Creation Myths of Primitive America: In relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of MankindCurtin, Jeremiah
Religion
Creation Myths of Primitive America: In relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind
Curtin, Jeremiah
Creation -- Mythology; Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
"Then Sas put his hand in his bosom and took out a kolchi bisi [sky
cap], gave it to me, and said, 'Take this to Norwanchakus, and tell
him to give it to Tsiwihl for his trouble.' Sas gave me also a piece
of the sky. 'This is for Tsiwihl, too,' said he; 'let him wear it on
his breast for a blue facing.'"
Norwanchakus gave these to Tsiwihl, and then made him a blanket of oak
leaves. He wears all these things to this day.
"My cousin, are you sure that Sas said this?" asked Norwanchakus.
"I am sure. Sas told me all this."
"Wait now, my cousin." Norwanchakus went northeast, stretched his hand
out; an armful of kúruti (silkweed which grows at the end of the
world) came on it. "Now, my cousin," said he, "I will pay you well
for your trouble. All your life you can make as much rope as you like
of this kúruti, and you can go up on it anywhere,--north, south, east,
or west."
Norwanchakus started at midnight, and went westward quickly. He knew
the way well. He crossed ridges and valleys, passed places where he
had found tracks of Keriha and lost them, went to the bridge of one
hair, sprang from the bank to the middle of the bridge. The bridge
swayed and swayed. Underneath was a wide, rushing river, but
Norwanchakus did not fall. With one spring more he touched the other
bank, ran swiftly till he reached the big village beyond the sky. He
saw the chief house, ran in through its door at the east, went to the
little room, and found Keriha with his head on the palm of the Supchit
woman's hand. He caught his brother and rushed out, shot past all the
people, and stopped only when he was far outside the village.
"Now, my brother," said he, "you told me always that you knew
something great, that you wanted to do something great, that you
wanted to be something great. What have you been doing here thirty
years? I have looked for you everywhere. You never let me know where
you were."
"Oh, my brother," said Keriha, "I am so drowsy, I was sleeping, I
didn't know where I was."
Norwanchakus crossed the river at a bound, without touching the bridge
of one hair. He went on then, never stopped till he reached Keri Buli.
Next morning at daybreak Keriha heard a voice from above. The voice
said,--
"Leave that place, Norwanchakus and Keriha. The world will change
soon. You two must come here. Leave that place down there quickly."
"Now, my brother," said Keriha, "you are so slow, I don't know where
you wish to go, or what you want to do."
"My brother," said Norwanchakus, "I will do the best I can, and do you
do the best you can. We have finished our work here. People to come
will know the names that you gave to rivers, mountains, rocks, and
hills. Hereafter they will call these places by the names we gave
them."
While in this world Keriha wore a duck-skin, and when they were ready
to go he threw off this skin on the other side of Bohema Mem, and from
it have come all the ducks on the rivers of this country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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