Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
When Kumush saw the disk, he thought he had never seen anything that
was half as bright and beautiful. Látkakáwas wanted to gather wood to
build a fire in the sweat-house, but Kumush said: “You stay here; I
will get the wood.”
Right away he had a big fire; then he heated stones, and when they were
ready to put in the basket of water, he said to Látkakáwas: “Take your
baby and lie down in the corner; wrap yourself up and keep still.”
When she was wrapped up tight, Kumush put the hot stones into the
basket, and when the water boiled, he put in the disk. After a little
while the disk came to life, and became the young man again.
When Kumush saw how beautiful the man was, he wanted him to die, and
never come to life again. He thought he would get the disk and the
young man’s beauty. As Kumush wanted, so it was. The young man died.
When Látkakáwas unwrapped herself and saw that her husband was dead,
she cried, she felt so lonesome. She cried all the time Kumush was
gathering wood to burn the body.
When the body was half consumed, Látkakáwas asked Kumush to put more
wood on the fire. While he was picking up the wood, she strapped the
baby on to the board, put the board on her back and sprang into the
fire. Kumush saw her just in time to snatch the baby from her back.
Látkakáwas and the young man’s body were burned to ashes.
The baby cried and cried. Kumush called it by every name he could think
of. He called it Wanaga, Lákana, Gailalam-tcaknoles. When he called it
Isilámlĕs, it didn’t cry quite as hard; when he said Isis Uknóles, it
cried only a little; when he said Isis, the child stopped crying. The
name pleased it.
Kumush put the child on the ground and looked in the ashes for the
disk. He found it and was glad, but he didn’t know where to put it. He
put it on his knee, under his arm, on his breast, on his forehead, and
on his shoulders, but it wouldn’t stay anywhere. At last he put it on
the small of his back. The minute he put it there it grew to his body,
and right away he was beautiful and young and bright, the brightest
person in the world. The disk had become a part of him, and he was the
father of Isis, for the disk was the father of Isis.
Then Kumush left Nihlaksi and traveled toward the north. On the road he
kept thinking where he was to hide the baby. At last he hid it in his
knee, where it appeared as a boil. That night he stayed with two old
women who lived in a house at the edge of a village. All night he
groaned and complained of the boil on his knee. In the morning he asked
one of the old women to press the boil.
As soon as she began to press it, she saw bright hair. “What is this?”
asked she.
“I told you that wasn’t a boil,” said the other old woman.
They both pressed, and soon the baby came out. The women washed the
child, wrapped it up in a skin blanket and fed it.
Right away people found out that old man Kumush had a baby and
everybody wanted to know where he got it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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