There were two brothers. The elder took for his wife an eastern maiden, and they lived in the East Country. They were four, the husband and wife, the younger brother and the wife's father.
It developed that the younger brother became homesick. He would say to himself, "Ah me! ['qi' ttsayqan] I wish I could go to the West Country now."
The woman overheard him, and she told her father, "My husband's brother is homesick. Just now I overheard him say, 'Ah me! I wish I could go to the West Country now.'"
Her father said to her, "Then why do you let him pine for his homeland? Take him!"
The woman then told her husband, "This is what my father said to me."
The husband replied, "It is for us, then, to take him." So they wrapped him in elk hide and mounted him, or rather packed him on an elk. They told him, "You positively must not struggle to free yourself even though you will hear a great din. You must not peep from the hide."
He replied to them, "That I certainly will not do."
Then the father told them, "You are to cross over five mountains, and only there he may look about, but not on this side. You are to take wild sheep, elk, buffalo and moose.' Then they wrapped him in the hide and mounted him. They went.
Now the younger brother heard from within the constant thundering ["xim-, xim-"] of the herd all along the way. It was particularly noisy at the crossings, because there the buffalo and others would lose one another in the crowding. It was very, very noisy. Then he said to himself as they went along, "Oh, how I wish, oh, how I wish that I could see then even once." And so he gnawed a hole.
Meanwhile at home the old man kept count of their days spent in travel. "They must have reached there by this time." They crossed three mountains and were at the fourth. Then, again the younger brother heard them. Oh, the thundering of the herd ["xim-xim-"] He gnawed his way through-and saw them. Oh! In droves there were the buffalo wild sheep, moose, and elk. but, because he saw them, they ran homeward pell-mell. The ran wildly and arrived back whence they had started.
The old man said to himself, "I told them, 'Positively do not let him see them; positively he must not peep,' and now he has disobeyed." They all returned, and they stayed there for a long time.
One day the woman overheard him again, "Ah me! I wish I could arrive in the West Country now." The woman went to her father and said to him, "He is longing for h homeland very deeply again."
The old man said to her, "If you wish to take him again, then mount him on a buffalo bull, one which has tough and very thick skin between the shoulder blades. He will not bite through that easily."
The woman told this to her husband, and again they said to him, "We are taking you only once more, and you know already what will happen if you see the herd even once."
He said to them now, "Positively I will not again become impatient; even if I want see them, I will absolutely not struggle."
"Yes," the old man replied, "yes, you speak good words. You are to go now." The wrapped him in a buffalo hide and mounted him on a bull. Thus they went again. Now he heard from within the thundering ['xim-, xim-"] of the herd of buffalo, wild sheep, and others as they traveled along.
Again he thought, "I wish I could only see them. I wish I could only see them." The again, going along he began to gnaw a hole. The hide was thick and tough. At home the old man kept calculating the time that they had been gone. "They have reached there," he thought. "I wish they would cross the last mountain because then they could have those buffalo, wild sheep, elk, and moose for all time. They have gone for the last time absolutely. If he returns, never again will I send them, even if he pines for home."
Now they arrived at the last mountain; and as they crossed the younger brother heard the thundering ["xim-, xim-"] of the herd behind him. He exerted himself to the utmost and gnawed his way through. And he saw them. They were crossing in this direction; but, oh, they came to a sudden halt, turned around at once, and ran never again to be brought back. All the elk, wild sheep, moose, and buffalo stayed there in the East Country. Had they crossed the fifth mountain, they would have remained in the West Country for all rime. That is the reason why there have never been moose, wild sheep, buffalo and elk west of the mountain divide.
Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield, Washington, 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949]
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