Wanaga Becomes Wus-Kumush by Jeremiah Curtin

Name: Wanaga Becomes Wus-Kumush
Author: Jeremiah Curtin

"Wanaga Becomes Wus-Kumush," recorded by Jeremiah Curtin, is a Native American myth following two brothers, Wanaga and Kumush, whose relationship is defined by Kumush's persistent greed and trickery and Wanaga's gradual wise response to it. The story opens with the brothers living east of Tula Lake. Wanaga, seeking independence, goes off to hunt woodchucks and succeeds in killing five, which he cooks over a fire. When Kumush arrives, rather than share honestly, he wants all the food for himself. He devises a ruse: slipping away into the bushes, he pulls every hair from his body and commands the hairs to become men who chase him, screaming warnings to Wanaga to flee. Panicked, Wanaga runs and abandons his food, which Kumush then eats alone, muttering that his brother should not keep such good things to himself. This trick is repeated a second time with the same result, Kumush again transforming his hairs into phantom attackers and eating Wanaga's woodchucks while his brother flees in terror. On the third occasion, however, Wanaga suspects the deception. Though he runs when Kumush screams, this time he takes the woodchucks with him. From that point on, Wanaga remains alert and refuses to be robbed again, carrying his food whenever Kumush attempts the same ruse. Wanaga travels for two days without stopping, with a hungry Kumush following behind. The brothers continue their uneasy pursuit through the winter, Wanaga always a step ahead. In spring, Wanaga kills porcupines and shares the meal, but when Kumush asks how to catch them, Wanaga gives him false instructions, telling him to set a tree on fire, wrap himself tightly in a blanket, and lie beneath it to collect porcupines as they fall. Kumush follows the advice, the burning tree falls on him, and he is killed, his body consumed by fire until only his skull and a disk remain. After a long interval, the morning star calls out to wake him, and Kumush rises and continues tracking Wanaga. When the brothers meet again, Kumush asks how Wanaga catches woodchucks among the rocks. Wanaga tells him to jump down when he spots one, a method Wanaga uses skillfully but that Kumush, overeager after eating his first catch, misapplies. Spotting a woodchuck deep between high rocks, Kumush leaps, strikes the rocks, bursts open, and dies again. This time crows consume his body, leaving only the disk. Once more the morning star revives him. Wanaga wishes a wide river into existence to separate himself from his brother. Kumush searches the banks until he finds a ford and crosses. Wanaga, now on a flat where edible roots called ges grow abundantly, enchants two digging sticks and commands them to work, producing great piles of roots by sundown. When Kumush arrives, Wanaga shares the food and explains how he harvested the roots. Kumush makes his own digging sticks and is told to leave them to work undisturbed until sundown. Unable to control his impatience, he repeatedly checks on them, which angers the sticks and causes them to stop digging entirely. Kumush ends up with nothing and smashes his sticks in frustration. Wanaga quietly plants his own enchanted sticks in the ground, declaring that they should grow and be useful to future people, and indeed they become the type of digging stick used thereafter. Having completed this final act, Wanaga announces a new identity, declaring that he will henceforth be called Wus-Kumush. He slips away in the night, leaving Kumush behind. Kumush remains for a few days, eating the ges Wanaga left him, and then departs toward the east, wandering the world alone from that time forward.

By Jeremiah Curtin · First published 1912 · Genre: Mythology, Native American Folklore, Trickster Tale · 2,083 words

First lines

Two brothers, Kumush and Wanaga, lived east of Tula Lake. Wanaga was uneasy; he didn't want to be always with Kumush, so one day he started off toward the northwest to hunt for woodchucks. When he had killed five, he took out the intestines, cleaned them, filled them with fat and cooked them in front of the fire. The bodies he cooked on hot stones. He was eating the intestines when his brother came up to the fire. Kumush's face was wet, he had run so fast.

Wanaga was mad, but he said: "Now you are here, come and eat some of these intestines."

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Wanaga Becomes Wus-Kumush is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jeremiah Curtin, dated 1912 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jeremiah Curtin
Date: 1912 CE
Language: English
Genres: Mythology, Native American Folklore, Trickster Tale, Fable, Fantasy
Length: 2,083 words
Structure: 1 section, 42 paragraphs
Reading fit: Very Easy (5th Grade or below)

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Genres

Mythology — The narrative features supernatural transformation, divine beings with magical powers, and cosmological themes typical of creation myths and origin stories found in mythological traditions.
Native American Folklore — Collected by Jeremiah Curtin, a renowned ethnographer of Native American cultures, this story reflects the oral traditions and cultural narratives of indigenous peoples, featuring elements characteristic of Native American mythological cycles.
Trickster Tale — Kumush embodies the archetypal trickster figure who uses deception and cunning to manipulate his brother repeatedly, demonstrating the moral ambiguity and wit characteristic of trickster narratives across cultures.
Fable — The story contains moral lessons about greed, patience, and consequences of deceptive behavior, with the protagonist learning through repeated failures and the narrative culminating in transformative wisdom.