Rotten-feathers

p. 239

ROTTEN-FEATHERS

Children play ball and make much noise, which annoys Heaven, who sends feathers down. One boy puts them on his head and they lift him up. Others try to hold him and all are taken up. One menstruating girl and her grandmother, who were in a small hut, are the only ones left. The girl puts wedges of various kinds of wood, a grindstone, a knife, and some mucus into her blanket and soon gives birth to five boys and one girl, who are these objects personified. The children annoy Heaven by their noise. The feathers come down again and take them up, though they transform themselves into trees, mountains, and mucus. The knife girl climbs her brothers' bodies and cuts off the feather. Then the boys fall down. The feathers remain on the head of the eldest, who is called Rotten-feathers. The bones of those who had been taken up before fall down. They are revived. Grindstone eats berries and is transformed into a mountain. Rotten-feathers cuts passage through the mountains with a feather and reaches Great-goose, who advises them. He marries the daughter of a chieftainess, who tries to cut off his head with her sharp hands. He changes his own and his wife's headdress and the young woman is killed in his place. He abducts the wife of Sleep and escapes in a self-moving canoe. Sleep is awakened by his watchmen, Chamber-pot and Wooden Maul. He creates a mountain in front of Rotten-feathers and his wife, which is cut by the feathers. Then he throws a comb ahead of them, which is transformed into a thicket. Again Rotten-feathers cuts a passage and escapes with the woman.