AlSHISH. IXXXV 



burning- them. Our ideas of justice, equity, protection, or love towards men 

 do not and can not enter into the spiritual range of a god whose prototype 

 is constituted of physical powers only. 



AfSHISH. 



iaivirai ).ioi xrjvoi i'do? OsoTdiv. 



Aishish, or Aishishamtch, the second in importance among the Klamath 

 deities, and certainly the most popular of all, is the son of the wui'ld-creator, 

 K'mukamtch, and also his companion and rival. He is beautiful in appear- 

 ance, beloved and admired by men, and is the husband of many wives, 

 selected by him among the birds, butterflies, and the smaller quadrupeds. 

 His name signifies the one secreted or concealed, and was given him at the 

 time of his birth; and since "The Birth of Aishish" myth explains the 

 nature and position of this deity better than any other myth, I translate it 

 in full from the Indian text obtained from a Modoc woman at the Modoc 

 Reservation, Indian Territory.* The name of Aishish's mythic mother, as 

 other natives informed me, is Le=tkaktiwash. This is an Oregonian bird of 

 the size of the tcho'kshash, or blackbird, with a brilliant red or yellow 

 plumage, colors rarely found in birds of that westei^Vi State. Ornithologists 

 identify it with the Louisiana tanager: Pyranga liidoviciana. Thus the bird 

 is an appropriate symbol of the bright sky at moonrise or sunrise, which 

 phenomenon Aishish's mother is representing. The myth runs as follows: 



In order to cremate the body of an old sorceress, Le4kaka\vash gath- 

 ered wood while carrying her baby son on tlie back, piled up the wood and 

 set up the ceremonial mourning wail. Proposing to leap into the fire her- 

 self, she was uncertain what to do with her son. She fastened him tightly 

 to her back, and when she had applied the fire K'mukamtch perceived that 

 she was in tears and ready to leap into the burning pile. " What on earth 

 is this pretty woman going to do?" said he to himself; and when he saw 

 her retreat more than once before accomplishing the dangerous leap he ap- 

 proached, intending to reach her in time to restrain hei- ; but she rushed 



* The myth of Aishish's birth forms a portion of a loug cyclus of related myths, 

 with the title: Aishisham shapkalii'ash wiulamuiilasliti. I obtained them from Lucy 

 Faithful, wife of Stutilatko, or " Faithful William ;" cf. Dictionary, p. 412. 



