Yuku

Yuku is the rain itself made person, the King of the Rain who commands thunder and lightning. The Yaquis say he is blind, or one-eyed, and that when the eye opens toward the earth it strikes with a bolt; he is perpetually wrathful with his son-in-law, the meteor Suawaka, and hurls lightning at him when Suawaka comes down toward the world. In the tale of the toad Bobok it is Yuku, as King of the Rain, whom the emissary must reach in the clouds to end a drought.

Domains

• weather
• sky

Powers

• hurls thunderbolts when he opens his eye
• sends rain over the earth when petitioned

Epithets

• yuku lipti — blind rain / rain that is blindRuth Warner Giddings, Yaqui Myths and Legends (1959), 'Yuku'. (primary)

Relations

• rival: SuawakaFather-in-law and antagonist; wrathful, he throws lightning at Suawaka when the meteor descends.Ruth Warner Giddings, Yaqui Myths and Legends (1959), 'Suawaka'. (primary)

Sources

• Yuku is the personified rain and King of the Rain, a one-eyed thunder-and-lightning power and father-in-law of the meteor Suawaka.: Ruth Warner Giddings, Yaqui Myths and Legends (1959), 'Yuku', 'Suawaka', 'Bobok'. (primary); Ralph L. Beals, The Contemporary Culture of the Cahita Indians (1945). (secondary)