Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
When Isis got home, he lay down. Kumush washed himself, then gave his
son food and drink. The next morning he sent him to get Tcok, the great
gambling medicine.
Kumush said: “Tcok is round and bright, like the sun. If a lazy man
tries to catch it, it will show itself in two or three places at the
same time, and he can’t overtake it; but if a strong man, who has been
to the swimming ponds, follows it, it will let itself be caught.”
Isis went for Tcok, caught it and brought it home. He held it so
tightly in his hand that it burned him, and blistered his hand.
Kumush said: “You must kill Tcok; if you don’t it will get away from
you. You want it, for if a man has it when he is gambling, it gives him
strength.”
When Isis had killed Tcok, Kumush said: “Now you must go to Káimpeos.
On the way you will come to a small pond. Don’t stop there, for it is a
bad place. In Káimpeos there are five Kais; they belong to the pond.”
When Isis got to Káimpeos, he saw the sun, the moon, the stars and big
fires down under the water. He dived five times; each time he felt a
Kai right near him. Under the arm of the fifth Kai there were gambling
sticks. When Isis came out of the water, he lay down on a rock and
tried to go to sleep, but he couldn’t, so he got up and went home.
While Isis was gone, Kumush made a sweat-house, and when Isis returned,
he said: “Take off your bark clothes and sweat, then paint your face
and body red and put on buckskin clothes and nice beads. You have been
to all the swimming places, and you might be a big chief, but I don’t
want that. Other people will come and it will be bad here. We will go
away where you can keep all the strength the mountains and swimming
places have given you, where you won’t get bad and dirty from the earth
and people.”
They went to the top of a high mountain and built a house among the
rocks. The house was red and nice to look at. Kumush thought that
people around Tula Lake would see his house, but couldn’t climb up to
it. Kumush had the north side, Isis the south side of the house; the
door opened toward the east.
Kumush didn’t know that Skakas and Nada lived on that mountain, but
they did, and both of them fell in love with Isis. They came to the
house and neither one of them would go away.
“What do you want?” asked Kumush.
“I want Isis for a husband,” said Skakas. Nada gave the same answer.
“Well,” said Kumush, “I will find out what you can do. Which of you can
bring water first from that lake down there?”
Both started. Skakas found water on the way, turned around and was back
first. When Nada came, she said to Skakas: “I didn’t see you at the
lake.”
“I got there first; I took some water and came back. We were not there
at the same time.”
“I am a fast traveler,” said Nada. “It is strange that you got back
first.”
Isis drank the water Nada brought, but wouldn’t touch the water Skakas
gave him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account