—Waldemar Borgoras. “Chuckchee Tales.” Journal of American Folklore. 1928, 41. 297–300. New York: G. E. Stechert, for the American Folklore Society.
SEVEN
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHS
JOSHUA
Xowalaci and His Companion Like many north-west Pacific Coast Indians, the Joshua lived at the mouth of a river (in this case, the Rogue River in southern Oregon) where they could safely beach their huge dugout canoes and find protection from warring neighbors. This myth was related by Charlie DePoe in the early 1900s.
The fallibility of the creator (Xowalaci, “The Giver”) is a remarkable feature of this myth. Twice he attempts to create human beings, and twice he fails, producing dogs (sea mammals and dogs) and snakes (those powerful symbols of fertility and chaos, two of which eventually surround and contain the ordered world). Only by the intervention of the first man, Xowalaci’s companion, is a woman finally created out of his dream, and it is again in a dream that he mates with her and produces the first child.
Other notable elements in this myth include a variation on the earth diver motif (here the creator drops clods of mud down on the bottom of the water rather than diving down and bringing mud to the surface), and the presence of a mysterious and troublesome man who walks the primordial earth unknown and uncontrolled.
IN THE BEGINNING there was no land. There was nothing but the sky, some fog, and water. The water was still; there were no breakers. A sweat-house stood on the water, and in it there lived two men,—Xowalaci (The Giver) and his companion. Xowalaci’s companion had tobacco. He usually stayed outside watching, while Xowalaci remained in the sweat-house.
One day it seemed to the watcher as if daylight were coming. He went inside and told Xowalaci that he saw something strange coming. Soon there appeared something that looked like land, and on it two trees were growing. The man kept on looking, and was soon able to distinguish that the object, that was approaching, was white land. Then the ocean began to move, bringing the land nearer. Its eastern portion was dark. The western part kept on moving until it struck the sweat-house, where it stopped. It began to stretch to the north and to the south. The land was white like snow. There was no grass on it. It expanded like the waves of the ocean. Then the fog began to disappear, and the watcher could look far away.
He went into the sweat-house, and asked, “Xowalaci, are you ready?” and Xowalaci said, “Is the land solid?”—“Not quite,” replied the man. Then Xowalaci took some tobacco and began to smoke. He blew the smoke on the land, and the land became motionless. Only two trees were growing at that time,—redwood to the south, and ash to the north. Five times Xowalaci smoked, while discussing with his companion various means of creating the world and the people. Then night came, and after that daylight appeared again. Four days Xowalaci worked; and trees began to bud, and fell like drops of water upon the ground. Grass came up, and leaves appeared on the trees. Xowalaci walked around the piece of land that had stopped near his sweat-house, commanding the ocean to withdraw and to be calm.
Then Xowalaci made five cakes of mud. Of the first cake he made a stone, and dropped it into the water, telling it to make a noise and to expand, as soon as it struck the bottom. After a long while he heard a faint noise, and knew then that the water was very deep. He waited some time before dropping the second cake. This time he heard the noise sooner, and knew that the land was coming nearer to the surface. After he had dropped the third cake, the land reached almost to the surface of the water. So he went into the sweat-house and opened a new sack of tobacco. Soon his companion shouted from the outside, “It looks as if breakers were coming!” Xowalaci was glad, because he knew now that the land was coming up from the bottom of the ocean. After the sixth wave the water receded, and Xowalaci scattered tobacco all over. Sand appeared. More breakers came in, receding farther and farther westward. Thus the land and the world were created. To the west, to the north, and to the south there was tide-water; to the east the land was dry. The new land was soft, and looked like sand. Xowalaci stepped on it, and said, “I am going to see if the great land has come;” and as he stepped, the land grew hard.
Then Xowalaci looked at the sand, and saw a man’s tracks. They seemed to have come from the north, disappearing in the water on the south. He wondered what that could mean, and was very much worried. He went back to his first piece of land, and told the water to overflow the land he had created out of the five cakes of mud. Some time afterwards he ordered the water to recede, and looked again. This time he saw the tracks coming from the west, and returning to the water on the north side. He was puzzled, and ordered the water to cover up his new land once more. Five times he repeated this process. At last he became discouraged, and said, “This is going to make trouble in the future!” and since then there has always been trouble in the world.
