Then they started homeward, carrying the meat. The youth helped them.
As they were descending a mesa, they sat down on the edge to rest. Far
down the mesa were four mountain sheep. The brothers told the youth to
kill one.
The youth hid in the sage brush and when the sheep came directly toward
him, he aimed his arrow at them. But his arm stiffened and became dead.
The sheep passed by.
He headed them off again by hiding in the stalks of a large yucca. The
sheep passed within five steps of him, but again his arm stiffened as he
drew the bow.
He followed the sheep and got ahead of them and hid behind a birch tree
in bloom. He had his bow ready, but as they neared him they became gods.
The first was Hasjelti, the second was Hostjoghon, the third Naaskiddi,
and the fourth Hadatchishi. Then the youth fell senseless to the ground.
The four gods stood one on each side of him, each with a rattle. They
traced with their rattles in the sand the figure of a man, drawing lines
at his head and feet. Then the youth recovered and the gods again became
sheep. They said, "Why did you try to shoot us? You see you are one of
us." For the youth had become a sheep.
The gods said, "There is to be a dance, far off to the north beyond the
Ute Mountain. We want you to go with us. We will dress you like
ourselves and teach you to dance. Then we will wander over the world."
Now the brothers watched from the top of the mesa but they could not see
what the trouble was. They saw the youth lying on the ground, but when
they reached the place, all the sheep were gone. They began crying,
saying, "For a long time we would not believe him, and now he has gone
off with the sheep."
They tried to head off the sheep, but failed. They said, "If we had
believed him, he would not have gone off with the sheep. But perhaps
some day we will see him again."
At the dance, the five sheep found seven others. This made their number
twelve. They journeyed all around the world. All people let them see
their dances and learn their songs. Then the eleven talked together and
said,
"There is no use keeping this youth with us longer. He has learned
everything. He may as well go back to his people and teach them to do as
we do."
So the youth was taught to have twelve in the dance, six gods and six
goddesses, with Hasjelti to lead them. He was told to have his people
make masks to represent the gods.
So the youth returned to his brothers, carrying with him all songs, all
medicines, and clothing.
Origin of Clear Lake
Patwin (Sacramento Valley, Cal.)
Before anything was created at all, Old Frog and Old Badger lived alone
together. Old Badger wanted to drink, so Old Frog gnawed into a tree,
drew out all the sap and put it in a hollow place. Then he created
Little Frogs to help him, and working together they dug out the lake.
Then Old Frog made the little flat whitefish. Some of them lived in the
lake, but others swam down Cache Creek, and turned into the salmon,
pike, and sturgeon which swim in the Sacramento.
The Great Fire
Patwin (Sacramento Valley, Cal.)
Long ago a man loved two women and wished to marry both of them. But the
women were magpies and they laughed at him. Therefore the man went to
the north, and made for himself a tule boat. Then he set the world on
fire, and himself escaped to sea in his boat.
But the fire burned with terrible speed. It ate its way into the south.
It licked up all things on earth, men, trees, rocks, animals, water, and
even the ground itself.
Now Old Coyote saw the burning and the smoke from his place far in the
south, and he ran with all his might to put it out. He put two little
boys in a sack and ran north like the wind. He took honey-dew into his
mouth, chewed it up, spat on the fire, and so put it out. Now the fire
was out, but there was no water and Coyote was thirsty. So he took
Indian sugar again, chewed it up, dug a hole in the bottom of the creek,
covered up the sugar in it, and it turned to water and filled the creek.
So the earth had water again.
But the two little boys cried because they were lonesome, for there was
nobody left on earth. Then Coyote made a sweat house, and split a number
of sticks, and laid them in the sweat house over night. In the morning
they had all turned into men and women.
Origin of the Raven and the Macaw
(Totems of summer and winter)
Zuni (New Mexico)
The priest who was named Yanauluha carried ever in his hand a staff
which now in the daylight was plumed and covered with feathers--yellow,
blue-green, red, white, black, and varied. Attached to it were shells,
which made a song-like tinkle. The people when they saw it stretched out
their hands and asked many questions.
Then the priest balanced it in his hand, and struck with it a hard
place, and blew upon it. Amid the plumes appeared four round things-mere
eggs they were. Two were blue like the sky and two dun-red like the
flesh of the Earth-mother.
Then the people asked many questions.
"These," said the priests, "are the seed of living beings. Choose which
ye will follow. From two eggs shall come beings of beautiful plumage,
colored like the grass and fruits of summer. Where they fly and ye
follow, shall always be summer. Without toil, fields of food shall
flourish. And from the other two eggs shall come evil beings, piebald,
with white, without colors. And where these two shall fly and ye shall
follow, winter strives with summer. Only by labor shall the fields yield
fruit, and your children and theirs shall strive for the fruits. Which
do ye choose?"
"The blue! The blue!" cried the people, and those who were strongest
carried off the blue eggs, leaving the red eggs to those who waited.
They laid the blue eggs with much gentleness in soft sand on the sunny
side of a hill, watching day by day. They were precious of color; surely
they would be the precious birds of the Summer-land. Then the eggs
cracked and the birds came out, with open eyes and pin feathers under
their skins.
"We chose wisely," said the people. "Yellow and blue, red and green, are
their dresses, even seen through their skins." So they fed them freely
of all the foods which men favor. Thus they taught them to eat all
desirable food. But when the feathers appeared, they were black with
white bandings. They were ravens. And they flew away croaking hoarse
laughs and mocking our fathers.
But the other eggs became beautiful macaws, and were wafted by a toss of
the priest's wand to the faraway Summer-land.
So those who had chosen the raven, became the Raven People. They were
the Winter People and they were many and strong. But those who had
chosen the macaw, became the Macaw People. They were the Summer People,
and few in number, and less strong, but they were wiser because they
were more deliberate. The priest Yanauluha, being wise, became their
father, even as the Sun-father is among the little moons of the sky. He
and his sisters were the ancestors of the priest-keepers of things.
Coyote and the Hare
Sia (New Mexico)
One day Coyote was passing about when he saw Hare sitting before his
house. Coyote thought, "In a minute I will catch you," and he sprang and
caught Hare.
Hare cried, "Man Coyote, do not eat me. Wait just a minute; I have
something to tell you--something you will be glad to hear--something
you must hear."
"Well," said Coyote, "I will wait."
"Let me sit at the entrance of my house," said Hare. "Then I can talk to
you."
Coyote allowed Hare to take his seat at the entrance.
Hare said, What are you thinking of, Coyote?
"Nothing," said Coyote.
"Listen, then," said Hare. "I am a hare and I am very much afraid of
people. When they come carrying arrows, I am afraid of them. When they
see me they aim their arrows at me and I am afraid, and oh! how I
tremble!"
Hare began trembling violently until he saw Coyote a little off his
guard, then he began to run. It took Coyote a minute to think and then
he ran after Hare, but always a little behind. Hare raced away and soon
entered a house, just in time to escape Coyote. Coyote tried to enter
the house but found it was hard stone. He became very angry.
Coyote cried, "I was very stupid! Why did I allow this Hare to fool me?
I must have him. But this house is so strong, how can I open it?"
Coyote began to work, but after a while he said to himself, "The stone
is so strong I cannot open it."