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
The two looked along the ridge toward the south--it was before sunrise
then--and they saw a person come a little way in sight, then turn and
go back. He did not come nearer because he saw Olelbis. The cloud
people are very timid; they can see a long distance, and have a very
keen scent. When he saw Olelbis, this one ran away home.
"My brother," said Katkatchila to Olelbis, "we have been watching here
to drive back these cloud people. We have watched night and day, I and
my little brother. My brother is near the eastern slope of this ridge
which runs north and south; he stays there and watches."
"What do you mean by cloud people?" asked Olelbis; "what kind of
people are they? I have seen only the head and neck of one; what I saw
looked well, seemed good. I wish you, my brothers, would catch one of
these people, if you can."
"How is it that you do not know these people?" asked Katkatchila. "You
ought to know them; you have seen every place, every person,
everything; you ought to know these people. I will tell you how they
came. My sister and I made the great world fire; we made the wakpohas
because Torihas and his people stole my flint. I was angry. I told my
sister to put her baby outside the house. We put pitch-pine around it,
and fire blazed up from the baby. When the fire was burning all over
the earth and there were great flames and smoke, a big water and a
strong wind came; the water filled the whole world with steam, and the
wind drove the steam and smoke from the great fire, and carried them
far off to the south, where they became a people,--the cloud people.
These people are red or white or black, all of them, and they are
going north always. They have good heads and long necks."
"I should like to stand near some of these people and look at them,"
said Olelbis.
"I do not like to see them go north," said Katkatchila. "My brother
and I are here trying to drive them back; but they go north in spite
of us. My brother is on the other slope over there to frighten them
back; but they turn to the east a little and go around him."
"Bring your brother here," said Olelbis.
Katkatchila brought his brother, and the two said,--
"These cloud people are very wild; we cannot go near them. But we
should like to drive them back or catch them."
"Go west, my brothers," said Olelbis, "and get something to stop that
gap on the east where the cloud people pass you and go north. Stop
that opening on the east, and stop the western slope also, leaving
only a narrow place for them to go through. Get yew wood, make a very
high fence with it, and stop the eastern slope."
They brought the yew wood and made a very high fence on the eastern
slope, and then one on the west, leaving only a narrow gap open.
"Go to the east now," said Olelbis, "get katsau, which is a strong,
fibrous plant, and make strings of it. Make a rope of the string and
set a snare in the opening of the fence across the western slope to
catch those cloud people."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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