Then Xowalaci began to wonder how he could make people. First he took some grass, mixed it with mud, and rubbed it in his hands. Then he ordered a house to appear, gave the two mud figures to his companion, and told him to put them into the house. After four days two dogs—a male and a bitch—appeared. They watched the dogs, and twelve days later the bitch gave birth to pups. Xowalaci then made food for the dogs. All kinds of dogs were born in that litter of pups. They were all howling. After a while Xowalaci went to work again. He took some white sand from the new land, and made two figures in the same way as before. He gave the figures to his companion, and ordered a house for them. Then he warned the dogs not to go to the new house, as it was intended for the new people. After thirteen days Xowalaci heard a great hissing; and a big snake came out of the house, followed by a female snake and by many small snakes. Xowalaci felt bad when he saw this, and went to his companion, telling him that this trouble was due to the tracks that had first appeared in the world. Soon the land became full of snakes, which, not having seen Xowalaci, wondered how everything had come about. The world was inhabited by dogs and snakes only. One day Xowalaci wished three baskets to appear, gave them to his companion, and told him to fill them partly with fresh water and partly with salt water. Then he put ten of the biggest snakes into the baskets, crushed them, and threw them into the ocean. Two bad snakes got away from him; and all snake-like animals that live to-day come from these snakes. Xowalaci said to these two snakes, “You two will live and surround the world like a belt, so that it won’t break!” Then he crushed five bad dogs in the same way, made a great ditch with his finger, and threw the dogs into the ditch. These dogs became water-monsters. All animals that raise their heads above the water and smell, and then disappear quickly under the water, came from these five dogs.
Pretty soon Xowalaci began to think again, “How can I make people? I have failed twice!” Now, for the first time his companion spoke. He said, “Let me smoke tonight, and see if people will not come out (of the smoke).” For three days he smoked, at the end of which a house appeared with smoke coming out of it. The man told Xowalaci, “There is a house!” After a while a beautiful woman came out of the house, carrying a water-basket. Then Xowalaci was glad, and said, “Now we shall have no more trouble in creating people.” The woman did not see Xowalaci and his companion, as they were watching her. After nine days the woman became sad, and wondered who her father and relatives were. She had plenty of food.
One day Xowalaci said to his companion, “Stay here and take this woman for your wife! You shall have children and be the father of all the people. I am leaving this world. Everything on it shall belong to you.” And the man answered, “It is well; but, perchance, I too may have troubles.” Then Xowalaci asked him, “How are you going to be troubled?” So the man said, “Do you make this woman sleep, so that I can go to her without her seeing me.” The woman found life in the house very easy. Whenever she wished for anything, it appeared at once. About noon she felt sleepy for the first time. When night came, she prepared her bed and lay down. As soon as she was sound asleep, the man went in to her. She was not aware of this, but dreamed that a handsome man was wi
th her. This was an entirely new dream to her. At daybreak she woke up and looked into the blanket. No one was there, although she was sure that someone had been with her. She wished to know who had been with her that night. So next evening she prepared her bed again, hoping that the same would happen; but no one came to her. She did the same every night without any one coming near her.
