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
This was Lutchi Herit. Two more came and saluted Olelbis. "Go into the
sweat-house," said he. These were the two brothers, Tilichi. A fifth
person came, Kuntihle, and then a sixth, Sutunut, a great person.
Lutchi kept darting around, looking toward the north and calling:
"Kahit cannot take me! Kahit cannot take me!" Kahit was getting angry
by this time, and thinking to turn and look at Lutchi, for though far
away, he heard the noise of his darting and his calling. "That old
Kahit may come out, but he cannot catch me!" called Lutchi, as he
darted around, always watching the north.
Now Olelbis called Lutchi and Sutunut, and said: "You, Lutchi, go
north, pry up the sky and prop it; here is a sky pole and a sky prop."
Turning to Sutunut, he plucked a feather from each of his wings and
said: "Go to Kahit in Waiken Pom Pui Humok Pom; tell him to come south
with Mem Loimis. She lives not far from him. Her house is in the
ground. And tell him to blow his whistle with all his breath. Put
these two feathers on his cheeks just in front of his ears."
Lutchi went quickly. No one could travel as fast as he. He reached the
sky on the north, raised and propped it. Sutunut gave the message to
Kahit, who raised his head from between his hands slowly and turned
toward the south. Sutunut put the feathers in his cheeks then, as
Olelbis had commanded.
One person, Sotchet, who lived just south of Kahit, spoke up now and
said,--
"Go ahead, Kahit. I am in a hurry to see my father, Olelbis. I will
follow you. I am drinking my mother's milk." (He was doing that to
bring great water.) His mother was Mem Loimis.
"Come with me, Mem Loimis," said Kahit to Sotchet's mother. "When I
start, go ahead a little. I will help you forward."
Olelbis was watching, and thought, "Kahit is ready to start, and Mem
Loimis is with him."
Olelbis made then an oak paddle, and hurled it to where Sotchet was.
Sotchet caught the paddle, made a tail of it, put it on, and went
plashing along through the water. Not far from Kahit lived an old
woman, Yoholmit Pokaila. She made a basket of white willow, and
finished it just as Mem Loimis was ready to start. In the same place
was Sosini Herit, just ready to move. In one hand he held a bow and
arrows, with the other he was to swim.
Olelbis saw all this,--saw and knew what people were doing or
preparing to do. "Grandmothers," said he, "Mem Loimis is ready to
move. Kahit is ready. All the people around them will follow."
The great fire was blazing, roaring all over the earth, burning rocks,
earth, trees, people, burning everything.
Mem Loimis started, and with her Kahit. Water rushed in through the
open place made by Lutchi when he raised the sky. It rushed in like a
crowd of rivers, covered the earth, and put out the fire as it rolled
on toward the south. There was so much water outside that could not
come through that it rose to the top of the sky and rushed on toward
Olelpanti.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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