Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
They steamed him again, and gave him sweet roots to eat. His mother
said: “If deer are to come to you, the roots will smell out of your
nose.” She held her nose to his, but there was no odor. Then she said:
“My son, I don’t know how you are to be cured.”
“I will try once more,” said the young man. He went out to hunt, but
didn’t see any game. That night he dreamed that he was lying against
something hard, that something heavy lay across his body and crushed
him down on stones. When he told his dream, his mother cried. To hide
his dream she got an old panther-skin, burned it in the fire, and
rubbed his face with the ashes.
Old Djáudjau’s nephew, a little bit of a man, came from the East to
visit his uncle. The girls were glad to see him; their brother was off
trying to find a deer. The little man asked: “How far is it to
Wûlkûtska’s house?”
“It is very far,” said his uncle; “you must stay here to-night.”
When the young man came, he was glad to see his cousin; they talked a
long time. When he went to sleep, he dreamed that the little man choked
him to death, and then went far off on the mountain. He thought he saw
his mother and sisters crying.
The next morning, after the little man had gone, the young man asked
his father to go and show him where he used to hunt when he was young.
They went, but when they got to the place, they didn’t find any deer.
The young man said: “I feel as if I were dead.” The next morning he
said to his father: “I am going away. I want you to stay at home and
not to feel lonesome in the world. I shall die to-day. I feel as if
somebody had tied me up and was going to kill me.”
He went to Wámanik’s mountain. Wámanik was singing to draw him there;
he couldn’t help going. When the young man got to the mountain, Wámanik
began to stretch. He stretched out far from the foot of the mountain.
Then he stretched around the mountain and began to crush it. The young
man heard a terrible roar. Trees were breaking, and stones and rocks
were cracking. A great storm of wind and stones came. The young man lay
down and tried to hold to the earth. But Wámanik pressed the mountain
still harder. His body looked like the sun. He kept stretching till his
head was right there by the young man; then he asked: “Are you afraid?”
“No,” said the young man, “I am not afraid of you. I have never done
you any harm. I feel like a little child.”
“I feel badly for you,” said Wámanik, “but I want to punish your
sisters. I want to show them what I can do when I am mad. I caught you
in this way, so I could talk to you.”
That night Wisnik dreamed that he saw the young man’s head and
Wámanik’s head. He was scared. The next morning he started early and
walked till he got to where Wámanik was pressing the mountain, then he
said: “Now I know why you wanted to stay here. You wanted to kill this
man. He is not to blame for what his sisters did.” He felt sorry for
the young man.
“Go home,” said Wámanik. “I don’t want you around here.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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