Wus and his Troubles by Jeremiah Curtin

Name: Wus and his Troubles
Author: Jeremiah Curtin

"Wus and His Troubles" by Jeremiah Curtin is a short Native American trickster tale centered on Wus, a Fox figure whose greed, curiosity, and ignorance lead him into a series of painful misadventures as he travels through a landscape populated by beings who appear to be ordinary objects but are in fact living persons. The story begins with Wus arriving from the west and encountering two houses belonging to the ten Slikwis brothers, who are fire-drills. Seeing the long sticks gathered around the fire, Wus immediately covets them, believing they would make excellent gambling sticks with which he could beat any opponent. He grabs five of the brothers in one hand, and they instantly blaze up in anger at being handled so carelessly, burning his hand and singing his hair. Wus throws them down and flees in pain and confusion, bewildered that such strange beings exist. He makes the same mistake at the second house, seizing the remaining five Slikwis brothers and suffering the same fiery consequences before stumbling away in worse condition than before. Moving on, Wus enters one of the two houses belonging to the ten Tálwas brothers, who are hot-water baskets. Thirsty and hungry, he mistakes them for ordinary cooking vessels left behind by absent owners. He plunges his hands into one basket to wash them and the water boils up, scalding him badly. All five baskets then erupt in hot water, and Wus barely escapes, declaring himself nearly dead. At the second house, he initially resolves to leave the baskets alone, but his thirst eventually overcomes his caution. He finds the smallest basket, which holds cold water, and begins to drink from it. This youngest Tálwas brother, knowing what his elder brothers had done to Wus, takes pity on him and remains cold and still, allowing Wus to drink. The four older brothers, however, are furious and begin to boil and hurl water. Wus flees in terror while the four brothers send scalding water flying over the roof of the house. Wus then arrives at two more houses, which belong to the ten Kuyas brothers, who are red ants. He enters the first house and finds a large fire burning, but sees no inhabitants, as the ants are invisible to him. He waits through the day for the supposed owners to return with food, grows hungry and impatient, and eventually lies down beside the fire. The five brothers begin biting him one after another, and Wus leaps up screaming, unable to understand what is attacking him. He hurls burning coals around the house trying to destroy his unseen tormentors, but this only enrages the brothers further and all five bite him savagely. He escapes to the second house, where he is immediately set upon by both groups of five Kuyas brothers together. The ten ants bite him relentlessly and with such ferocity that they kill him and consume nearly his entire body before Pshagéknik the Gopher arrives on the scene. Pshagéknik looks down at the remains of Wus and asks him why he has been sleeping so long. At these words, Wus instantly revives, jumps up, and announces that he is simply drowsy before heading off northward as though nothing has happened, carrying his characteristic obliviousness and appetite for trouble with him into whatever new misadventure awaits. The tale functions as a comic parable about the dangers of greed, carelessness, and the failure to recognize the personhood and power residing in the world around one. Wus repeatedly mistakes beings of considerable power for inert objects he can exploit, and each time he pays a physical price, yet he learns nothing lasting from any of his sufferings, reviving and moving on unchanged.

By Jeremiah Curtin · First published 1912 · Genre: Folklore, Fantasy, Children's Literature · 1,073 words

First lines

CHARACTERS / Kuyas Red Ants / Pshagéknik Gopher / Slikwis Fire-drill / Tálwas Hot-Water Baskets / Wus Fox

Ten Tálwas brothers lived in two houses, five in one house, and five in the other; near by, in two other houses, lived the ten Slikwis brothers. One day Wus came from the west and went into the house of five of the Slikwis brothers.

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Wus and his Troubles is listed on Textopian as a short story by Jeremiah Curtin, dated 1912 CE.

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Work type: Short story
Author: Jeremiah Curtin
Date: 1912 CE
Language: English
Genres: Folklore, Fantasy, Children's Literature, Humorous Fiction, Oral Tradition Literature
Length: 1,073 words
Structure: 1 section, 17 paragraphs
Reading fit: Very Easy (5th Grade or below)

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Work identity for Wus and his Troubles by Jeremiah Curtin
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Genres

Folklore — The narrative is structured as a traditional folk tale with animal characters, moral lessons, and archetypal patterns common to Indigenous storytelling traditions, particularly reflecting Jeremiah Curtin's documented work collecting Native American tales.
Fantasy — The story features magical and supernatural elements including anthropomorphic animals with human characteristics, objects that respond with sentience and emotion, and characters that exist in a fantastical realm separate from realistic constraints.
Children's Literature — The narrative employs simple, repetitive sentence structures, archetypal character types, and a cautionary tale structure designed to teach lessons about curiosity and consequences to young audiences.
Humorous Fiction — The story relies on physical comedy and slapstick humor through Wus's repeated misadventures, misinterpretations of his surroundings, and the cumulative absurdity of his escalating troubles.