Yusa and Redeka-spirit

This is the story of Yusa and Redeka-spirit, and how the Azu-nah came to have only three toes, as told by Eraan. I've translated it as directly as possible, with Kohric's help, and any grammar failings are my fault. Some of their syntax still gives me trouble.

"It is a strange thing, that all Azu-nah have four fingers on a hand, but only three toes on their feet. It was not always so. Once, in the days when Sukil and Yusa lived on the earth, the Azu-nah had four toes. There is a story of how we lost the fourth.

I will tell you the tale as it was told to me:

One morning, in the time of the First Azu-nah, the sun shone brightly, and the world was alive with many colors and sounds. On this bright morning, clever Yusa was out hunting. East Wind-spirit had not yet shown the Azu-nah how to make m’kek (atlatls), and so Yusa carried only a knife made of chestha bone.

The hunting was poor that day, and while Yusa had been clever and quiet and quick, she had been unable to make a kill. Yusa's belly had become uncomfortably empty, but she and Sukil were wise and had saved dried fruit and meat for times when the hunting was bad. She could return to their lair and eat.

She turned and decided to go home when she caught a pleasant smell on the wind. Yusa followed the scent to a clearing in the grass where an uku* lay killed. She looked around carefully, wondering if it belonged to another, but there was no one near, and no marks staking claim. Yusa became excited and began to cut the kill into pieces so she could take it home.

But she had not cut more than a hand-and-tail before Redeka-spirit came bursting through the leaves, snorting in anger.

"Thief!" he roared, "Scavenger! This kill is mine! I will not let you take any of it!" He slashed the air before Yusa with his claws and bellowed his rage.

But Yusa was bold and did not back away. "Where are the marks to show this kill as yours? Perhaps I killed it myself!"

Redeka-spirit was furious. "I am the greatest hunter in all the world. You dare to question my kill? I will eat you along with it!" And he leapt at Yusa, his jaws wide.

Yusa ran away across the grassland, with Redeka-spirit chasing behind, and planned how to trick him into losing her trail. She stopped at the first stream to cross her path, and went upstream to mask the scent of her passing. "Redeka-spirit will never find me now," she thought to herself. But Redeka-spirit's yan-azuku** was powerful, and he find her scent on the tiniest breeze from across the whole plain. He soon caught up to her and gave chase again.

Yusa ran further, this time stopping in a patch of strongly scented nakaio plants. She quickly chewed the leaves to paste and rubbed them on her skin to hide her scent. Then she hid in a cluster of plants to wait for Redeka-spirit to pass her by. But Redeka-spirit could still catch a hint of her scent in the wind, and headed straight for her hiding place. "You can never hide from me!" Redeka-spirit roared, "I can smell you no matter where you go!"

But Yusa was clever. She ran once again, this time into a stand of trees. She bundled together many branches into the shape of an Azu-nah and placed it in the top branches of one of the trees. Then she took her hunting knife and cut off the fourth toe from both of her feet. It was very painful, but Yusa was strong, and she used her yan-azuku to stretch the flesh of the severed toes to cover the bundle of branches; now it looked like a living Azu-nah. Yusa then quickly bound her bleeding feet and climbed down the tree. She ran away from the stand and hid in a small pond.

Redeka-spirit soon came and sensed the smell of Azu-nah blood and flesh in the tree. “Foolish!” he bellowed, “To think you can hide from me so easily! I will eat you and then eat my kill as well!” He climbed up the tree, and it shook with his great bulk. He laughed in satisfaction when he reached the false Azu-nah and quickly ate it all in a few gulps. But he soon recognized the taste, and knew he had been tricked. Redeka-spirit’s rage was greater than the mountains. He roared his fury, and the sound was so loud it shook the top of what is now Broken Fang Mountain until the top cracked away and fell to the ground. It has been so ever since.

Redeka-spirit climbed down the tree, intent on catching Yusa and eating her! But the Creator made him to eat flesh, only, and the leaves and branches he had eaten made him very sick. He rolled on his side and held his aching belly, still roaring his anger and pain to the sky.

Yusa laughed at Redeka-spirit, and ran all the way back to the uku kill. She quickly cut it all up and took it away home. She and Sukil ate well for many days, and the good food allowed them to have many other adventures. But ever since that day, no Azu-nah has been born with more than three toes on their feet. And now Redeka-spirit’s children still anger that they were tricked by Yusa They have tried many times to kill and eat the Azu-nah, but those tales will have to wait until another night.




*An uku is a four-legged grazing creature with a sharp beak and thick skin. I have never seen one. Kohric had to describe it for me.

**Yan-azuku translates as "spirit power/strength", but I believe is interpreted almost in the same sense as the Native American concept of "medicine." It's a spiritual energy or magic that allows one to do more than is naturally possible.