AlSHISH A LUNAR DEITY. Ixxxvii 



Ai'sliish's carap fire is of a clear, bright purplish-blue color (yamnash- 

 ptchi); he makes his shirts with his own hands and ornaments these and 

 his legg-ings with all sorts of beads As a marksman he excels all his 

 companions, whose arrows do not even strike the target (Texts, pag. 99, 

 4-6). According to the Modoc story his wives are Mole, Badger, Porcu- 

 pine, Bitch, Crane, Mallard, two Maidiktak-birds, Wren, Tchektiti=bird, 

 Yauliliks or Snowbird, Butterfly, and a host of others; the Klamath Lake 

 myth (Texts, p. 99, 9. 10) names five: Coot, Long-tailed Squirrel, Crane, 

 Mallard, Chatfinch. Tchashkai or Weasel, the younger brother of Ske'l, 

 scmetimes plays the part of Aishish, but he is not found in this quality so 

 constantly as his brother Ske'l is in that of K'nu'ikamtch. 



The various attributes ascribed to this deity by the myths show Aishish 

 to be in many respects similar to Quetzalcoatl of Nahuatl mythology, who 

 has been made alternately the genius of the morning star, of the calendar 

 and of the atmospheric changes. As to Aishish and the personal beauty 

 invariably ascribed to him, it may appear doubtful, in view of so many 

 other complex attributes, which idea was the starting-point that created this 

 mythic figure, and subsequently gathered other but less material attributes 

 about this son of the sun. He could represent originally the morning star, 

 or the rainbow or the moon, but after mature reflection upon his complex 

 attitudes I now believe him to be a lunar deity. The splendor of the full 

 moon is of a yellow hue, like Aishi.sh's camp fire (kakii'kli) and the shadow 

 of the famished Aishish, as seen from below through the pine-trees of the 

 forest, is the narrow crescent of the waxing moon following its disappear- 

 ance at the new moon period. At the new or "dead" moon Aishish is fam- 

 ished or dead, to revive again on the days following, and this, like other 

 phases of the moon, which result from her changeable position in regard to 

 the sun, are represented to be the result of the jealousy and enmity of 

 K'mukamtch against Aishish — and whenever Aishish succeeds in killing his 

 father, this implies the decrease of sun-heat during the winter season. No 

 myth shows a more striking analogy to the "Birth of Aishish" than that of 

 the birth of Bacchus from the thigh of Zeus after the destruction of his 

 mother Semele by a thunder-stroke caused by Zeus, the Sky-god. 



The moon is the originator of the months, and the progress of the 



