Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
When Góshgoise reached the top of the mountain, he found a spring; he
talked to the spring, and to the earth, and to the trees, and to the
rocks; asked them not to hurt him. When he looked toward the ocean he
saw many houses and smoke coming out of each house; then he remembered
what his father-in-law had told him. As soon as he saw the smoke, the
sun went down.
The village was full of people; they looked like lightning bugs,
throwing fire, for each person had a lighted torch. When Góshgoise got
to the village, he found the people killing one another. He crept up
carefully, and with his short lightning spear began to cut off heads.
All night he killed people and burned houses. At daybreak, when there
was no one left to kill, Góshgoise went to the mountain, and standing
on the top, looked down. Only one house was left; that was the house of
old Tsmuk. (The people he had killed were Lóluks.) Góshgoise stayed all
day on the mountain, and when night came he went to Tsmuk’s house. (Day
was night for the people who lived with Tsmuk and night was day.)
In Tsmuk’s house there was a great ball of light; the light was so
strong that no one could look at it. Góshgoise held his lightning spear
in front of the ball, and said: “My spear is as bright as this ball; my
long spear would be stronger and brighter than the ball.”
Tsmuk’s daughter was near the door. She had the bright ball right there
at her side. Góshgoise sat down by her and turned his spear over. It
frightened those in the house, and one man called out: “What is that? I
saw something flash.” Góshgoise held the spear near his head, and they
didn’t see it again.
There were six persons in the house,—the old grandmother, Tsmuk, his
wife, his two sons, and his daughter. When the elder son was going to
make a fire, Góshgoise held out his spear. The young man saw it and was
scared. In the morning it was night for him, and he could see
Góshgoise. He pushed his brother, and said: “That is what came in here
last night.” He pushed his father, and said: “That is what came in here
last night!”
Old Tsmuk and his family were terribly scared, for lightning was
darting among them, and it was red like fire. The three men ran out of
the house, for they were afraid the thing would kill them.
Gushwean, an orphan, who had run away when Góshgoise was killing the
Lóluk people, came to the old man’s house. “Something strange got into
our house last night,” said old Tsmuk; “we didn’t know it was there. It
is bright and nice, but it scares us.” Then the old man asked: “Where
did you come from?”
“I live near here. Some one has killed all my people.”
“Maybe this thing killed them,” said the old man; “it is bloody. Look
in and see it.”
“No,” said the boy. “It will kill me.”
Old Tsmuk and his sons were afraid to look in. The mother and daughter
were in the house. The girl was crying; she was sorry for her father
and brothers. When she cried, Góshgoise asked: “Why do you cry?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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