Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
She gave him a blanket; he threw it at her, and said: “Use it
yourself.” She was frightened. She thought: “I will say I am going for
wood, then I will run away.”
“I am going for wood,” said Yahyáhaäs. He was right behind her.
She went for water; he was there by the creek. She stayed out of doors;
he did, too. Every time she said: “Go away!” he said: “Go away!” When
she cried; he cried. She went to the bushes where the old woman was; he
followed.
When the sun was down, Yahyáhaäs rubbed his forehead with his hand and
made the woman sleep as if dead. At daylight he began to tickle her;
she laughed till the sun was high, laughed till she died. Yahyáhaäs cut
off her little finger and put it on a string of fingers he wore around
his neck; then he went off to the mountain, where he lived under a
great flat rock. He had children under the rocks, but he had no wife.
When the little girl found the men and told them that Yahyáhaäs was
going to kill her mother, they left their seeds and went home. They
found the woman dead and they began to hunt for Yahyáhaäs to kill him.
Two brothers, Tcûskai and Tskel, lived near a swimming-place on the top
of a high mountain. Skóŭks, a Shasta woman, was Tskel’s wife. She went
to visit her kin in Shasta, and took her baby with her. Tcûskai was
lonesome; he missed the baby. One day when he was out on the rocks, he
heard people mourning. He wanted to go where they were, but Tskel said:
“Stay in the house. Don’t run around everywhere.”
Tcûskai said: “I am watching for Skóŭks; I want to see if she is
coming.”
He went high up on the rocks and listened; then he went in and said to
his brother: “There are lots of people crying in the village down at
the foot of the mountain.”
“Stay in the house,” said Tskel.
“I am going to sit by the smoke hole and watch for Skóŭks,” said
Tcûskai. After a while Tskel asked: “Are you there?”
“I’m right here,” said Tcûskai’s voice. Tcûskai was at the foot of the
mountain, but the next minute he was in the house and teasing to go and
see why people were crying.
Tskel said: “Well, go and find out what the trouble is; then come back.
Don’t let them hire you to do anything.”
Tskel dressed his brother up in the clothes he had worn himself when he
was a boy, and he started. As soon as he was outside of the house, he
was in the village.
The people were ready to burn the dead woman; men were piling up nice
things to burn with her,—beads and shells and blankets. When they saw
Tcûskai, some of the men asked: “Who is that nice-looking young man?”
Others said: “There is Tcûskai; maybe he can make this woman alive
again. His brother is strong; he can do anything he likes.”
They talked to Tcûskai, promised him many wives and nice shells and
beads. At last he said: “I can bring the woman to life if I can find
Yahyáhaäs and kill him. Then you will give me the chief’s daughter.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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