Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
Each young woman told her mother the same thing, except Máidikdak’s
daughters; they didn’t say anything. Tusasás made ready a place for his
son-in-law.
He was so glad that he ran around and boasted, said: “Tcûskai drank
from my daughter’s cap; he is my son-in-law.”
When Tcûskai got to the village he stood in the middle of the road.
Blaiwas wanted to lead him into his house; so did all the other chiefs;
but he wouldn’t go. At last old Máidikdak asked him to come to her
house, and he went.
The next morning Blaiwas asked Tcûskai to run a foot race. All the men
were mad at Tcûskai and wanted to kill him. Every man in the village
ran against him. When Tcûskai started, he went under the ground. He ran
faster than anybody and got to the goal first. One after another the
runners came till all were there; then they turned and looked back to
see where Tcûskai was. Tusasás said: “I wonder when he will get here?”
and he made fun of him. Then they saw that Tcûskai was ahead of them.
When they were ready for the race back, Tcûskai said: “Go on! You
needn’t wait for me.” He ran under the ground. He came to the goal
first and won the race. The second man to come was Blaiwas, the third
was Wus. When Kûlta overtook Tusasás, he said: “Little brother, stop
and pull this sliver out of my foot with your teeth.” Tusasás stopped,
but he couldn’t get the sliver out; men had to come and carry Kûlta
home.
Blaiwas said: “Now we will hunt deer.” They drove the deer to the
mountain and left Tcûskai alone there. He sent one arrow and killed all
the deer on the mountain.
The next morning Máidikdak’s daughter had a little boy; he grew fast
and soon was running around.
After a time Tcûskai wanted to see his brother. When he got to Tskel’s
house he found that Tskel had a boy larger than his own. The two little
boys were like brothers. Tskel asked Tcûskai to go to the lake and get
him reeds for arrows. “Get the kind of reeds that have tear-drops on
them,” said he. “Those are the best to make arrows.”
Tcûskai went, and looked in every place; when he couldn’t find reeds
with tear-drops on them, he put his fingers in his eyes and made tears
come; then he dropped them on the reeds. He shed so many tears that his
eyelids got swollen; he could hardly see.
When Tcûskai went to the lake, he went along the south side, for old
Sukas, a man-eater, who drew people in with his breath and swallowed
them, lived on the west side. Going home he made a mistake; he thought
the west was the south side,—he couldn’t see well. Soon he met old
Sukas.
Sukas said: “Come and wrestle with me, then you can go home.”
Tcûskai had to wrestle. About the middle of the afternoon he threw the
old man, but as he went down Tcûskai slipped and fell on him. Sukas’
stomach was so big and flabby that it covered Tcûskai up; he couldn’t
get out and he could scarcely breathe. He didn’t know what to do. Then
he heard Skóla say: “Somebody must scratch and kick hard; that will
kill the old man.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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