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
=Chuhna=, spider; =Haka hasi=, loon; =Hitchinna=, wildcat; =Jamuka=,
acorn worm; =Juka=, silkworm; =Metsi=, coyote; =Tsanunewa=, fisher (a
bird); =Tsore Jowa=, eagle.
* * * * *
At some distance east of Jigul matu lived old Juka. He had a great
many sons and two daughters--a big house full of children.
Juka's two daughters were Tsore Jowa, the elder, and Haka Lasi, the
younger. After a time Haka Lasi fell in love with her brother
Hitchinna. One day she fell asleep and dreamed that he had married
her.
Metsi lived, too, in Juka's house. He was no relative; he just lived
as a guest there.
One day all the men were out hunting. It was then that Haka Lasi saw
Hitchinna in a dream. She began to sing about him, and she sang: "I
dream of Hitchinna; I dream that he is my husband. I dream of
Hitchinna; I dream that he is my husband."
All the men came back from the hunt at night. At daylight next morning
they went to swim, and Tsore Jowa made ready food for them. Haka Lasi
took a very nice staff in her hand, and went on top of the
sweat-house. She looked in and sang,--
"Where is my husband? Send him up here to me. I will take him away. We
must go on a journey. Where is my husband? Send him up here to me."
All knew that she had no husband.
"You have no husband," said they.
Hitchinna was lying in one corner wrapped up in the skin of a wildcat.
"You have no husband in this house; all here are your brothers," said
Juka.
"I have a husband, and I want him to come here to me," answered Haka
Lasi.
"Well," said the eldest son, "I will go up to her. Let us hear what
she will say." He went up.
"You are not my husband," said Haka Lasi. "Do not come near me."
She drove that one down, and called again: "Where is my husband? Send
him up to me."
"Go you," said Juka to the second son.
"I don't want you," said Haka Lasi to the second son.
She refused one after another, and drove them away until none was left
but Hitchinna. Juka went then to Hitchinna and said,--
"My son, get up and go to her; it looks as though you were the one she
wants."
"He is the one," said Haka Lasi; "he is my husband. I want him to go
away with me."
Hitchinna said not a word, but rose, washed, dressed himself nicely,
and went to the woman.
"The sun is high now," said Haka Lasi; "we must go quickly."
She was glad when taking away the one she wanted. They travelled
along, and she sang of Hitchinna as they travelled, sang of him all
the time. They went a long distance, and at night she fixed a bed and
they lay down on it.
Young Hitchinna could not sleep, he was frightened. When Haka Lasi was
asleep, he rose very quickly, took a piece of soft rotten wood, put it
on her arm where she had held his head, covered it, and then ran away
quickly, hurried back toward Juka's sweat-house with all his might.
About daylight he was at the sweat-house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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