Soon the woman became pregnant. Xowalaci and his companion were still on the land, watching her; but she could not see them, because they were invisible to her. After a while the child was born. It was a boy. He grew very fast. The young woman made a cradle for him. After six months the boy could talk. The woman still wanted to know who the father of her child was. So one day she wrapped the child in blankets, and said, “I will neglect the boy and let him cry, and, perchance, his father may come. I will go and look at the country.” She started south, carrying the baby on her back. She travelled for ten years, seeing no one and never looking at the child. After a long time she could hear only a faint sound coming from behind. Nothing remained of the boy but skin and bones. Finally she stopped at Saloma, and here for the first time she took the child from her back and looked at it. Its eyes were sunken and hollow; the boy was a mere skeleton. The woman felt bad and began to cry. She took the boy out of the cradle and went to the river to bathe. After she had put on her clothes, she felt of the child’s heart. It was still beating! The boy urinated, and was dirty all over. His body was covered with maggots, and he had acquired various diseases. The woman took him to the water and washed his body. She had no milk with which to feed him: so she sang a medicine-song, and milk came to her. She gave the breast to the child, but it was too weak to suck: hence she had to feed it gradually. As the days went by, the boy grew stronger. After three days his eyes were better. Then they went back to their house, where they found plenty of food. The boy grew soon into a strong and handsome man, and was helping his mother with her work. One day he asked her, “Mother, where is your husband?” and she replied, “I only dreamed of my husband.” Then she told him all that had happened before he was born; and the boy said, “Oh! perchance my father may turn up some day.”
Then Xowalaci said to his companion, “The woman is home now.” That night the woman longed for her husband. She had been dreaming all the time that he was a handsome man, and that her boy looked just like him. At dusk it seemed to her as if some one were coming. Her heart began to beat. Soon she heard footsteps. The door opened, and her boy exclaimed, “Oh, my father has come!” She looked and saw the man of her dreams. At first she was ashamed and bashful. The man told her all that had happened before, and claimed her as his wife.
One day Xowalaci told the man that all the world had been made for him. Then he instructed him how to act at all times and under all conditions. He also admonished him to have more children, and the man had sixteen children. The first one was a boy, then came a girl, then another boy, and so on. Half of his children went to live north of the Rogue River, while the other half settled down south of the river. Xowalaci told the man that hereafter he would obtain everything by wishing. Then he straightened out the world, made it flat, and placed the waters. He also created all sorts of animals, and cautioned the man not to cut down more trees or kill more animals than he needed. And after all this had been done, he bade him farewell and went up to the sky, saying, “You and your wife and your children shall speak different languages. You shall be the progenitors of all the different tribes.”
—L. Ferrand and L. J. Frachtenberg. “Shasta and Athapascan Myths from Oregon.” Journal of American Folklore, 1915, 28, pp. 224–228.
SALINAN
After the Flood Conflict between the forces of chaos and order is the focus of this Saiinan Indian myth from California. Eagle, like Raven and Coyote in related myths, plays the role of the defender of creation. Jealous of his power, the old woman of the sea (ancient in her primordiality, feminine in her passivity and formlessness-which-forms, and watery to symbolize the nature of the preexistent chaos) attacks the creation with a flood. By cunning and inventiveness, Eagle saves the world; and by his creative power, ritual purgation (the sweat house) and breath of life, he molds people from elder twigs and animates them.
THE OLD WOMAN of the Sea was jealous of Eagle and wished to be more powerful than he. So she came towards him with her basket in which she carried the sea. Continually she poured the water out of the basket until it covered all the land. It rose nearly to the top of Santa Lucia Peak where were gathered Eagle and the other animals. Then Eagle said to Puma, “Lend me your whiskers to lassoo the basket.” He made a lariat out of the whiskers of Puma and lassoed the basket. Then the sea ceased rising and the old woman died.
Then said Eagle to Dove, “Fetch some earth!” Then Eagle made the world of the mud brought by the dove. Then he took three sticks of elder and formed from these a woman and two men. But still they had no life. They all entered the sweat-house. Then said Prairie-Falcon, “Fetch my barsalilo! Coyote went to bring it but brought a load of different wood. “No!” said Prairie-Falcon. “That is not my barsalilo,” and Coyote had to go again. Then they all sweated. After sweating the eagle blew on the elder-wood people and they lived. Then they made a bower of branches and held a great fiesta.
—J. A. Mason. “The Language of the Salinan Indians.” University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, 1918, 14 (1), 105.
