Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
The old woman ran to Góshgoise, and screamed: “Give me your blanket and
quiver! This is the last time I’m going to ask for them! My sons are as
strong as you are. You’ll give up your things when they come!” She was
mad, she looked ready to fight. The Tcpun brothers were watching; they
were scared. Still the boy didn’t say a word. When she couldn’t make
him speak, she went back to the house.
Her son screamed: “Where are the things?”
“He won’t give them up.”
“I’ll go and kill him,” said the eldest brother. When he stood up, he
was so tall and heavy that he shook the house. He thought he could kill
the boy easily, so he didn’t put on his stone cover. With one step he
reached Góshgoise. “Give me those things!” shouted he.
Góshgoise stood up. With his right hand he held his spear under his
left arm, but his head was covered with his blanket, as if he didn’t
hear or see the man.
When Góshgoise didn’t answer, Yaukûl screamed: “Don’t you hear?” and he
raised his spear to strike. That minute Góshgoise’s spear flashed out
and took Yaukûl’s head off with one blow.
Góshgoise threw the head over the house, and the body after it. The old
woman cried out: “What is that? It looks like my son’s head!” and she
ran around the house to see what had fallen.
Góshgoise went into his uncle’s house, and said: “Cut a hole through
the wall, so that I can see out.”
When the Yaukûls saw that Góshgoise had killed their brother, they got
ready to fight. They had a sister, who had never been out of the house,
and had never spoken to any one. When the brothers were putting on
their stone bodies, the sister said: “You will find that you are not
the strongest people in this world,” and she began to cry. The brothers
were frightened. They had never heard their sister’s voice before.
Góshgoise gave a spear to each of the five Tcpun brothers and said: “If
the last Yaukûl comes, you must help me fight him.”
When the second brother was half-way to the house Góshgoise met him,
and the two began to fight. At the first blow the boy struck Yaukûl
with his spear; the first kind of rock flew off. When Yaukûl struck the
boy, only dust flew. The boy hit Yaukûl five blows. At each blow a
different kind of rock was broken. When the fifth cover broke, Yaukûl
died. Each blow of the boy’s spear was a flash of lightning. The third
and fourth brother came out to fight. Every time they struck Góshgoise
a blow, he said: “In another place,” so they never hit him twice in the
same place. Góshgoise struck their covers off and killed them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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