Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
The five Kaiutois brothers and old man Leméis with his wife and five
boys lived in one house. The five Kaiutois lived on one side of the
house and old Leméis on the other. When Tskel went to the house, the
Kaiutois brothers and Leméis boys were off hunting for deer.
Old Leméis and his wife saw Tskel’s gopher-skin cap and they were so
scared that they ran out of the house. They built a fire and began
cooking; they were afraid to go inside. The wives and children of the
Kaiutois brothers were frightened, too.
Tskel sat in the house with his head down. Tcûskai teased him to let
him put the cap on and run out and scare the old man, but Tskel pinched
him and told him to keep still where he was, under his arm. Gäk was
lying on the ground and looking at Tskel.
Soon old Leméis’ eldest son came home. When he saw his father and
mother outside, he asked: “What are you doing out here?”
The old man said: “There is something strange in our house. We can’t
stay there. We have never seen anything like it before. It is
terrible!”
“What is there stronger than I am?” asked the son. “I have been off
killing men. I am not afraid of this thing.”
“You haven’t seen it,” said old Leméis. “You can’t go into the house.”
The young man went to the house. He took one step down the ladder, saw
Tskel’s cap, and turned back, screaming so loud that the ground shook.
He said to his father, “There is something there stronger than I am; I
can’t go in.”
The second brother came home. He saw his father outside and asked: “Why
are you out here?”
“There is something in our house stronger than we are. We can’t go in,”
said the father.
The young man laughed, and asked: “What is there stronger than I am?
There is nothing I can’t kill.” He was down two steps of the ladder
when he saw the cap; he screamed and ran out.
One after another the five brothers came home. Each brother got one
step farther into the house; each one screamed and ran out. The fourth
brother said: “I am stronger than anybody. If this man had ever heard
of me, he wouldn’t have come here.” He took four steps into the house,
roared with fright, and ran away. The fifth brother was the strongest
of all the brothers. There were five steps down into the house; he was
on the last step when he saw Tskel’s cap. He roared and with one step
was out.
The five Kaiutois brothers came home just at sundown. When Tskel saw
them, he looked up and they knew him. He took off his cap, put it
behind him, and they all went in. Then they called their wives, and
asked: “Why didn’t you cook for this man? He is hungry. Come in and
cook deer meat for him.”
Tskel said: “Tell Leméis and his sons to come in. It is cold outside.”
They were glad; they went in, and right away they began to cook dead
men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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