5

There was in the days of that Towratgote a man born in a middle sized city called A Large Man A Giant or Almag. Now Almag was born and raised in the Order of Jesus is our God or Oojiog. He was holy from birth and most of the city were in Oojiog but they knew nothing of his coming but only that if they called on his name and were baptized they would live beyond the death of their bodies. Still they believed in Jesus and Almag was so strong he would lift oxen for exercise. Now the Oojiog believed Jesus was coming and thought maybe Almag was the one. So when he passed by they would stop what they were doing and bowing they would say Hito or He is the One, holy, holy Hito! As a result he did not go to town that often because he often caused a crowd to gather in hopes he would say or do something marvelous but he was humble and didn’t like to show off.

One day for example a pack of six or eight dogs were on the prowl when they came upon Almag. Wild dogs were worse than wolves for wolves were afraid of man but wild dogs especially the ones that had once been tamed and ran off or for some other reason turned wild were not afraid of man for they knew man. They also did not kill only for food. They often just killed for the sake of the hunt even when they had their fill of a fresh kill. They were a horror to man.

Sure enough then the wild dogs began to circle Almag and to take turns trying to grab an arm or a leg. One then grabbed the edge of his toga but he caught it by the tail and ripped his toga and swung it around to fight off the other dogs while it yapped and howled in fear. It was a terrible commotion.  But he hit a tree so hard with the dog he had by the tail its tail was torn off and the dog died instantly. Then when he bent down to grab the dead dog by a leg to continue his strategy one of the dogs caught him by the arm near the wrist and tore it open. But he did get the dog by a hind leg and attacked the dogs often hitting them and sending them flying back into the forest and finally the dogs gave up the hunt and ran off into the forest for they had their fill of meat for deer were plentiful. But Almag was bleeding so badly that he became weak and holding his wrist tried to make it stop bleeding only to collapse near a swamp. 

Now there was an old woman that lived in the area that often fed the dogs on small animals she would trap and kill just for that purpose and she saw him fall. She approached him very carefully because she was afraid of him because of his size because he was very large. His bed was eleven feet long and his legs hung over the end of it and he was very muscular.

Jesus called to her and for once she heard him say, “She is not Afraid of Dogs! Sinaod! Put a poultice of mud and swamp moss on his wound or he will die. Do it quickly because he dies.”

Sinaod quickly grabbed some soft mud and swamp moss and then placed it on his wrist and held it there with all her might until the bleeding stopped. Then she took her sash and wrapped it around his wrist and on top of the poultice and tied it very tightly. She knew how to do it because the dogs often bit her and she had to wrap her wounds to keep them from becoming infected.

Now Sinaod had heard from the Oojiog that it was necessary to carry the offal from your camp every so often or the camp would become your last and your water would turn to poison. But she hated the job and being a small woman she simply moved to a new camp whenever she began to feel slightly ill for any reason. Her camp was not toxic but she knew the wisdom of moving the offal or making a new camp at least a mile away.

Well Sinaod was away dragging the offal of which there was quite a pile to open ground when the dogs came back for they had been watching the camp but would not go near because they feared Almag and the old woman was not around to feed them and they were hungry. So they cautiously went to the site in search of food while Almag just laid there and did not know they were around for he was still dead. Finding none, they grew brave and braver; they gathered around Almag to eat him.

But suddenly a huge wolf stood nearby and growled at them, the angel of Jesus in the form of a wolf. It walked over to where Almag lay awake now and no longer dead or asleep reckoning his end had come. He was more afraid of the wolf than he had been of the dogs, expecting that it was simply about to chase the dogs away from an easy meal, him. But the wolf when it got to the middle of all of them simply turned toward the dogs ready to do battle and when the dogs did attack for they were very hungry, he killed them all, wounding some that limped or crawled away and tearing open the throats of the others, eleven dogs in all. The wounded ones that got away would have soon died afterward of hunger and infection and might have been found nearby.

Now it was just Almag and the wolf, an angel of Lord Jesus. Almag braced himself as much as he could for he was still very weak from lack of blood. The wolf looked at him and raising its muzzle it looked up and howled. Almag thought it was calling the rest of its pack. It approached one soft step after another, Jesus knowing that even a wounded man could be resourceful and very dangerous. It came upon Almag. It’s mouth was open and he could see its teeth. He slowly reached for a stick at least but it was farther away than he could reach and he fell over on his face and when he managed to right himself he was face to face with the huge wolf. About to die so he thought for sure he cried out, “I am not you! I am not Hito! Save me, Jesus!!” and the wolf looked him in the eyes, cocked its head, whined in compassion and lay down next to him as minutes later the old woman Sinaod returned to a sight that made her heart sink, all those dead dogs and Almag and the huge wolf sleeping side by side so peacefully like any man and his favorite pet might. But she cried for the dogs as much or more than because Almag was saved.

Jesus had compassion for her and one by one the dogs were healed and got up and ran away even the ones in the swamp that had limped or crawled away. She bowed her head but not believing in Jesus she did not pray to him but just sat quietly. When she raised her head to look upon the sight again there laid Almag asleep and the wolf, the angel of Jesus the Lord was gone for it had risen.

Almag awoke and looked at her and loved her. He said, “I prayed to Jesus. I confessed the sin of letting everyone think I was him and he saved me. The wolf was his angel!”

“Angel?” Sinaod said, “What has Jesus to do with my pets?”

Then nearby the dogs found a buck with its horns tangled in the brush and as they moved in for the kill they all barked sometimes even all at once.

“They are all alright,” Almag said and Sinaod hugged him and believed in Jesus.

Everywhere they went they told the story to whomever they should meet and it became known as the Legend of Jesus far and wide and more than a few of the Oojiod and a few others believed in Jesus whose name in his native language is Saves and called him by the name of The One Who Saves Us or Towsu.

Almag and Sinaod loved each other and he cared more for his mother than her saying, “You love people because they are to be loved, not because of what they say or do or even think.” But he thought of Sinaod as one would an elderly aunt or a grandmother.

And wherever the legend is repeated people will repent of their wrongdoings and be baptized into the name of Jesus the God and Sos as in so many sos will come upon them and they will know the future and acquire the thoughts and wisdom of the King of all kings even the Towratgote.