Jeremiah Curtin

“ Tkálmas’ brother said: “Oh my best sister-in-law, even if water freezes as hard as a rock, you can melt it. No matter how much ice there is, your soft breath thaws it. You are the kindest and the most useful woman in this world.” ”

“ Snoútiss went in. “What is the matter? Why do you cry?” asked his uncle.
“My brother is mad. He has made all kinds of terrible sores and sickness. I feel badly, for those things can never be got rid of; they will live always to trouble the people who are to come. It looks badly and smells badly in our house. My brother got mad for nothing.”
“Those Gletcówas brothers are mean men,” said Wéwenkee, “but if Kéis wanted meat he should have gone to their house. I am stronger than your brother; I have a wildcat skin blanket, all painted. I will go home with you. How far away is your house?” ”

“ He thought they threw him a long feather and a gambling plate.
Kalaslákkas woke up and went home. His grandmother made a sweat-house and heated rocks, and he bathed and sweated, then she dressed him. He was tall and beautiful; she told him he must not touch food for five days. “You must give yourself to the earth,” said she. “If you do, you will live long in this world; but if you eat meat or fish now, you will die soon. You must remember Tusasás and try to be strong.” ”

“ Just then the girl punched her stick into the middle of the whirlwind. The storm stopped that minute, and there on the ground lay a beautiful young woman in a dress covered with beads and porcupine quills.
The young man cried. He knew that he had killed his wife and child by not doing as she had told him to. He got Gäk’s medicine basket and put it on the boy, then he stepped over him and the child came to life. But he couldn’t bring Lok Snewédjas to life in that way. Everybody felt sorry. They didn’t know who lived in the world that could make the woman alive again. ”

“ You can’t live single all your life.”
When the elder sister ran away, Wámanik turned to a nice-looking man. He came up to the younger girl and said: “I can be a great many different things. I am a spirit of this earth; I have seen you often, but I didn’t want to show myself to your sister; I wanted to frighten her. I don’t like her as well as I do you. I have heard you talk, and I want you for a wife, for I like you. I can turn to a snake, but I am a man, and I have lots of nice clothes.” Then he turned to a snake again, for he saw the old woman and her daughter coming. ”

“ When Wus and the women were half-way home, they came to a place where their brothers and kin used to hunt deer. The women felt lonesome and began to cry. Wus said: “You needn’t feel lonesome; I am going to bring all of our people to life.”
Now old woman Wus dreamed that she saw a whole string of hearts come in at the top of the house, like snakes. When she woke up, she felt scared; she rubbed herself in ashes and thought: “As I have dreamed, it will be. Nobody can change a dream.” ”

“ Tskel knew what his brother was doing; he put poison in his son’s arrow and told him even if he were dying, to kill Tcûskai’s boy.
The next day both boys were dead. Tcûskai and Tskel felt lonesome. Tskel said: “I will go to Lamsewe and swim.”—When people lose their friends and feel badly about it, they go and swim till they feel better.—He told Tcûskai to go to another mountain, but he didn’t go; he followed his brother.
When Tskel saw him, he was mad and he said: “You will be a person no longer. You will look funny to people and they will laugh at you when you run in and out of holes. ”

“ The women said: “Now the youngest brother is coming! He is stronger than the others.”
The fifth brother came in a terrible whirlwind. Góshgoise thought: “Maybe he will kill me,” and he cried to Mole: “Dig deeper holes!” Just as Kaudokis raised his spear to strike, he stumbled and fell into a hole. Góshgoise cut his head off, put on his elk-skin blanket, and said: “Hereafter, you and your brothers will be nothing but creeping things.” That minute the souls of the Kaudokis brothers flew out and became worms. ”

“ Pitoíois was beautiful; she had a long neck, and her hair was black and so long that it touched the ground. She was the fastest worker in the world. She was always digging roots. With one dig she could bring up a whole basketful. In a day she dug over a large plain as though it had been ploughed. She piled up the roots, thought “I want them in my basket,” and they were there.
Pitoíois’ brothers were great hunters; while she was digging roots, they were hunting for deer, but they never got out of sight of their sister, for they thought Wus might come and bother her. ”

“ He can make people old in a minute; he can turn them to anything; he can move a house or tear it down by wishing. When I saw Wus, he looked as I do; he was a woman and carried a basket on his back. While I was asleep, he turned to a man and built a house. The house is so bright and has so many colors that it hurts my eyes to look at it. If anything happens to Wus’ child, I think we shall die. When it was thrown out, I got old; now that it is in the house, I am growing young again.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Tsmuk. “Old Wus is listening to everything. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ I was a strong man, nobody ever beat me at gambling.” When Kalaslákkas woke up, the waves were washing over him.
The old woman steamed and bathed herself, and watched for her grandson to come. When he came, he was a young man; she hardly knew him. She gave him pounded seeds to eat and went with him to a place where she had a fire and hot stones. After he had steamed and sweated, she put red sticks in his ears and nose, and said: “This is the last time you will go to the mountains. You are working for yourself and for the earth; you must be glad to do the work,” and she told him where to go. ”

“ My sister and I kill ten deer each day. Each night our mother eats all the bones of those ten deer and in the morning not a bone is left; our father eats the meat and the livers. As soon as we get home, we cut the deer open, take out the livers and put five of them in our father’s mouth. We give him meat three times each day. You mustn’t think about my father or my mother, for they know your thoughts.”
Gáukos said: “I will kill the deer for you; I am a good hunter.” He put the eleven deer in his belt, and they went home.
Dûnwa asked: “How many deer did my son-in-law kill?” ”

