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
Now Chuhna, Juka's sister, lived with him. She was the greatest person
in the world to spin threads and twist ropes. She had a willow basket
as big as a house, and a rope which reached up to the sky and was
fastened there.
"My nephew," said she to Hitchinna, "I will save you and save all from
your terrible sister. She will be here very soon; she may come any
moment. She will kill all in this house; she will kill every one if
she finds us here. Let all go into my basket. I will take you up to
the sky. She cannot find us there; she cannot follow us to that
place."
"I will lie lowest," said Metsi. "I am a good man, I will go in first,
I will go in before others; I will be at the bottom of the basket."
Metsi went in first; every one in the sweat-house followed him. Then
Chuhna ran up, rose on her rope, and pulled the basket after her.
The sweat-house was empty; no one stayed behind. Chuhna kept rising
and rising, going higher and higher.
When Haka Lasi woke up and saw that she had a block of rotten wood on
her arm instead of Hitchinna, she said,--
"You won't get away from me, I will catch you wherever you are."
She rushed back to the sweat-house. It was empty; no one there. She
ran around in every direction looking for tracks, to find which way
they had gone. She found nothing on the ground; then she looked into
the sky, and far up, very high, close to the sun, she saw the basket
rising, going up steadily.
Haka Lasi was raging; she was so awfully angry that she set fire to
the house. It burned quickly, was soon a heap of coals.
The basket was almost at the sky when Metsi said to himself, "I wonder
how far up we are; I want to see." And he made a little hole in the
bottom of the basket to peep through and look down.
That instant the basket burst open; all came out, poured down, a great
stream of people, and all fell straight into the fire of the
sweat-house.
Now, Tsore Jowa was outside on top of the basket. She caught at the
sun, held to it, and saved herself.
Hitchinna went down with the rest, fell into the burning coals, and
was burned like his brothers.
Haka Lasi was glad that they had not escaped her; she took a stick,
fixed a net on it, and watched.
All were in the fire now and were burning. After a while one body
burst, and the heart flew out of it. Haka Lasi caught this heart in
her net. Soon a second and a third body burst, and two more hearts
flew out. She caught those as well as the first one. She caught all
the hearts except two,--Juka's own heart and his eldest son's heart.
Juka's heart flew high, went away far in the sky, and came down on the
island of a river near Klamath Lake. It turned into Juka himself
there. He sank in the ground to his chin; only his head was sticking
out.
The heart of the eldest son flew off to the foot of Wahkalu and turned
to be himself again. He fell so deep into the earth that only his face
was sticking out on the surface.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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