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Part 11— After the Conquest
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Story 34—
Ending:
Turkey Man

Soon after they sang those songs, the people moved west. Soon they came to the other [Wooshkum] people who had been ahead of them. They were getting close to the man that went before these people who used to live over here.[2] His name was Tovacule, "Turkey man."[h]

When he saw them coming, he turned himself into a skeleton. When they saw him, they were afraid. He sang:

I am turning myself
Into a dead person.
Your tomahawks are
Breaking all to pieces.

The Wooshkum hunted for the child who had destroyed the house at Casa Blanca [story 24]. When they found him, they asked him to kill that man.


269

The child lay on the ground and twisted himself in every way. When Tovacule saw this, he made fun of it and said, "You ashes dumper, ma ta ya wa tum ,[i] you can't do a thing to me."

When the child's grandmother heard Tovacule say this, she was very mad, and she sang a song:

That is my poor boy
You have called him my poor boy
Pi vi cum (hawk) [j]  bird is mighty strong.

So it was true. The child turned himself into a hawk and killed the old man Tovacule.


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Part 11— After the Conquest
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