CHARACTERS
| Gäk | Crow | Tskel | Mink | |
| Skóŭks | Woodtick. (In every story Tick is a Shasta woman.) | Yahyáhaäs | ||
| Tcûskai | Weasel |
Southeast of the Modoc country there was a large village. The people of that village lived on seeds and roots. One day a man came from the south, and said: “Seeds are ripe. It is time to gather them.”
The people were glad. All went; only four persons were left at home. In one house there was a sick woman, the chief’s wife. She had a little girl and a baby. In another house was a very old woman.
The chief’s wife was afraid of Yahyáhaäs. She said to the little girl: “There is a Yahyáhaäs around. I have often seen him near the river. When he travels, he hops with his one leg and keeps calling his own name. He has a great bushy head. He is awful tall and is always naked. He comes from the rocks and mountains off in the north. You must watch for him, and if he comes here, we will run away.”
One day the little girl saw a man coming. She called to her mother to come and see him. The mother said: “That is Yahyáhaäs! Take the baby on your back and run as fast as you can to where the men are. Tell them to come home and save me.”
The little girl put the baby in the water basket, but Yahyáhaäs was in the house before she could start. She said: “I am going for water.” She took the basket and went to the creek, then she ran off as fast as she could; she couldn’t go very fast, for the baby was heavy. [[149]]
The old woman knew that Yahyáhaäs was in the sick woman’s house, but she didn’t go there; she took her grass blankets and hid herself in the bushes. When Yahyáhaäs went into the house, the sun began to go down fast; he made it go.
The sick woman thought: “If I am good to him, maybe he will let me live.” She gave him salmon, and said: “Eat this.”
“Eat this,” repeated the man.
She gave him an eel; he kicked it away. She gave him white roots, and said: “Eat these.”
“Eat these,” said he, and kicked them away.
She gave him dry manzanita berries, and said: “Eat these; they are good.”
“Eat these, they are good,” said the man, and he threw them in her face.
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 [[150]]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.”
He began to hunt for Yahyáhaäs. He went to the edge of the world, then traveled in circles, working in all the time. He ran on every mountain, every hill, and every tree. He ran under the ground and under rocks and into holes. In one day he went all over the world, but he didn’t find Yahyáhaäs.
The next day Tcûskai listened at every hole, as one would listen at a door to hear people talk or snore. Under a great flat rock on the top of a high mountain he heard Yahyáhaäs [[151]]snore. He crept under and saw him; then he went to the village, and said: “I have found him under a rock. Bring lots of wood and dry grass and pile up around the rock; when the rock is out of sight, set fire to the wood. Then stand around and throw in every stick and coal that falls out.”
They did this, and soon there was a terrible noise under the rock. The hills and rocks and the whole country shook. Yahyáhaäs burst; the rock blew into little pieces, and a big bird flew up to the sky. It was Yahyáhaäs’ spirit. The people went back to the village. Tcûskai stepped five times over the dead woman, and she got up. She was glad to be alive. The chief gave Tcûskai nice things, and gave him his daughter.
The next day Tcûskai went home. Soon he saw Skóŭks coming. She had on a Shasta dress, and had Shasta things in a bundle on her back, and on top of the bundle was the baby. Tcûskai went to meet her. He took the baby and ran around with it; he was glad.
Tskel said: “Don’t be silly. Act like a man!” Skóŭks laughed, for she liked Tcûskai.
Tcûskai told Skóŭks: “The chief’s daughter is my wife. Maybe they will come here to-day.”
Tskel was glad; he said: “My little brother is going to be a strong man; he will be stronger than I am.”
“Our house is too small,” said Skóŭks.
“Go out and walk around it in a big circle,” said Tcûskai. “Each time you take a step, put your foot down hard.” Skóŭks did so, and when she got around there was a large house instead of the small one.
Skóŭks cooked plenty of deer meat. Tcûskai lay down on one side of the house and wrapped himself in a panther skin blanket.
When the people came, the girl stopped a good way from the house. Skóŭks brought her in and seated her by Tcûskai. The girl’s mother had two small bones; she tied one in each side of Tcûskai’s hair. Skóŭks fed the people deer meat, then she put a Shasta cap on each woman’s head, and said to Tskel: “Tcûskai must give these people nice things.”
Tskel took a buckskin shirt and pounded it to powder, rolled [[152]]the powder in a deer skin, and wet the skin. Then he thought hard, and said: “I want many buckskin shirts,” and he drew out of the skin a buckskin shirt for each man. Now they all had a plenty of nice things to carry home. The mother-in-law’s sister was the last one to go, and she said to her niece, “I haven’t enough to carry home. I am ashamed of you; you gave yourself away for nothing.”
Tcûskai was mad; he began to break off little bits of the bones his mother-in-law had tied in his hair; soon he had a great pile of beautiful beads. Then he took five bites out of his panther skin blanket, and he had five beautiful blankets. He gave the beads and the blankets to the aunt, and she went home.
After a day or two, Tcûskai’s wife said: “I’m lonesome here; I wasn’t made to live in the mountains. I want to go home.”
Tcûskai and Tskel were mad. Tcûskai said: “Go home and never think of me again. I hope our women won’t be like you and get tired of their husbands so soon.”
Skóŭks asked: “Is she going to stay always?”
“She will not live long,” said Tcûskai, “and I will not live always; I don’t want a wife.”
Skóŭks took a handful of dirt, threw it into the air, and said: “Let her be a bird!” She threw a second handful toward the woman, and she flew off to the mountains, a bird.
Then Skóŭks asked Tskel: “Is there anybody who can go to that woman’s village and turn all the people into birds?”
“Yes,” said Tskel. “Old man Gäk can do it. He lives on a mountain in the east. He is a great doctor.”
Tcûskai went to old Gäk’s house and told him how his wife had treated him. Gäk flew to the village, in the form of a crow.
When the people saw him, they called out: “See that great black bird. Maybe he has come to eat dead fish.”
Gäk said: “I didn’t come to eat dead fish; I always eat deer meat.” Then he shouted: “Let all these people be birds and creeping things, not be persons any longer.” And so it was. [[153]]