22 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 16. 
It is quite clear that the raconteur who told the version of 
Holy One quoted above was desirous of not only carefully moti- 
vating the main elements of the plot, but also of clearly centring 
interest upon them, and he accomplished the latter by attracting 
and at the same time arresting the attention of the listener. 
Take, for example, the following starting point of the myth. 
“Once there lived a person together with his younger brother. 
One day the older brother said, ‘Brother, you need not fear any- 
thing, for I am the holiest person in existence and am very power- 
ful.’ 
“One day, all the spirits in the heavens and all the spirits 
on earth held a council about this man, because he had said 
he was the only holy person. There was a lake near his place 
and a water-spirit village not far off. The water-spirits were 
the people chosen to do the deed (i.e., kill the younger brother). 
Holy One did not know of this at all. 
“One day his younger brother did not return and Holy One 
waited for him in vain. Then he went in search of him. During 
his search he wept and wherever he stopped and wept, there a 
large lake would be formed from his tears. Whenever he sobbed, 
the hills would tumble down and valleys would form in their 
place.” 
Here we have the initial incident, the death of Holy One’s 
brother, stated in the briefest and barest manner. Our ra- 
conteur was apparently not interested in particularly motivating 
this episode. He was, however, concerned with the search for 
the murderers, as can be seen by the following detail. 
“In his search he came across the wolf. Said he to the wolf, 
‘Little brother, do you happen to know anything about my brother 
who is lost ? I feel that he is dead somewhere.’ Then the 
wolf said, ‘Brother, I go all over the earth, but I have no knowl- 
edge of him.’ ‘All right, all right,’ said the Holy One, and started 
to walk away. Just then the wolf said, ‘Holy One, I am not the 
one to look after your brother.’ ‘Oh,’ said Holy One, ‘is that 
it ?' and raced after him. The wolf ran with all his might but 
Holy One overtook him, and, taking his bow, broke open his 
jaws and killed him, saying, ‘I suppose you too took part in the 
