CONCEPTS OF SUN, MOON, AND STARS
Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed the sun to be a female human—the
wife—and the moon to be a male human—the husband. This is a reversal of
the sex ascribed to these bodies by some other tribes. They believed
that the figure of a frog was visible in the moon.
Atsugewi stated that Frog fought Moon and swallowed him and the next
time that Moon swallowed Frog who is now in the center of the moon. When
Moon and Frog fought, the former was not round, but crescent shaped.
Yana stated that in the moon they could see Moon’s wife, Frog. Pine
Marten snapped his evil father-in-law Moon into the sky by means of
bending a springy tree ’way down and suddenly letting it go. He used the
same system to snap Frog and her two daughters into the sky also.
To Atsugewi, as to most tribes, the phases of the moon: new, full, and
waning, represented birth, life, and death—repeated every four weeks,
although, of course, none of the Indians had the concept of a “week”
such as we have. All through the year Atsugewi greeted the new moon. Old
persons shook themselves, and their clothes and bedding in its presence.
Younger folks ran and jumped toward the moon. If the points or horns of
the new moon crescent were vertical it was a bad omen indicating
sickness or death. Babies were shown the new moon, and in the case of
both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, babies’ faces and arms were rubbed in
the new moonlight to make them grow fast. All local tribes addressed the
moon aloud in friendly terms as if it were a personal relative. The Yana
prayed to it. In contrast to Atsugewi reaction to vertical position of
the two moon points, the Yana and mountain Maidu accepted this as
meaning good fortune and good weather ahead. To these tribes horizontal
position of the moon crescent in the winter sky denoted that it was full
of water and indicated pending rains or storms. At other seasons both
horns up foretold of death. Yana thought that both sun and moon were
feminine.
After its daily trip across the sky, Atsugewi thought that the sun
returned to the east in a blue cloud via the side of the earth. As the
sun and the moon passed each other at the side of the earth, they
decided on the weather for the following day. The moon supplied the cold
and the sun the heat.
Eclipses of sun and moon were believed by Yana to be due to their dogs
devouring them. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu felt that the heavenly
bodies were dying. The former were of the opinion that Lizard was eating
Sun or Moon as the case might be. They shouted loudly, shot arrows into
the air toward the eclipse and beat all available female dogs. Mountain
Maidu thought that Frog was eating Moon or Sun.
A reddish moon foretold of disaster and was a sign of war for Atsugewi,
but to Yana it meant hot weather ahead.
Only a few star groups of the night sky were named.
Yana thought the constellation we call the Belt of Orion was Coyote’s
arrow. All local tribes believed the Milky Way to be a road, or river in
some cases, which was traveled by departing spirits or souls of the
dead. Shooting or Falling stars, (more properly meteorites) presaged
good weather to the Atsugewi who thought these were torches carried by
spirits from one house to another in the sky. For this tribe too, a
single conspicuous star—no doubt a planet—seen near the moon was an evil
sign. If the star were on the left someone nearby would die soon; if it
lay to the right of the moon someone farther away was doomed.
Atsugewi called the Seven Sisters wir-etisu. These girls were seduced by
a little rabbit boy at a puberty dance. They became ashamed and went up
in the sky to become stars. The Big Dipper was called Coyote’s Cane.
Maidu thought that stars were made of something soft like buckskin.