Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
The mother came with a terrible roar. The earth trembled. When she
shook herself, it was as if the earth was turning over. She tore up the
ground, pulled up trees; tore big rocks from under the earth and threw
them around like little stones. When she got near, she shook herself;
the earth moved and the houses fell. A terrible storm of dirt and wind
came with her. She was in the middle of the whirlwind. It was dark and
nobody could see her. [15]
There were two orphans, a boy and girl, in the village. They were
little people; they didn’t grow any, but the girl was strong and she
knew things. She always carried a long stick, sharp at both ends. When
the people thought they were going to be killed, the girl told her
grandmother to paint her stick red. Then she painted red lines across
her forehead, breast, and stomach, and on the top of her arms, and went
and sat down in front of where Lok Snewédjas was coming, twisting and
tearing up the earth. Lok Snewédjas turned and passed on the right
side. Just then the girl punched her stick into the middle of the
whirlwind. The storm stopped that minute, and there on the ground lay a
beautiful young woman in a dress covered with beads and porcupine
quills.
The young man cried. He knew that he had killed his wife and child by
not doing as she had told him to. He got Gäk’s medicine basket and put
it on the boy, then he stepped over him and the child came to life. But
he couldn’t bring Lok Snewédjas to life in that way. Everybody felt
sorry. They didn’t know who lived in the world that could make the
woman alive again.
The young man said: “If we can bring her to life, she will never be a
bear again.”
Blaiwas said: “I will give nice things, deerskins, shells, and
porcupine quills to anybody who will bring this woman to life.”
The young man stepped over her five times, then ten times, and twenty
times; she only moved a little.
Some of the people said: “There is an old woman among the rocks by the
lake, Skoks is her medicine, maybe she could make the woman alive
again.”
They sent a man after her; when she came, she said: “I want somebody to
scream for me. This woman’s spirit has got near where the sun goes
down; but maybe we can make it hear.”
Skoks went into a man and screamed loud.
Then the old woman said: “Her spirit has turned around. It is coming
back!” Soon she said: “The spirit is here! It is going into its body.”
Right away the young woman stood up. She was beautiful and bright and
well. When she saw the orphan girl, she said: “You don’t look strong or
powerful. If I hadn’t had that storm with me, you couldn’t have killed
me.”
She stayed three days at her father-in-law’s house, then she went back
to the mountain with her husband and child.
Before they started, the young man said to his mother and his sister:
“You will never see me again. I will stay with my wife always. I don’t
want to kill her spirit by coming back here where I forget all she
tells me.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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