Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
Tekewas jumped on her and fought with her. Tûtats swayed back and
forth, back and forth, and fell outside the fire, but his sister pushed
him into it, and he was burned up.
His mother ran to the south side of the fire, his sister to the north
side. The old woman knocked Tûtats’ heart out of the fire, for she was
on the right side. She said to the heart: “We shall see who will live,
you or your sister. You will be a great mountain with a white top, and
will live always. In later times people will come to you to get wisdom,
to be great talkers, and brave warriors, and you will talk to them and
help them.”
The heart flew north and became Mount Shasta; then the mother stirred
the fire till four hearts flew out and off toward the north. Each heart
became a mountain. The heart of the eldest brother went as far as the
ocean. But the youngest brother is the largest of the five, and he is
the only one who always has snow on his head.
Tekewas, when she thought she had killed her brothers, went home to
Kûlta; then the old woman remembered Skóla, and hunted for her. At last
she found her; she was dead, but by her side were two babies. The
grandmother pressed them together with her hands, and they became one.
She was glad and called the child Wéahjukéwas. She made a hole in the
ground and hid him.
That night the old woman took the baby out and rubbed him with ashes.
In the morning he noticed things. Each night she rubbed him with ashes;
each morning he was larger and stronger. She talked to the earth, to
the mountains, and to the springs, and asked them to make her grandson
strong and make him grow fast.
One morning the grandmother saw Tekewas lying on the ridge of a hill;
she was red and beautiful. The old woman was frightened; she thought
Tekewas had seen the little boy.
Tekewas came to the grass house and asked for seeds and roots. The
grandmother had forgotten the boy’s deerskin blanket; she had left it
in the house when she put him under the ground as she always did in the
daytime. Tekewas saw the blanket, and said: “You have a baby! Whose is
it?”
The old woman said: “My daughter, you shouldn’t talk so to me. I am
old; I had children, but now I am alone; you have killed all my sons.
Go away! You know where the seeds and roots are; take them and go off.”
Tekewas got the seeds and started, but she came back and said: “I know
whose baby it is. It is Skóla’s, and you must give it to me.”
“Skóla is dead,” said the old woman; “she had no children.” She drove
Tekewas away and followed her to see that she didn’t stop on the
mountain to watch the house. She was sorry that Tekewas had seen the
blanket. When she came back, she rubbed the boy and talked to the
earth, to the mountains, to the trees, to everything for a long time;
then she put him away under the ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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