Part 12 (1/2)

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 pa.s.sed by.

He headed them off again by hiding in the stalks of a large yucca. The sheep pa.s.sed 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 G.o.ds.

The first was Hasjelti, the second was Hostjoghon, the third Naaskiddi, and the fourth Hadatchis.h.i.+. Then the youth fell senseless to the ground.

The four G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds and six G.o.ddesses, with Hasjelti to lead them. He was told to have his people make masks to represent the G.o.ds.

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 n.o.body 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.