“ Old Tsmuk looked toward the east. That moment Wus made a great wind come from the west. The old man’s body melted like snow, and right away he turned into a black cloud, and the wind blew him off toward the east. Wus said: “Hereafter, old man, you will have no sense. You will no longer be a person. You will be darkness, and people will sleep when you come; but I shall never sleep when you are here. I shall sleep in the daytime and travel when you come. People will call you Tsmuk, and will do evil when you are around. ”

“ One morning when little Kékina ran out to the tree, he cried: “Spring is coming! Spring is coming!” and brought down a few roots for his brother.
The Lok woman heard him, and asked: “Why do you tell such a lie? Spring isn’t coming. It is winter. When you see smoke on the mountains, then spring will come.” To the elder brother Lok said: “You are good for nothing; you sit all day making arrows, but you can’t kill anything.”
Old woman Wus cried, but the boy told her and his little brother not to answer Lok; if they did, Lok would tell her brothers, and they might come and kill them. ”

“ The mountain will hear you. Everything in the world will hear you and understand you. After you have talked to the mountain, you must dive in the pond. Dive five times to the bottom, and each time drink of the lowest water. When you come out of the pond, build a fire, warm yourself and then sleep. If you dream, don’t tell the dream to any one. ”

“ Every morning, while you are gambling, you must go, before the sun is up, and swim in the lake.”
When they began to gamble again, Ndukis said to the chief: “You should drive Tusasás away. If he makes Kalaslákkas mad, we shall be naked again. You don’t know what kind of a man he is. He has been to all the swimming places on the mountains.”
They gambled all night. Kalaslákkas won every game. The next day he said to Blaiwas: “My swimming place said that just before midday you must say to me: ‘Now be strong. Be like the chief of gamblers’!” ”

“ When the people at the foot of the mountain heard that the five brothers were sick, they were glad and sent a young man to find if it were true. He came back, and said: “They are sick and are going to die.”
When the sister had gone for wood, the eldest brother said: “I know that somebody is coming; I want to be strong.” They all had the same feeling, and each one tried his bowstring. When the sister came back, the eldest brother said: “You must roll us up in our blankets, and tie them around us as though we were dead. Put our bows and arrows and beads near us.” ”

“ Those who go to the mountains must ask to be made wise, or brave, or a doctor. They must swim in the gauwams and dream. When you are sure that a doctor has tried to kill some one, or that he won’t put his medicine in the path of a spirit and turn it back, you will kill him. If an innocent doctor is killed, you must kill the man who killed him, or he must pay for the dead man.”
Then Kumush named the different kinds of food those people should eat,—catfish, salmon, deer and rabbit. ”

“ No, he will never come to life. I will not die, but I will turn to something else, and I will live on the mountains. I killed my father and I shall kill many people. My life will last always in this world. ”

“ One day all those people went off to hunt deer. When they came together to roast meat, Wûlkûtska said to Blaiwas: “Why doesn’t your son marry Sloä’s sister?”
“My son isn’t old enough yet; he hasn’t much sense. She is a nice-looking girl; you should marry her yourself.”
“I will try,” said Wûlkûtska. He told old man Yaukûl to ask Sloä’s mother if he could have her daughter.
That evening Yaukûl said to old woman Sloä: “You must be tired of keeping your daughter after she is old enough to marry. The chief’s youngest brother wants her. He will give you nice things for her.” ”

“ I want to kill a good many deer before deep snow comes. While I am gone, you mustn’t forget to feed my father before any one else.” The old man was white as snow; he was very old and was almost blind.
The next morning, when the young man was starting off, he said: “I had a bad dream last night. I don’t want to go, but the children are always crying for fat meat. I dreamed that I came home and found only a deep hole where our house is now. You must keep the children away from their grandfather. Don’t let them bother him; he might get mad. As long as you treat him well, he won’t harm them.” ”

“ Tskel cut the meat in strips to dry; he worked all night, and finished just as the sun came up. Then he took a piece of the fat, fastened it on the top of Tcûskai’s head, and said, “This will always stay as it is now; it is small, but all the people in the world could feed on it.” Then he said: “You have lived long enough without a wife; you must look for one.”
“Where can I find a wife?” asked Tcûskai.
“If you go to the place where they killed Wŏn, you will find a clearing where women are digging roots. When you get to the edge of the clearing, shoot an arrow. ”

“ The next morning Natanatas went for rocks; he wanted to heat them and sweat. When he came home, he said to Kai: “I saw a big deer right here near the house; you could track it, but you haven’t anything to kill it with.”
Kai’s wife cried; she said: “Father is trying to kill you. He kills every man who comes here. He doesn’t want a son-in-law.”
Soon the old man said to Kai: “You must go to the lake and get some reeds. I will make you arrows to shoot deer and ducks with; I am tired of eating fish.” ”

“ We cannot estimate the love an Indian has for his country. His holy places are not in far-off Palestine; they are before his eyes in his own birthplace, where every river, hill and mountain has a story connected with it, an account of its origin. No people could be more religious than were the Indians before the advent of the white man; they had no observance, rite, or custom which they did not believe to be God-given.
Into this country that Kumush gave to the Modocs came white settlers. ”

“ Tcûskai carried the skin home, and said: “I found old Kéwe eating up our deerskin; I got it away from him.” Tskel was mad; he scolded Tcûskai and struck him with a stick.
When the five brothers got home, Gäk’s mother was crying. She said to Gäk: “You must never go away again; I have always told you that some one would find it easy to kill you.” ”