Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
When Kai gave the reeds to Natanatas, the old man made believe he was
glad. He said: “You thought it was far; you didn’t want to go, but you
found it was easy. Now you must bring me two round stones to straighten
the arrows. There is only one place to get them; that is down by the
river.”
Kai went to the river. It was deep and ran very fast. Under the water
he saw the stones his father-in-law wanted. He didn’t know how to get
them. He looked for others, but couldn’t find them; then he sat down
and thought about what he was to do. He felt lonesome; he knew
Natanatas was trying to kill him.
Then white eagle feathers called out: “Why do you sit there so long?
The old man is waiting. Why don’t you think of us?”
He thought of white feathers. Right away the river dried up. Kai took
the stones and went home.
Old Natanatas made believe he was glad; he said: “Those are like the
stones I used when I was a young man. Now I must have feathers to put
on the arrows. In a tree near here there is an eagle’s nest; I saw eggs
in the nest. Maybe the little eagles are big enough to have long
feathers. You must go and see.”
When Kai got to the tree, he looked up and saw an eagle in the nest. He
took off his clothes and began to climb. As he climbed, the tree grew.
Kai didn’t look back; he didn’t know that the tree was getting taller
and taller. He climbed for a long time. At last he got to the nest.
When he looked down and saw how high up he was, he was scared and began
to cry.
Soon somebody said right there near him: “Why do you sit here crying?
Pull feathers out of the young eagles; then think of us and you will go
down the way we do.”
Kai pulled the feathers, then he floated down as feathers do. When he
got home, the old man said he was glad, said: “There is where I used to
get my feathers; those eagles always have a nest in that tree.”
Natanatas had the bow and arrows ready. He gave them to Kai, and said:
“Now you must kill a deer, and we shall have sinew to tie the feathers
on with. I will show you a place where deer always come.” He went with
Kai, showed him deer tracks, and said: “Sit down here. I will go
farther and scare deer so they will run this way.”
Old Natanatas had a son under the ground, and he went to get him to
help kill Kai. When Kai was alone, he got up and went off; he didn’t
stay where the old man told him to.
The old man told his son to take the form of a deer and run at Kai and
kill him. “Put your heart in your foot,” said he. “Kai can’t shoot at
your foot.” Then he called out: “A deer is coming! A deer is coming!”
Góshgoise’s heart was with his brother and it kept calling to him:
“Pets, pets, pets! Pets, pets, pets!” (Foot, foot, foot!) It did that
to help Kai and tell him that he must shoot the deer in the foot, for
its life was there.
When the deer got near, Kai thought: “Maybe my brother is telling me to
shoot the deer in the foot.” He shot; the arrow went through the deer’s
foot and killed him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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