The following are a few expressions sometimes used: Kee-mol-len-a
Ta-ga-ar-a-wah-ma, (bad talk) pointing the right hand, with the fingers
extended, toward a person and at the same time saying: Woo-saw-ah,
means that the person is badly born, and they never forgive you for
this. Another is: Char-reck-quick-cal-lah, and means: “I wish you were
in hell”, and for this also they never forgive.
CHAPTER II.
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.
In a vision, the Indian through his mysterious eyes
Sees yonder in the distant skies,
A scene sublime of the past ages,
That for aye will enchant bards and sages.
On His mighty Throne, high in the infinite realms of Heaven, sat the
great ruler of the stars and endless skies, Wah-pec-wah-mow (God). As
he peered down through the darkness of a cheerless and lonely space,
He created a new world, the earth on which we live. He first made the
soil of the earth and placed it in a buck-skin sack. He opened the sack
and shook the soil from it; it fell down into the chasm of darkness,
and Wah-pec-wah-mow could not see anything but the intense darkness. He
commanded that the rays of light should penetrate the awful darkness,
and there should alternately be night and day. The sun to shine by day
and the moon to shine by night, to break the awful stillness of this
once dark and cheerless world.
Gazing down from His Throne on high, Wah-pec-wah-mow saw the world he
had created was a desolate waste without human life, or life of any
kind. He now began the transformation of the new world, and lo, the
once barren surface of the earth was clothed in verdure; forests lifted
their giant branches sky-ward; tranquil streams flowed and great rivers
wended their way to the ocean.
The first living thing placed upon the earth was the white deer
(Moon-chay-poke). The white deer roamed over the hills, mountains,
in the valleys and on the plains. He was the pride and dignity of
the animal kingdom. This is why the Klamath Indians revere the white
deer that is so sacred to their hearts and use the skin as an emblem
of purity, in one of their greatest festivals, or worships, which
is termed in English as, “The White Deer-skin Dance.” In the Indian
language it is called, “Oh-pure-ah-wah”; which does not mean dance but
means one of their most sacred religious festivals.
The next living creature that Wah-pec-wah-mow placed upon the earth was
the red eagle, Hay-wan-alth, who has ever since ruled as the monarch of
the skies. The Indians prize the feathers of this eagle very highly,
and use them in their great festival. In the decoration of their
head-gear, they take a single feather, fasten it in the hair at the
back of the head, arranging it so that it stands straight up. They also
use the feathers of the bald eagle, Per-gone-gish, and the gray eagle,
Per-gish, sometimes as a substitute for the feathers of the red eagle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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