THE STAR BROTHERS
Ko-a-lák-ak-a, the woman who told this myth-tale, thought that Tekewas was a cloud—the red cloud that in morning heralds a storm, for she was often seen, a red cloud, lying on the top of a mountain watching the valley below. Her family were afraid of her. Even the sun feared her.
There are valuable elements in the myth: hastening the course of the sun; the destruction caused by looking back; two newly born children pressed into one (we do not know what phenomena or force the children represent); the one, by the blow of an arrow, made two.
The heroes had many adventures. The elder wrestled with Yahyáhaäs, killed him, and condemned his spirit to wander forever on mountains, and along rivers and brooks. The moment the victor pronounced the curse the conquered said: “You will no longer be a person. You and your brother will be stars.” Thereupon they became what their opponent had made them. When the word had been uttered nothing in the universe could turn it aside or resist it.
Ko-a-lák-ak-a thought that Yahyáhaäs personified fog. Captain John said that Yahyáhaäs was lightning, and the people who wrestled with him were clouds.
Yahyáhaäs appears in a number of myths. He always has the same characteristics [[386]]and the same power. His only way of killing an enemy is by wrestling with him. His spirit goes to the sky and becomes Leméis, thunder.