Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
They carried the body to the house, then old Yaulilik sent the boy to
watch for the head of his younger sister, and after a time her head and
body floated into the net. Then the mother made a sweat-house, and
built a big fire in it. She put the two heads and two bodies into a
basket, and put the basket and Cogátkis into the sweat-house. She
wrapped up Cogátkis, so that he couldn’t move, and said: “No matter
what your sisters say or do, you mustn’t answer them or speak to them.”
She shut the sweat-house up tight, and started for Blaiwas’ village to
ask Blaiwas if he knew who had killed her daughters.
As Yaulilik traveled, she sang her snow song, and a great snow-storm
came. When she stopped singing the snow stopped falling. When she got
to Blaiwas’ village she went into the first house.
The people living there asked: “Why did you come here? What do you
want?”
Yaulilik said: “I came to find out who killed my daughters.”
The people didn’t know, but they gave her as much deer meat as they
could lift. Yaulilik made it small by her power, put it in her bosom
and went on. She began to sing; snow fell again. She stopped at each
house in the village, and asked: “Do you know who killed my daughters?”
At each house she got the same answer, and a gift of deer meat.
At the end of the village three houses stood near together. Blaiwas
lived in the first house, Gäk in the second, and Ndúkis in the third.
When Yaulilik asked Blaiwas who had killed her daughters, he said: “I
don’t know, you had better ask old man Gäk; he lives in the next house;
maybe he will know.”
Gäk didn’t know, but told her to ask the old man who lived in the next
house.
When Yaulilik went into the third house old Ndúkis looked up, and
asked: “What have you come here for?” When she told him he asked: “What
man did you send your daughters to?”
Yaulilik didn’t answer.
“Well,” said Ndúkis, “the man you sent them to killed them. Just after
daylight I heard one woman scream and then another. The second screamed
louder and longer than the first. The sound came from the northwest.”
Yaulilik said: “I know now who killed my daughters.” She thanked old
Ndúkis and started for home. As soon as she started the snow
disappeared, the ground was dry and the air warm and pleasant.
When half-way home Yaulilik took the deer meat out of her bosom, made
it large and carried it on her back. When she was near the sweat-house
she heard talking and laughing.
Yaulilik hadn’t been gone long when the girls began to be noisy and to
try to make their brother talk to them. The elder sister’s voice called
from the basket:
“Little brother, don’t you want to see me? I have come back.”
The younger one said: “Get up, little brother, and talk with us.”
Cogátkis didn’t look toward the basket or speak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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