Most prominent of these figures are the Water Babies (Stewart 1941, p.
444, 2574). In the mythology, Water Baby figures as the creature
responsible for the many lakes of the eastern Sierra. Killed and scalped
by the rascally Damalali, Water Baby commands the waters of the area to
rise until the weasel returns the scalp to avoid drowning. The waters left
in mountain valleys as the flood receded formed the lakes.
The Water Baby is not confined to mythology. My informants were able to
describe the appearance of a Water Baby in detail, to supply me with
population figures, and to recount an almost endless series of incidents
in which Water Babies were involved.
All informants agreed that the Water Baby is a creature about one and
one-half feet tall, gray in color, with extremely long black hair which
never touches the ground but which floats along behind the Water Babies
when they walk. In general, these creatures look like small humans.
However, they are boneless, cold to the touch, and damp.
Between two and three thousand Water Babies live in the Sierra, according
to one informant. They inhabit lakes, streams, marshes, ponds, springs,
and irrigation ditches. They speak a language of their own but are always
able to speak Washo. With a single exception, every Washo of middle age
and over to whom I talked claimed to have at least heard Water Babies
calling from some body of water in the night. Several others claimed to
have seen Water Baby footprints (one even reporting that the footprints he
had seen were those of a female because the tracks were clearly those of
high heeled shoes!). One informant steadfastly claimed to have seen a
Water Baby, at least fleetingly, in 1956.
Two distinct attitudes about these creatures are displayed by the Washo.
Most informants openly admitted being afraid of Water Babies. If they
heard one they remained in their houses or attempted to avoid contact.
They claimed that if a person saw a Water Baby by accident, at the very
least he would be struck unconscious and greater harm, in the form of
sickness, might be inflicted on him or on one of his relatives. The
general attitude was that Water Babies were best left alone because they
were extremely powerful.
This attitude is perhaps summed up best by one of my informants, a rather
sophisticated Washo who has lived in cities for long periods and who is an
active leader in the tribe’s legal battle with the federal government. He
is also a devoted peyotist who often conducts curing ceremonies and is
conceded to have a curing power. He said, “If they ever get up a bunch to
trap one of them [Water Babies], I don’t want to have nothing to do with
it.” When I asked why not, he replied: “Why hell, if you make one of them
things mad they’ll flood the world. I just don’t want nothing to do with
them. I ain’t that desperate.” I asked, “desperate for what?” and he
replied “for power. I like to dream about womens [sic] and things like
that, not about Water Babies and that funny stuff.”
This last statement clearly indicates the other attitude about Water
Babies; they are often guardian spirits of Washo who have special power,
particularly shamanistic curing power. Another informant expressed this
other attitude about these creatures. He is about seventy, attended
Stewart Indian School for ten years and lived among the Hopi for ten
years. He boasts a stone and cement-block home, the only such dwelling
owned by a Washo. He has learned to bead baskets and during most of the
year earns a reasonable income from this. His seeming adjustment to white
culture is confounded when his philosophic position is examined. He can
only be termed a mystic who interprets the world in Indian terms. Exposure
to such influences as the writings of Kroeber and Huxley has only
confirmed his essentially Indian viewpoint. Both his parents were famous
Indian doctors and his maternal uncle, who was also his mentor,(2) was a
famous shaman. My informant implied that his uncle’s spirit (wegeleyo),
from which his power was derived, was the Water Baby, and his own
carefully guarded statement implied that the creature was potentially his
own spirit. His view of the Water Baby was quite the reverse of other
informants. “Some people think the Water Baby will hurt them, but he
won’t. If they see him by accident he won’t do nothing. But if he has
given you his power and you see him—then wham, he maybe knock you right
down.” This appears to have been his way of describing a seizure by the
Water Baby, which although a fearful experience, usually resulted in the
gift of additional power. There was, however, general agreement among
informants that the Water Baby could, if he gave his power to a person,
demand repayment with the lives of his protégé’s close relatives or entire
family.(3)
The various powers and activities of the Water Babies are perhaps best
described in the following stories recounted by informants:
1. “One time my Dad was sick. He called in two, three doctors and
they said he had to give a basket to the Water Babies at Lake
_Išmedel_. There is an island in this lake and my Dad was supposed
to go out to that island and leave a basket. I was too young then
but he took my brother. They went up there and my Dad just started
walking out to the lake and the water never got any deeper than
there (pointing to his knees). He walked right on that water. He
left that basket and came back and he got well. Them Water Babies
helped him walk on the water. My brother saw it happen.”
2. “There is this deep pool up in the mountains. There is a kind
of black sucker live there but no Indians ever caught them because
that was a Water Baby place and they was Water Baby food. Womens
used to sit on a platform of logs and weave baskets there [special
baskets for the Water Babies, apparently, such as the one used as
offering in the story above]. One time I took another fella like
you [anthropologist] up there but when we got there we couldn’t
find nothing but sand with a little water bubbling up in the
middle. He wouldn’t believe me. I showed him where them womens had
sat but I think he thought I was lying. I guess them Water Babies
did something.”
3. “There is this women called Frances. She was up at Blue Lake
with her husband following him along the edge of the lake. It was
kind of dark. She saw them little footprints right on top of her
husband’s in the sand.”
4. “I’ll tell you what happened to me right in this house about
two years ago. I was in bed in that room there and I felt these
little hands creeping under the covers. I brushed ’em away but
they just come back. They tried to feel me down here [indicating
his genitalia]. I yelled for my mother and she come in and said
something and something went zip (waving arm violently to indicate
direction) right out of that window. We looked out that way [to
the south], that’s toward Walker Lake. Everything was kind of hazy
blue.”
In light of Washo views about receiving shamanistic power, it would appear
that my informant was suggesting that this visitation was a Water Baby
making its patronage known.
5. “My old uncle had been doctoring up by Genoa. He had a tough
one and fallen in the fire and burned all his pants off and was
walking wearing his coat like a skirt. He got by Wally’s Hot
Springs when he felt like he wanted a bath. Them Water Babies must
have been working on him. He went over by the creek and started to
lean over and then he passed out and fell into the water and there
was a Water Baby. That Water Baby said, ‘come on,’ and he took him
down to Water Baby country. The chief of the Water Babies lived in
a big house made out of that black shining rock [obsidian]. But
they didn’t go there. The Water Baby said ‘we got some girls that
want to give you something,’ and he took my uncle to a place and
there was five girls there. They all sat around my uncle and sang
him a song and told him that it was his song from now on. Then the
Water Baby took my uncle back and then he said it was like waking
up from a dream and there he was laying in the creek down under a
bunch of cattails.”(4)
6. “There was this white man up here fishing. He caught a Water
Baby but he didn’t know what it was. He thought it was some kind
of fish and took it to San Francisco and they put it that place
where they have a lotta fish [aquarium]. Captain Jim went all the
way down there to tell the mayor that they had better let that
Water Baby loose, but nobody would pay no attention to him. Well
you know they had a big earthquake down there and the water came
up around everything. When it was all over that tank where they
had the Water Baby was empty.”