Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
The next morning Tekewas went early to look for tracks. She found the
place where the boys had rolled straw rings and saw that some of the
tracks were very small. She followed the larger tracks till she came to
her mother’s house. “You didn’t tell me the truth!” cried she. “There
are children here! Every afternoon I hear little boys laughing.”
The old woman scolded her, drove her off, watched her till she was out
of sight; then she took the boys out of the hole and told them to go
and play, but not to run around; if they did a bad woman would catch
them.
That day the boys followed a white-necked duck. They tried to shoot it
but couldn’t. At night the elder boy said: “Grandmother, you must give
me an arrow with a strong head; then I can kill ducks.”
She gave him one and all the next day he followed the duck; at last he
hit it. The bird screamed like a man and hid in the bushes. Ever since
that time ducks like that one scream in the same way. When the boy
found the bird, it said: “Don’t kill me. I always bring good news. Take
this arrow out and I will talk to you.”
The boy pulled out the arrow, then the bird said: “Little boys, don’t
think that you have a father and a mother. Your aunt killed them. She
loved her youngest brother, but he didn’t love her, so she killed him
and all of her brothers. Now she is trying to kill you. I hear her sing
in her heart: ‘I will kill my nephews, I will kill my nephews!’ When
you are large enough to shoot ducks from a canoe, you can kill her if
you try. She swims in the lake in the form of a duck; when she is in
the form of a woman she has long red hair. She will call you as though
she loved you, but you must remember my words. Don’t tell your
grandmother that you know about your aunt; she wouldn’t let you kill
her. She could have saved your father if she had killed her daughter.”
“Grandmother,” asked the boy that night, “is there any place around
here where there are green-headed ducks?”
“Yes, but you can’t kill them; you are too small.”
The boy went to the lake, sat in the reeds, and watched till he saw two
green-headed ducks and killed them. The next day he killed five
green-headed ducks. The old woman was frightened. She didn’t dare to
let a feather drop or fly away for fear Tekewas would see it. She
burned each feather and roasted the ducks in hot ashes.
“When I kill a duck, I shiver, and am cold,” said the boy.
“Why is that?” asked the grandmother.
“Because I want a canoe.”
“To-morrow, when you go to the lake, you will find a canoe.”
He was glad. “I will take my brother,” said he.
“No,” said the grandmother, “he is too small; he might fall into the
water and you couldn’t get him out.”
The boy started off alone, then he thought: “My arrows are not strong
enough to kill big birds.” He ran back and his grandmother gave him
five strong arrows and a straw mat to wrap them in. That day he killed
many ducks, and his grandmother was glad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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