince what her mistress had done.
Again the beautiful prince said, "Just tell her to cut down her other
cheek, and then I will come and see her." So she went and told her
mistress, and thereupon the princess cut her left cheek. Again she sent
her maid, who went to him and told him. This time he said, "Let her cut
her hair, then I will go to her." She went and told her, and the princess
took her knife and shaved off her hair, and she sent her hair to him.
The maid took it to the prince; but when the prince saw the hair, he
refused to accept it. "Don't bring it near me! It is too nasty! Take it
back to your mistress and tell her that I don't want to see the ugly scars
on her cheeks and her ugly shaved hair. It is too nasty for me." Then he
left, and laughed louder and louder, mocking her; and the girl returned to
her mistress very sad.
She came slowly; and her mistress asked her, "My dear, what tidings do you
bring_" Then she told her mistress how scornfully he had spoken of the
ugly scars on her cheeks, and of her shaving her hair, and that everybody
had been laughing at her, and that every one had heard him mocking her.
Then the young princess was very much ashamed. She set out with her maid,
and walked along crying.
She wanted to hang herself, but her maid talked to her and comforted her
all the way. They went on and on, trying to go to the house of Chief
Pestilence. Her heart took courage, for she hoped to get there and ask
Chief
Pestilence to make her beautiful. They went on and on, and passed many
mountains and rivers and valleys, and reached the edge of a large plain.
There they met a man, who asked them which way they intended to go; and
the princess told him that they intended to go to the house of Chief
Pestilence. She passed by him, and did not look at him, for she was
ashamed to let any one look at her.
Soon they saw a large house in the distance. They went toward it; and when
they reached the door, they went right in and shouted as they stood in the
doorway, "We come to the house of Chief Pestilence to be made beautiful!"
Then all the maimed people on both sides of the house called to them,
"Come, come, come!" and those on the other side shouted, "This way, this
way, this way!" and the princess went to those who called her to come; and
the other one went too those who shouted "This way!"
Then the maimed people fell on the princess, broke her backbone, and made
her lame. They turned her head to one side, and broke one of her arms; and
those on the other side plucked out one of the eyes of her maid, tore up
one side of her mouth, and scratched the two women all over their bodies,
and then threw them outside. There they lay wounded, and nobody came to
help them. The princess was more severely injured than her maid.
When the maid felt a little better, she saw her mistress lying there with
wounds all over her body. She went too her, and saw how she was bruised.
They were both in great distress, and the princess was groaning. So her
maid helped her up and led her home. They spent many days coming down, and
finally arrived at their home. Then she lay in bed, and finally died.
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