This is the rock that sits out in the ocean some eight or ten miles
from the land, at the present time from Orick or the mouth of Redwood
Creek. This rock the white man calls Redding Rock, the Klamath Indians
call it Sa-quan-ow. The true facts concerning this rock are told in a
preceding chapter.
THE BLUE JAY.
There was an old mother deer making mush for her family’s breakfast
one morning and while she was cooking it she broke her leg and she
then allowed the marrow from the bone to run into the mush as she
stirred it. This made the mush very palatable and oily. The Blue Jay
who happened along at the time, watched the deer cooking the mush and
saw her break her leg and mix the marrow fat with the mush and when the
mush was cooked the Blue Jay tasted it and found it very delicious.
That day when the Blue Jay went home she decided she would make her
acorn mush in the same way, so after fixing her mush she broke her leg
to get the marrow which she stirred into the mush, but to her great
disappointment the substance she took from her leg was not oil but
blood and when she saw how bloody it made her mush and which spoiled
it, she became very mad for being so simple, so she at once turned upon
herself and plucked out all her tail feather and stuck them in the top
of her head and ever after the Blue Jay has worn a top-knot of feathers
on the head.
THE MOURNFUL COO OF THE DOVE.
The Dove (Ah-row-wee) since the deluge of the world has been considered
by the Klamath Indians as the sacred bird. They carry the symbol of the
dove in their ceremonial worship in the sacred lodge, and worship the
bird as divine. Around this little bird is woven a pathetic tale of why
he coos so much and always seems so sorrowful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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