The old ones tell us that one time, the animals challenged the birds to a
great ballgame, and the birds accepted. The leaders of each made the plans
and set the date, and when the time came, both parties met at the place for
the ball dance. The animals met on a nice smooth grassy area near the river,
and the birds perched in the treetops overlooking the animals. The captain
of the animal team was Yona, the bear, and he was strong and heavy, and
could take care of anyone who got in his way. All along the way to the
ballgame, he was showing his strength by tossing logs and boulders into the
air. He boasted of what he would do to the birds at the ballgame. Dagasi,
the terrapin, was a huge terrapin, and his shell was so hard, not even the
heaviest blow to him would hurt. He kept standing on his hind legs and then
dropping to the ground, bragging that this is what he would do at the
ballgame. He would crush any bird that tried to take the ball from him.
There was also Awi, the deer, who could easily outrun any and every animal.
They thought they had a great team.
The birds had Wohali, the eagle, as their captain. Tawodi, the hawk, and
other strong birds were on their side. Although they were swift and strong,
they were still a little afraid of the animals. After the dance, they were
all pruning their feathers while perched in the trees, and waited for the
captain to give the word. All of a sudden, here came two little things
hardly bigger than field mice, and they climbed up the tree where Wohali,
the bird captain, was sitting. They asked to join in the game. The captain
looked at them, and seeing that they were four-legged, asked why they didn't
go down to the animal team. They said they had, but the animals laughed at
them, and made fun of them, because they were so small. Wohali felt sorry
for them, and wanted to take them.
But they had no wings. Wohali, Tawodi, and the others consulted, and finally
decided to make some wings for the little ones. They tried for a very long
time to think of a solution, when finally someone thought about the drum
they had used in the dance. The head was made of ground-hog skin, and maybe
they could take off a corner of it and make some wings. They took two pieces
from the drum head and cut them into shape for wings, and stretched them
with cane splints and fastened them to the front legs of one of the little
animals.
This is how Tlameha, the bat, came to be.
They threw the ball to him and told him to catch it. He dodged and circled
about, and always kept the ball in the air and never let it hit the ground.
The birds soon felt that he would be one of their best players.
Now they figured they better fix the other poor animal, but they had no more
leather to make wings. Somebody thought of stretching his skin, the way the
leather had been stretched on the drum. Two large birds took ahold from each
side of him with their strong beaks, and pulled at his fur for several
minutes. They managed to stretch the skin between his front and back legs,
until they had Tewa, the flying squirrel. To see how well he could play, the
captain threw the ball up in the air, and Tewa leaped off the limb, caught
it in his teeth, and carried it through the air until he reached another
tree, far, far away.
When everyone was ready, the signal was given and the game began. Almost at
the very first, Tewa caught the ball and carried it to a tree, from which he
threw it to the other birds. They kept it in the air for a very long time,
but it finally dropped. Yona rushed to grab it, but Tlutlu, the martin,
darted after it and threw it to Tlameha. By his dodging and circling, he
kept it out of the way of even Awi, until he finally threw it to the pole
and won the game for the birds.
Yona and Dagasi, who had bragged about how good they were and what they
would do to the birds, never even got a chance to play. For saving the ball
when it dropped, they gave Tlutlu a beautiful gourd in which he could build
his nest. Today, he still has it.
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