Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest | Page 5

Old Man Above and the Grizzlies - Shastika (Cal.) The Creation of Man-kind and the Flood - Pima (Arizona) The Birds and the Flood - Pima (Arizona) Legend of the Flood - Ashochimi (Coast Indians, Cal.) The Great Flood - Sia (New Mexico) The Flood and the Theft of Fire - Tolowa (Del Norte Co., Cal.) Legend of the Flood in Sacramento Maidu Valley - (near Sacramento, Cal.) The Fable of the Animals - Karok (near Klamath River, Cal.) Coyote and Sun - Pai Ute (near Kern River, Cal.) The Course of the Sun - Sia (New Mexico) The Foxes and the Sun - Yurok (near Klamath River, Cal.) The Theft of Fire - Karok (near Klamath River, Cal.) The Theft of Fire - Sia (New Mexico) The Earth-hardening after the Flood - Sia (New Mexico) The Origins of the Totems and of Names - Zuni (New Mexico) Traditions of Wanderings - Hopi (Arizona) The Migration of the Water People - Walpi (Arizona) Coyote and the Mesquite Beans - Pima (Arizona) Origin of the Sierra Nevadas and Coast Range - Yokuts (near Fresno, Cal.) Yosemite Valley and its Indian Names Legend of Tu-tok-a-nu'-la (El Capitan) - Yosemite Valley Legend of Tis-se'-yak (South Dome and North Dome) Yosemite Valley Historic Tradition of the Upper Tuolumne - Yosemite Valley California Big Trees - Pai Ute (near Kern River, Cal.) The Children of Cloud - Pima (Arizona) The Cloud People - Sia (New Mexico) Rain Song - Sia (New Mexico) Rain Song Rain Song - Sia (New Mexico) The Corn Maidens - Zuni (New Mexico) The Search for the Corn Maidens - Zuni (New Mexico) Hasjelti and Hostjoghon - Navajo (New Mexico) The Song-hunter - Navajo (New Mexico) Sand Painting of the Song-hunter - Navajo The Guiding Duck and the Lake of Death - Zuni (New Mexico) The Boy who Became a God - Navajo (New Mexico) Origin of Clear Lake - Patwin (Sacramento Valley, Cal.) The Great Fire - Patwin (Sacramento Valley, Cal.) Origin of the Raven and the Macaw - Zuni (New Mexico) Coyote and the Hare - Sia (New Mexico) Coyote and the Quails - Pima (Arizona) Coyote and the Fawns - Sia (New Mexico) How the Bluebird Got its Color - Pima (Arizona) Coyote's Eyes - Pima (Arizona) Coyote and the Tortillas - Pima (Arizona) Coyote as a Hunter - Sia (New Mexico) How the Rattlesnake Learned to Bite - Pima (Arizona) Coyote and the Rattlesnake - Sia (New Mexico) Origin of the Saguaro and Palo Verde Cacti - Pima (Arizona) The Thirsty Quails - Pima (Arizona) The Boy and the Beast - Pima (Arizona) Why the Apaches are Fierce - Pima (Arizona) Speech on the Warpath - Pima (Arizona) The Spirit Land - Gallinomero (Russian River, Cal.) Song of the Ghost Dance - Pai Ute (Kern River, Cal.)
The Beginning of Newness Zuni (New Mexico)
Before the beginning of the New-making, the All-father Father alone had being. Through ages there was nothing else except black darkness.
In the beginning of the New-making, the All-father Father thought outward in space, and mists were created and up-lifted. Thus through his knowledge he made himself the Sun who was thus created and is the great Father. The dark spaces brightened with light. The cloud mists thickened and became water.
From his flesh, the Sun-father created the Seed-stuff of worlds, and he himself rested upon the waters. And these two, the Four-fold-containing Earth-mother and the All-covering Sky-father, the surpassing beings, with power of changing their forms even as smoke changes in the wind, were the father and mother of the soul beings.
Then as man and woman spoke these two together. "Behold!" said Earth-mother, as a great terraced bowl appeared at hand, and within it water, "This shall be the home of my tiny children. On the rim of each world-country in which they wander, terraced mountains shall stand, making in one region many mountains by which one country shall be known from another."
Then she spat on the water and struck it and stirred it with her fingers. Foam gathered about the terraced rim, mounting higher and higher. Then with her warm breath she blew across the terraces. White flecks of foam broke away and floated over the water. But the cold breath of Sky-father shattered the foam and it fell downward in fine mist and spray.
Then Earth-mother spoke:
"Even so shall white clouds float up from the great waters at the borders of the world, and clustering about the mountain terraces of the horizon, shall be broken and hardened by thy cold. Then will they shed downward, in rain-spray, the water of life, even into the hollow places of my lap. For in my lap shall nestle our children, man-kind and creature-kind, for warmth in thy coldness."
So even now the trees on high mountains near the clouds