Old Man Lulus-Dewieas or Earthquake Old Man

Old Man Lulus-Dewieas or Earthquake Old Man

"Old Man Lulus-Dewieas, or Earthquake Old Man," collected by Jeremiah Curtin, is a Modoc myth explaining the origin of earthquakes and the lava bed landscape of northern California. An ancient man known as Lulus-Dewieas, whose name signifies a great eater or glutton of sweet roots, lives with his son and daughter-in-law in the land where the lava beds now exist. The old man is extraordinarily ancient, nearly blind, and white as snow, but he possesses great power. His son instructs his wife repeatedly and urgently that she must always feed the old man first, before herself or the children, warning that failure to do so will bring terrible misfortune upon the household. When the son departs on an extended hunting trip before the arrival of deep winter snow, he shares a troubling dream he has had, in which he returned home to find only a gaping hole where the house once stood. He urges his wife once more to treat his father well and not allow the children to disturb or annoy him. As he climbs the mountain, the son feels an unusual and foreboding loneliness. When he shoots a deer and it vanishes entirely where it stood, he recognizes it as an omen that something terrible is about to occur. Left alone with the old man, the daughter-in-law willfully tests what will happen if she withholds food from her father-in-law. After grinding seeds, she simply puts the mortar away without offering him anything and says nothing. The old man witnesses this act of deliberate neglect. He creeps outside and sits on the south side of the house, where he begins to swell. He paints himself in black stripes, begins to spin and rotate, and starts casting up dirt around him. His hair turns red as fire. As he bores downward into the earth, the house, the woman, and the children are all swallowed into the hole along with him. The little girl cries out to her grandfather to return, and the woman begs him to come back, promising him food, but he has gone too deep and is too angry to stop. The old man travels underground, boring through the earth as he goes, breaking it apart and throwing up soil and rock. Where he pauses briefly, the land remains briefly level before plunging again into deep holes and wide gaps. His underground passage creates the broken, sunken, pocked landscape of the lava beds. Periodically he calls out his own name as he travels. The roaring of his passage is heard by people living far away, who recognize immediately what kind of being is moving through the earth; they retreat into their homes and seal their doors. The son hears the terrible roar from the mountainside and understands that his wife has provoked his father's rage. He races back but finds where his home once stood only a wide gap torn open in the earth. He follows the sound of his father's underground movement and calls out to him, but the old man cannot hear him. The son pursues the path of destruction until the old man's traveling carries him beyond Mount Shasta to a place beneath the earth where water lies, and there Lulus-Dewieas finally stops. Standing above his father's resting place, the son speaks down to him. The old man, barely able to speak, tells his son not to grieve, explaining that his spirit belongs to the earth itself. He instructs his son to leave and not attempt to follow him underground. He declares that he will live forever beneath the earth. With these final words, the son departs and spends the rest of his life wandering the world alone, filled with sorrow and loneliness. The myth functions as an explanatory narrative for seismic and volcanic activity, personifying earthquakes as the ongoing underground movement of Lulus-Dewieas, whose power was unlocked by a single act of disrespect. It also carries a strong moral message about the obligation to honor and care for the elderly, particularly within a family, and presents the catastrophic and irreversible consequences that follow when that duty is neglected.

By Jeremiah Curtin · First published 1912 · Genre: Native American Folklore, Mythology, Cautionary Tale · 973 words

First lines

CHARACTER / Lulus-Dewieas A Sweet Root; Dewieas means a Great Eater, a / Glutton

Old man Lulus-Dewieas and his son and daughter-in-law lived in the country where the lava beds are now. They ate a great deal of sweet lulus; it was the old man's medicine. Always when the son went to hunt for deer, he told his wife to take good care of his father, and be sure to give him food before she ate herself, or gave any food to the children. If she didn't, she would bring misfortune on herself and the children. The woman remembered what her husband said, and she always gave the old man food first; he was glad and fed his grandchildren.

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Old Man Lulus-Dewieas or Earthquake Old Man is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jeremiah Curtin, dated 1912 CE.

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folklore · Native American · mythology · oral tradition · indigenous stories · cultural narrative · nature spirits · earthquake · natural phenomena · elderly character · legend · anthropomorphic

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