Yahyáhaäs

Yahyáhaäs by Jeremiah Curtin (1912)

"Yahyáhaäs," recorded by Jeremiah Curtin, is a myth from the Shasta and surrounding peoples of northern California that follows a sequence of supernatural encounters, heroic deeds, and transformations centered on a terrifying monster and the remarkable beings who ultimately defeat him. The story opens in a large village southeast of the Modoc country, where the inhabitants live on seeds and roots. When the community travels out to gather the ripening harvest, only a few people remain behind: a sick woman who is the chief's wife, her young daughter, her infant, and a very old woman. The sick woman fears a creature called Yahyáhaäs, whom she describes as an impossibly tall, naked, one-legged being with a great bushy head who hops as he moves and calls out his own name. He comes from the rocks and mountains of the north and is regarded as profoundly dangerous. Yahyáhaäs arrives at the village and enters the sick woman's house. Her daughter escapes under the pretense of fetching water, carrying the baby in a basket and running to find the absent men. The old woman hides in the bushes. Yahyáhaäs remains with the sick woman, who attempts to appease him with food and gifts, but he mocks and mimics everything she says and does. He controls the sun, forcing it to set quickly. When night falls, he puts the woman into a death-like sleep by rubbing his forehead over her. At daylight he tickles her until she laughs herself to death. He then cuts off her little finger and adds it to a string of fingers he wears as a necklace before retreating to his dwelling beneath a great flat rock on a high mountain, where his children also live. When the men return and find the woman dead, they set out to kill Yahyáhaäs. Two brothers named Tcûskai and Tskel live near a swimming place on a high mountain. Tcûskai is a quick, restless, and gifted young man, and Tskel is his steadier and wiser older brother. Tskel's wife Skóŭks, a Shasta woman, has gone to visit her relatives, leaving Tcûskai lonely and prone to wandering. Hearing the mourning from the village at the foot of the mountain, Tcûskai persuades his brother to let him go and investigate. The people of the village, hoping Tcûskai can help, offer him many wives, shells, and beads. He agrees to try to restore the dead woman to life on the condition that, if he succeeds, he will receive the chief's daughter as his wife. Tcûskai searches the entire world in a single day, running over every mountain, hill, tree, underground passage, and hole without finding Yahyáhaäs. On the second day he listens carefully at every possible hiding place and finally hears Yahyáhaäs snoring beneath a great flat rock on a mountaintop. He instructs the villagers to pile wood and dry grass around the rock and set it all ablaze, with everyone standing ready to throw back any burning material that escapes. The fire burns intensely, the ground shakes, and Yahyáhaäs bursts apart, shattering the rock into pieces. A great bird rises from the destruction, which is Yahyáhaäs's spirit departing. Tcûskai then steps five times over the dead woman and she returns to life. The chief rewards him with gifts and gives him his daughter in marriage. Tcûskai returns home just as Skóŭks arrives back from her visit, carrying her baby and Shasta goods. Tcûskai joyfully greets her and the baby while Tskel urges him to behave with more dignity. The chief's daughter is brought to the newly enlarged house that Skóŭks creates by walking around the old one and stamping the ground. Tskel miraculously produces buckskin shirts from pounded leather to give the wedding guests, and Tcûskai breaks pieces from bones tied in his hair to produce beautiful beads and conjures fine blankets from bites taken out of his panther skin covering, generously gifting a dissatisfied aunt who complains his bride gave herself away for nothing. The marriage does not last. After a day or two the chief's daughter declares she is lonesome in the mountains and wants to return home. Tcûskai and Tskel are furious at her ingratitude. Skóŭks throws two handfuls of dirt at the departing woman, transforming her into a bird that flies away to the mountains. Seeking further retribution, Skóŭks asks whether anyone can transform all the people in the woman's village into birds. Tskel names old Gäk, a powerful doctor who lives on a mountain in the east and takes the form of a crow. Tcûskai goes to Gäk and tells him of the insult. Gäk flies to the village in crow form, and when the people mock him, he pronounces a transformation, turning all of them into birds and creeping things, ending their existence as human beings.

By Jeremiah Curtin · First published 1912 · Genre: Folklore, Mythology, Fantasy · 2,275 words

First lines

CHARACTERS / Gäk Crow / Skóŭks Woodtick. (In every story Tick is a Shasta woman.) / Tcûskai Weasel / Tskel Mink / Yahyáhaäs

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."

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Yahyáhaäs is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jeremiah Curtin, dated 1912 CE.

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Tags

Native American folklore · Indigenous oral traditions · California Indian mythology · Wintun culture · mythic narratives · traditional tales · ethnography · anthropology · creation stories · legendary heroes · spiritual beliefs · nature and animals

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