Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
The youngest brother shot an arrow. It went under the ground and came
out near Wus. He jumped. The brothers went down the mountain, the
youngest in front. When he got to where the girl was sitting, he
snatched her away from Wus. Wus turned into a fox and ran off. Then the
young man took Pitoíois by the hand and sprang with her over five
mountains, a spring for each mountain.
His brothers said: “What shall we do to keep the old man from eating
this girl? She is too nice to be eaten up. We must watch him all the
time and kill him if he tries to get her.”
Tskel was the servant of the old man and his five sons. He stayed at
home with the old man and watched for the sons to come. He was on the
top of the house looking for them when he saw them coming with
Pitoíois. He ran in and said to the old man: “They are coming with a
beautiful woman.”
“Where are they?” asked the old man. He was pounding people’s bones.
“You needn’t think that you are going to eat her; she is too
beautiful,” said Tskel, and he snatched the old man’s mortar and threw
it away.
The old man went out and found the mortar. “Don’t you do that again,”
said he. “I can’t do without my cap” (he always called the mortar his
cap), and he put it under his arm.
When the brothers came, they told Tskel to watch their father and not
let him hurt Pitoíois. The old man didn’t look at the girl while his
sons were around, but as soon as they went to hunt he got up and began
to move around.
“Why do you get up?” asked Tskel. “You always move around when you have
a daughter-in-law; you want to eat her. Sit down!” When he didn’t sit
down, Tskel jumped on him and pushed him down. Tskel liked the old man
and didn’t want him to do wrong.
When Tskel told the brothers how their father acted, they were
frightened. They said: “We had better take the girl back to her
brothers. In two days we will start.”
The next day Pitoíois wanted to dig roots. The eldest brother asked his
father if he would let her alone if she dug roots for him to eat.
“Yes,” said the old man. They told little Tskel to watch him; then they
went off to hunt for deer.
Pitoíois dug a great many roots. As fast as she dug them, the old man
pounded them in his mortar and ate them. He ate till midday, then he
was satisfied. He praised Pitoíois, called her daughter-in-law, and
told her he would never hurt her.
“Don’t believe him,” said Tskel; “he always talks that way, but he
never tells the truth.”
Pitoíois dug roots till night, then took home a basketful and put them
around the house, a handful in a place. Each handful became a big pile.
At the end of two days she had a great many roots dug. When the
brothers got ready to go home with her, the old man pounded dried meat
for them to take; there were five large piles of it. As each brother
reached down to take his load, it became so light and small that he
felt that he had nothing to carry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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