WYOT
The Origin of Man The development of human beings from animals is depicted in this Wyot myth from California. In the beginning, Above-Old-Man (a symbolic representation common in Pacific Northwest myths) was displeased with his creation and planned to destroy it. The people were too animalistic; they were still furry, and their speech was indistinct. (In related myths, the cause of God’s displeasure is man’s constant fighting.)
To avoid the oncoming flood (a reversion to the chaos of not-being), the hero Condor wove a basket and hid in it with his sister. After the destruction of the old world and its purification in the waters, Condor and his sister emerged, mated, and produced the first proper people.
The way in which God is portrayed here and the use of the flood motif are sufficiently similar to Christian mythology to suggest that this myth may have been affected by missionary influence.
THE FIRST PEOPLE born not right they talked. It was not right. They were furry. He began to hear Above-Old-Man. He began to think about it, “How am I going to get rid of them?” In time he knew it. Condor knew it what was going to happen. Water was going to come. That is why it was woven. No one knew anything about it. Long time it was made basket was finished. Water came. His sister got in. It began to be tossed by waves. They knew nothing any more. Suddenly it no longer moved. He thought it was (floating) at anchor. That is when they pushed it (opening) aside. They looked around. Land they saw. He knew (that) people were no more. He started to look for them. He saw no one. Birds he saw. He saw wild pigeons, birds, turtle doves. He began to fly about. Then he saw coon his track. He came upon arrival he called her sister (kin). She did not look right. He kept on going. He came back. Upon arrival he-spoke again to her his sister. She did not like it. He began to study about it. He decided, “When I come back this way I intend to speak to her ‘My wife?’” She laughed. A long time of that word she had been thinking his sister. They were married. Not long after she became pregnant. Person was born child was born. From then on people kept on being born. Good they were, good it was they began to use good talk. Very nice people they were. Above-Old-Man knew it they were good. He liked them. He was content. That is why he liked them. —Gladys A. Reichard. “Wyot Grammar and Texts.” University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, 1925, 22 (1), p. 175.
MAIDU
In the Beginning Like the Joshua creation myth, this California Maidu myth has as its creator a marvelous guide and helper, Earth-Initiate. Descending from heaven, shining like the sun, this dazzling power brings order to the world, forming land and calling forth his sis
ter sun, brother moon, and the stars until the watery, dark chaos of the beginning is dispelled.
Self-emergent, along with Rattlesnake, Coyote takes the place of Raven here as a trickster deity; he alone among the creatures can see the face of Earth-Initiate and understand what he is doing. But, although he is a great and powerful mediator between the sacred and profane realms, Coyote is morally ambivalent. Like the gods of many other cultures, he is prior to good and evil. Thus while Earth-Initiate plans for a gentle and easy world complete with a lake of renewal for the aged, Coyote wants work, suffering, and death to be the human lot. In a sequence common in Plains Indian mythology, Coyote causes death only to have his son be the first victim.
Although Coyote has great power, it is finally limited and earth-bound. He cannot create on his own: he can make the shape of people, but he cannot animate them. Nor can he conquer death and join the first man and his own son in the spirit house or in heaven. Thus the structure of the world is set until Earth-Initiate comes again and makes it all over.
IN THE BEGINNING there was no sun, no moon, no stars. All was dark, and everywhere there was only water. A raft came floating on the water. It came from the north, and in it were two persons—Turtle and Father-of-the-Secret-Society. The stream flowed very rapidly. Then from the sky a rope of feathers, was let down, and down it came Earth-Initiate. When he reached the end of the rope, he tied it to the bow of the raft, and stepped in. His face was covered and was never seen, but his body shone like the sun. He sat down, and for a long time said nothing.
At last Turtle said, “Where do you come from?” and Earth-Initiate answered, “I come from above.” Then Turtle said, “Brother, can you not make for me some good dry land, so that I may sometimes come up out of the water?” Then he asked another time, “Are there going to be any people in the world?” Earth-Initiate thought awhile, then said, “Yes.” Turtle asked, “How long before you are going to make people?” Earth-Initiate replied, “I don’t know. You want to have some dry land: well, how am I going to get any earth to make it of?”
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