Sedit was in favor of death for men, and gives his reasons. It cannot
be said that he brought death into the world, but he stopped the work
which would have kept it out.
His discourse with the Hus brothers is curious; it represents the
immortality and goodness of a weak and limited creature like man as
barren and monotonous. The comparison of this conversation with the
account of Adam and Eve before and after the Fall is not without
interest.
The critical, unbelieving, disobedient Sedit, who is so willing to
make life in the world varied and interesting through death, so long
as the question stands apart from his own immortality, and his great
concern and anxiety when he thinks that he must himself die, is
brought out in good relief.
The earnest and honest Hus brothers stand in strong contrast to the
sneering Sedit. The Hus character is a lofty one in Wintu mythology.
This may seem strange to a new student of Indian ideas, when he
remembers what a foul creature the turkey buzzard is.
The buzzard is considered as a purifier on earth, and surely in
regions like Central America the service rendered by the bird in this
regard is memorable. The buzzard is everywhere the most frequent and
striking figure in Guatemala and Southern Mexico, both in city and
country. In California there is a fine of five dollars for killing
one.
The original Hus character is conceived by the Wintus as striving
toward religious purification as strenuously as the earthly buzzard
works at cleaning the earth of carrion of various descriptions.
The following remarks accompanied this tale when published in "The
Sun":--
This tale of Sedit and the Hus brothers is a splendid bit of
aboriginal American philosophy, and touches on topics which have
exercised many minds besides those of primitive America. The subject
of life and death is treated here so simply, and at the same time so
well, that I believe few readers would ask for explanation or comment.
Some statements, however, touching Sedit are not out of place, I
think. The coyote is very prominent in the mythology of every region
where he is found. The basis of his character is the same in all myths
that I have collected. He is a tremendous glutton, boastful,
talkative, cunning, exceptionally inclined to the other sex, full of
curiosity, a liar, a trickster, deceiving most adroitly, and is
deceived himself at times. He comes to grief frequently because of his
passions and peculiar qualities. He is an artful dodger, who has
points in common with the devil of European folk-lore, being in many
cases an American counterpart of this curious and interesting
personage.
Of Northern Pacific coast tribes in the United States, the Modocs have
given most distinction to the coyote. Among them the chief coyote is a
trickster on the grandest scale, and has obtained possession of the
indestructible disk of the sun, through which he is immortal, or, at
least, is renewed every day to carry that luminary. Because of his
vanity and boastfulness, the coyote undertakes various enterprises in
which he fails through his passions.
Sacred springs and small lakes in the mountains are very prominent in
the Modoc religion. A young man who hopes to be a magician or a doctor
goes to these mountain springs before he is married or knows woman.
There he fasts and watches a week or longer until he is nearly
exhausted. If he is to be a magician or doctor, spirits appear to him
in this interval. A coyote went to those mountains (in the time before
men were on earth, of course), hoping to gain great magic power, but
on the way he ate various kinds of food hateful to the spirits of the
springs. These spirits were disgusted with the odor of food that came
from him, struck him with mange, drove him away, made him hungry,
foul, and wretched forever. He ran away, howling and lamenting,
without hope of pardon. From this coyote are descended an especially
bad breed of coyotes in Oregon. They are all foul and hungry to this
day. In dark windy nights the mangy descendants of that glutton are
heard bewailing the fault of their ancestor, their own fallen state
and lost happiness.
The Shasta Indians have a long tale of a coyote whose fond grandmother
tried to make him a great sorcerer. When the time came, she sent him
to the sacred mountain and gave every instruction. He was not to stop,
eat, or drink on the road, or to speak to any one. When about
two-thirds of the distance, he passed near a house; inside was loud
thumping and hammering; a frog woman was pounding seeds and singing;
her house was full of food; coyote caught the odor of it, stopped,
could not resist the temptation to go in. He went in, ate and drank
everything put before him. In Indian mythology frog women are not
vestals; so breaking his fast and gluttony were not his only offences.
He had fallen past redemption. On leaving the frog woman's house he
went through a series of unmentionable adventures, at the end of which
there was nothing left but his head, which was in a pool by the
wayside, and just as much alive as ever.
Two sisters, afterwards ducks, who were going that way, found and
pitied the unfortunate. It was not easy to carry him, but the younger
promised to do so if he would shut his eyes and not open them till she
set him down on his grandmother's threshold. This condition was to
prevent him from seeing how she carried him. When half-way home,
curiosity overcame him. Though only a head, he opened his eyes and
fell to the ground.
The duck woman had pity again, and took him to his grandmother. Loud
was her wailing at sight of her lost and ruined grandson.
Sedit came to grief through peculiarities of character.