The Myths of the North American IndiansSpence, Lewis
History
The Myths of the North American Indians
Spence, Lewis
Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
"Between the foregoing outlines of Californian belief and those
connected with the remaining tribes, passing south, we can detect no
salient difference till we reach the Olchones, a coast tribe between
San Francisco and Monterey; the sun here begins to be connected, or
identified by name, with that great spirit, or rather, that Big Man,
who made the earth and who rules in the sky. So we find it again both
around Monterey and around San Luis Obispo; the first fruits of the
earth were offered in these neighbourhoods to the great light, and his
rising was greeted with cries of joy."
Father Gerónimo Boscana gives us the following account of the faith and
worship of the Acagchemem tribes, who inhabit the valley and
neighbourhood of San Juan Capistrano, California. We give first the
version held by the _serranos_, or highlanders, of the interior
country, three or four leagues inland from San Juan Capistrano:
"Before the material world at all existed there lived two beings,
brother and sister, of a nature that cannot be explained; the brother
living above, and his name meaning the Heavens, the sister living
below, and her name signifying Earth. From the union of these two
there sprang a numerous offspring. Earth and sand were the
first-fruits of this marriage; then were born {351} rocks and stones;
then trees, both great and small; then grass and herbs; then animals;
lastly was born a great personage called Ouiot, who was a 'grand
captain.' By some unknown mother many children of a medicine race were
born to this Ouiot. All these things happened in the north; and
afterwards when men were created they were created in the north; but as
the people multiplied they moved toward the south, the earth growing
larger also and extending itself in the same direction.
"In process of time, Ouiot becoming old, his children plotted to kill
him, alleging that the infirmities of age made him unfit any longer to
govern them or attend to their welfare. So they put a strong poison in
his drink, and when he drank of it a sore sickness came upon him; he
rose up and left his home in the mountains, and went down to what is
now the seashore, though at that time there was no sea there. His
mother, whose name is the Earth, mixed him an antidote in a large
shell, and set the potion out in the sun to brew; but the fragrance of
it attracted the attention of the Coyote, who came and overset the
shell. So Ouiot sickened to death, and though he told his children
that he would shortly return and be with them again, he has never been
seen since. All the people made a great pile of wood and burnt his
body there, and just as the ceremony began the Coyote leaped upon the
body, saying that he would burn with it; but he only tore a piece of
flesh from the stomach and ate it and escaped. After that the title of
the Coyote was changed from Eyacque, which means Sub-captain, to Eno,
that is to say, Thief and Cannibal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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