As usual in Indian myth-tales, the younger sister has the most power.
Yahyáhaäs boasted that he could conquer the Kúja sisters. The eldest, to show her power, stuck a woodpecker’s feather in the ground and it came up a streak of fire in Yahyáhaäs’ cane.
Kûlta had been dead a long time. Kúja washed his body and stretched it, then, by stepping over it, brought it to life.
Bringing to life is one of the most familiar performances in American and in Oriental mythology. The Mongolian hero sprinkles a pile of bones with the Water of Life taken from a spring near a silver-leafed aspen tree. Immediately the bones resume their old connections and take on flesh; the man rises and proceeds on his journey as though nothing had happened.
It should be remembered that, whatever be the names of the myth-tale heroes at present, the original heroes were not human; they perform deeds which no man could perform, which only one of the forces of nature could perform, if it had the volition and desires of a person. In a beautiful myth of the Warm Spring Indians of California, Summer, a long time dead, is brought to life by the South Wind.
TSMUK AND GÓSHGOISE
When asked who the Yaukûl people were the story-teller said: “They were stone people.” The Modoc word for stone is bondak, that for rock is gowan. In a fragment of a variant of this myth Frost is one of the characters. The Modocs had a name for the different manifestations of frost; it is possible that Yaukûl is one of those names.
Góshgoise personifies spring. His grandmother made him a bright blue quiver out of her own hair. Then she made a spear that would last always and never get old,—lightning. He killed the Yaukûl people, then battled with the Kaudokis and the Juljulcus. He gave his spear, long lightning, to Juljulcus, and took Juljulcus’ spear, heat lightning, “that lightning which flashes around the sky in warm weather.” He went to Tsmuk’s house, and Iúnika (Twilight), Tsmuk’s daughter, who owned the moon, became his wife.
In this myth the idea that “bad thoughts” bring misfortune is brought out very strongly. A bad thought causes much trouble.