Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
Tusasás lived in that village. When he saw the sisters coming, he began
to make fun of them and tell lies about them. “Why do you let those
girls come into your houses?” asked he. “They don’t smell good; you
should drive them away.” He made such a fuss that young Blaiwas and
Kaiutois and Wûlkûtska and Wŏn ran off and hid.
The next morning all the people gathered in Lok’s house to talk and
make up their minds what to do.
Old Galaíwa asked Blaiwas’ son: “Why didn’t you stay with your wife?
She will get mad and kill you. Those sisters have great power. They can
do anything.”
Lok said: “I am afraid of those sisters. My home was on a high
mountain; I never lived where the land was flat. Those sisters took my
mountain and drove me away. You should have let them alone; you
shouldn’t have sent Galaíwa to ask questions.”
The people talked a long time; they didn’t know what to do.
The next morning the eldest sister went to the second and together they
went to the third and the fourth sister. They found that each sister
had stayed alone; then they went to Kûlta’s house to see their youngest
sister. Her husband had stayed with her; he liked her, and she was
glad. She didn’t want to go home with her sisters, but they said: “Our
father will feel lonesome if we come home without you,” so she went.
As soon as they left Blaiwas’ village, Tusasás got on top of a house
and called out: “Old Kúja’s daughters came to hunt for husbands, but
they have gone home without them.” He called the girls names and made
sport of them. He kept screaming: “Look at them! See them go home!”
Some of the people said: “Old Tusasás ought to be killed; he will get
us into trouble.” At last Blaiwas made him stop screaming and talking.
The sisters turned back; they looked like men. They made a circle
around Blaiwas’ house and danced a war dance. The people were terribly
scared; they ran into their houses and looked through the cracks. When
the dance was over, the sisters started for home. All the way they made
a great noise. When they went into the house, they pounded their father
on the head and back with their fists, and said: “Old man, to please
you we have tried to get husbands. They ran away from us!” They pounded
him again, almost killed him.
When Kûlta’s son found that his wife was gone, he felt badly and cried.
“Why didn’t you catch her when she went out?” asked his father. “She is
a good daughter-in-law; I like her.”
“I didn’t know that she was going,” said the young man.
Kûlta was frightened; he was afraid of the sisters. He went to old man
Witkátkis, and said: “You must come and talk to my son.”—Witkátkis was
a great kiúks.
When Witkátkis looked at the young man, blood came out of his own
mouth, and he said: “You are going to die. You will follow your wife,
and when you get where those sisters live your blood will spread over
the ground.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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