Ko-a-lák-ak-a, the woman who told this myth-tale, thought that Tekewas
was a cloud—the red cloud that in morning heralds a storm, for she was
often seen, a red cloud, lying on the top of a mountain watching the
valley below. Her family were afraid of her. Even the sun feared her.
There are valuable elements in the myth: hastening the course of the
sun; the destruction caused by looking back; two newly born children
pressed into one (we do not know what phenomena or force the children
represent); the one, by the blow of an arrow, made two.
The heroes had many adventures. The elder wrestled with Yahyáhaäs,
killed him, and condemned his spirit to wander forever on mountains,
and along rivers and brooks. The moment the victor pronounced the curse
the conquered said: “You will no longer be a person. You and your
brother will be stars.” Thereupon they became what their opponent had
made them. When the word had been uttered nothing in the universe could
turn it aside or resist it.
Ko-a-lák-ak-a thought that Yahyáhaäs personified fog. Captain John said
that Yahyáhaäs was lightning, and the people who wrestled with him were
clouds.
Yahyáhaäs appears in a number of myths. He always has the same
characteristics and the same power. His only way of killing an enemy is
by wrestling with him. His spirit goes to the sky and becomes Leméis,
thunder.