Give me the wind. Give me the breeze. Yû! O Great Terrestrial Hunter,
I come to the edge of your spittle where you repose. Let your stomach
cover itself; let it be covered with leaves. Let it cover itself at a
single bend, and may you never be satisfied.
And you, O Ancient Red, may you hover above my breast while I sleep.
Now let good (dreams?) develop; let my experiences be propitious.
Ha! Now let my little trails be directed, as they lie down in various
directions(?). Let the leaves be covered with the clotted blood, and
may it never cease to be so. You two (the Water and the Fire) shall
bury it in your stomachs. Yû!
_Explanation._
This is a hunting formula, addressed to the two great gods of the
hunter, Fire and Water. The evening before starting the hunter “goes
to water,” as already explained, and recites the appropriate formula.
In the morning he sets out, while still fasting, and travels without
eating or drinking until nightfall. At sunset he again goes to water,
reciting this formula during the ceremony, after which he builds his
camp fire, eats his supper and lies down for the night, first rubbing
his breast with ashes from the fire. In the morning he starts out to
look for game.
“Give me the wind,” is a prayer that the wind may be in his favor,
so that the game may not scent him. The word rendered here “Great
Terrestrial Hunter,” is in the original “Ela-Kana´tĭ.” In this
_e´la_ is the earth and _kana´tĭ_ is a term applied to a successful
hunter. The great Kanatĭ, who, according to the myth, formerly kept
all the game shut up in his underground caverns, now dwells above
the sky, and is frequently invoked by hunters. The raven also is
often addressed as Kanatĭ in these hunting formulas. Ela-Kana´tĭ,
the Great Terrestrial Hunter--as distinguished from the other
two--signifies the river, the name referring to the way in which the
tiny streams and rivulets search out and bring down to the great
river the leaves and débris of the mountain forests. In formulas for
medicine, love, the ball play, etc., the river is always addressed
as the Long Person (Yû´ⁿwĭ Gûnahi´ta). The “spittle” referred to
is the foam at the edge of the water. “Let your stomach be covered
with leaves” means, let the blood-stained leaves where the stricken
game shall fall be so numerous as to cover the surface of the water.
The hunter prays also that sufficient game may be found in a single
bend of the river to accomplish this result without the necessity of
searching through the whole forest, and to that end he further prays
that the river may never be satisfied, but continually longing for
more. The same idea is repeated in the second paragraph. The hunter
is supposed to feed the river with blood washed from the game. In like
manner he feeds the fire, addressed in the second paragraph as the
“Ancient Red,” with a piece of meat cut from the tongue of the deer.
The prayer that the fire may hover above his breast while he sleeps
and brings him favorable dreams, refers to his rubbing his breast with
ashes from his camp fire before lying down to sleep, in order that the
fire may bring him dream omens of success for the morrow. The Fire is
addressed either as the Ancient White or the Ancient Red, the allusion
in the first case being to the light or the ashes of the fire; in the
other case, to the color of the burning coals. “You two shall bury it
in your stomachs” refers to the blood-stained leaves and the piece
of meat which are cast respectively into the river and the fire. The
formula was obtained from A‛yûⁿinĭ, who explained it in detail.