Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
The man took the little boy on his back and started. As soon as he was
away from the house, he forgot all that his wife had told him. When he
got to the village he stood around a good while; then his youngest
sister saw him and called out: “My brother has come!” She cried, she
was so glad to see him. He left the little bundle of seed on top of the
house and went in.
When Tusasás saw the man and child, he said: “That is just what I
thought!”
The women pounded Tusasás; told him to keep still, and not make the
young man feel badly.
The young man said to his sister: “Go out and get what my little boy
brought.”
Then he told his mother to put down five white skins. As soon as they
were spread out, he put five pinches of seed on each skin, and right
away the skin was covered with nice, white seed. Tusasás put a whole
handful in his mouth. It increased and spread, till it came out of his
ears and his eyes and his mouth. It made his stomach so big that he
thought he was going to die.
The young man said: “You thought nothing of me when I was here; now you
see what kind of a wife I have. She has all kinds of roots and seeds
and meat, but she never digs or hunts.”
When the sun was going down, the children wanted to play with the
little boy. He was pretty, they liked him and tried to be nice to him,
but the boy didn’t want to play.
Blaiwas said: “Let the child alone. He is a little fellow; he might get
hurt, and then he would cry for his mother.”
The children were playing and shouting, but the child paid no attention
to them. His aunt carried him around; she liked him, she wanted to keep
him in her arms all the time.
The mother didn’t feel happy. She knew what was happening at her
father-in-law’s house. She wanted her husband to take care of the child
himself, as she had told him. When she heard the children whooping and
running, she got frightened and started off to save her child.
The young sister began to play with the children. She put the boy down,
and he ran around, too, but he began to run the way a bear runs. He
slapped one child, then another. He pushed them down and drove them
around. The children screamed, they thought he was a real bear.
When the mother was half-way, she began to cry. She knew harm would
come to the boy before she could get to him.
There was a great noise among the children. Tusasás screamed. “People!
People! A bear is eating your children!” The boy was just playing as a
little bear plays. Tusasás got his bow and arrow and shot the child
under the arm. That minute he was a little boy again. The father
thought his sister had the child in her arms. When he heard the noise
he knew what had happened. He called to the people: “That is my child!
That is my child!” but he was too late; the boy was dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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