the Duck

Also known as: Duck · Role: traveler and searcher · First appears: Section 28 · How the Duck, Hearing, Was Fain to Guide K‘yäk´lu

In Section 28, the Duck offered to guide K‘yäk´lu toward his country, asking him to place tinkling shells on her neck and in her beak so he could follow her by sound. He gave her the shells, and she led him onward despite his painful, halting progress, flying ahead and calling him after her.

In Section 29, the Duck gave K‘yäk´lu two strong pinion-feathers to extend his plume-wands. By Section 31, she had found the Lake of the Dead and reported to Páutiwa and K‘yáu‘hliwa, through Sálamopia, that she had found and led him, and that he sat blind, maimed, and unable to hear her calling.

In Section 35, the Duck was with K‘yäk´lu as the gods instructed him, and the Sálamopia guided them safely up to the shore of the lake. In Section 38, K‘yäk´lu held the Duck as he told the six councils of creation, his wanderings, and the sacred customs, speaking to the sound of the shells on her neck.