Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
Wus couldn’t forget his brother-in-law; he felt lonesome. He sang all
the way up the mountain, then he piled stones and worked till morning.
At daylight he fixed a bed of dry grass and lay down and slept. He
dreamed that he heard his brother-in-law say: “I am going away from
you; I shall never come back. I am going to stay lost.”
When Wus woke up, he was crying. He was sorry that he had come to the
mountain to dream. When he got home, his wife was painted. She said:
“We can eat now; the baby is five days old. You must put red paint on
your face.”
Wus painted his face, then he sat down and ate. When he got up, he said
to his brother-in-law: “While I was on the mountain, I had a dream. I
heard you say that you were going away, that you would be a person no
longer.”
The young man was angry; he scolded Wus for going to the mountain.
Wus said: “I will go away myself, then you can stay here; I will change
to an animal, but I will keep a little of my mind.” Wus left his wife
and children and wandered off,—a fox.
The wife cried; the brother-in-law felt ashamed; he scolded her, and
said: “Throw the children out; I don’t want them around here.” The
mother said: “Wus told me to keep the children.”
“I won’t have them here,” said her brother, and he threw them out. The
mother screamed. Wus heard her and put his head to the ground to
listen. Soon he heard his children coming—they were little foxes. He
waited for them, and asked: “What is the trouble?”
“Our uncle threw us out.”
Wus didn’t know what to do; he thought a while then said: “You must
live with my grandmother, old Wuswelékgăs; she will take care of you. I
am going to the end of the world. You mustn’t tell her where I am.” He
took the children part way, then pointed out the old woman’s house and
left them.
Old Wuswelékgăs was glad to have the boys, for she was lonesome. “Where
is your father?” asked she.
“We don’t know,” said the elder boy.
She didn’t believe him and she kept asking the same question till at
last he said: “My father has lost his mind and gone off. He said that
we would never see him again.” Then the boy told her how his father
went to a swimming pond on the mountain and had a bad dream, and their
uncle threw them out.
The old woman felt badly; she asked the earth to give her grandson his
mind. She roasted mice for the boys and showed them how to play with
bows and arrows. One day, when the younger boy was eating, and was
crying for his mother, he got choked with a mouse bone. The grandmother
tried to get it out of his throat, but she couldn’t, and the child
died.
The next day old Wuswelékgăs buried the body and covered it with ashes
and stones. That night she begged the earth to give her grandson his
mind again. She said: “He is off on a mountain at the edge of the
world. You used to have power and strength; now bring back my
grandson’s mind.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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