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
=Hubit=, wasp; =Hus=, buzzard; =Kahit=, wind; =Kaisus=, gray squirrel;
=Kiriú=, loon; =Kopus=, small-horned owl; =Kuntihlé=, small hawk
fishes in muddy water; =Kut=, unknown; =Lutchi=, humming-bird; =Mem
Loimis=, water; =Móihas=, bald eagle; =Pákchuso=, the pakchu stone;
=Patkilis=, jack rabbit; =Pori Kipánamas=, another name for =Kopus
Sútunut=, black eagle; =Sánihas=, daylight; =Sotchet=, beaver; =Toko=,
sunfish; =Tsaroki Sakahl=, green snake; =Tsárorok=, fish-hawk;
=Tsudi=, mouse; =Tsurat=, red-headed woodpecker; =Winishuyat=,
foresight; =Wokwuk=, unknown.
* * * * *
One evening a woman came to Olelpanti. Her name was Mem Loimis.
"Why are you here?" inquired Olelbis; "and from what place have you
come?"
"I have come from my home in the earth to ask if I may live with you.
I have come from the north."
"You may live here," said Olelbis; and she stayed there. She lived
with Olelbis, became his wife, and had two sons: the first was Wokwuk,
the second Kut.
Kut was still small, when one day the woman went out a little to one
side of the house to get something, and a man came to her and said,
"Come with me--come right away!" And he took her, took her quickly,
took her toward the north, to the place where Kahi Hlut is. This man
was Kahit, and Kahi Hlut was his house.
Olelbis knew not where his wife had gone; he knew not which way she
went; he had not seen her going out and had not seen her afterward. He
inquired of every one who lived in Olelpanti. All they knew was that
she had gone west a little way to get something.
For five years after the woman was carried away the people in
Olelpanti had no water to drink. This woman had given them water, and
now some one had taken her, and without her there was no water.
"I cannot tell what to do without water," said Olelbis. "I don't think
my children can live without water. I don't know what yapaitu likes my
wife and has taken her."
The people in and around Olelpanti talked a great deal about Mem
Loimis.
"I don't know how we are to live now," said Toko Kiemila to Olelbis.
"Some one has taken your wife away. I cannot live without water much
longer."
Another man who lay inside the sweat-house at the west end, an old
man, stood up and said,--
"I do not know what people are to do without water. I do not know how
you, Olelbis, are to live without it. I cannot live unless I have
water. I am very dry. Why do you not try to get water again? There is
a man in Hlihli Pui Hlutton whose name is Kopus. You can see his house
from here. He is a great Hlahi. He sings and dances every night. Let
him come here to sing and dance. Perhaps he will be able to bring
water back to us."
The old man who said this was Hubit. He was suffering from thirst so
much that he had tied a belt of sinews around his waist and tightened
it till he was nearly cut in two.
Olelbis went to the top of the sweat-house and spoke to all the
people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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