Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
Sápkokis said: “You mustn’t make any tracks around here. If you do
people will think that you taught me all these things.”
After this, Sápkokis and his grandmother lived in peace. There were
only women and children left around their place.
A MEDICINE STORY. NUMBER I
CHARACTERS
Blaiwas Eagle
Ktilisúnak Ktilis’ Son
Skoks Spirit
Skoksun Kalo The Land of Spirits
Ktilisúnak (Ktilis’ son) was so young that he couldn’t talk plainly. He
lived with his grandmother. His sister was married and lived on a broad
flat near the mountains. The grandmother was tired of taking care of
the boy, and one evening she threw the little fellow out; then she
threw him his bow and arrows, and said:
“Go off now! Maybe you will be a big chief and have many wives!”
The boy was naked and cold, but he got up and started off to see if he
could find his sister’s house. He cried all the way. When he got to the
flat, he saw a woman coming with a great pack of old ragged mats on her
back. The boy was scared; he trembled all over. He could see the
woman’s head and pack, but he couldn’t see below her waist. He thought:
“That isn’t a living person,” and he grew as cold as ice.
When he thought: “That isn’t a living person,” the woman screamed out,
and right away the boy changed. He could see the woman, and he said: “I
am not afraid of you now. My grandmother has thrown me out; I will give
myself to anybody I meet.”
The woman was a Skoks, and she came in a whirlwind. As the boy looked,
she grew taller and taller. At last her head reached the sky. She
screamed a second time. The boy’s eyes were big from looking at her.
The third time she screamed, she was there by him. She tried to pass
him on the right side, but he pushed hard to the other side. As she
passed him, he fell on his back; blood came out of his mouth and he
lost his mind. Skoks had pulled his heart out and carried it off. (If
she had passed on the left side she would have taken his spirit and
carried it to Skoksun Kalo.)
Skoks went off in the air till she came to where the sun goes down; she
stopped there just above the earth. Her hand was shut tight, and she
held the boy’s heart in it; she talked to the heart, and laughed.
She said: “Heart, I am trying you to see if you will be like me,” and
she laughed again.
The boy lay on the ground as if dead, but his spirit heard the Skoks
talk to his heart, as she sat on the air and held the heart in her
hand. After a while she opened her hand and let go of the heart. Then
the little boy thought he saw a bird coming from the west. It came to
him and lighted on his breast. That moment he jumped up and went toward
his sister’s house. He had changed; he wasn’t a little boy; he was a
young man.
His sister didn’t know him. When he called her “sister,” she asked:
“What has changed you so?” She was scared. He didn’t answer; he only
laughed.
“Why don’t you speak?” she asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account