Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico / edited by Frederick Webb Hodge.

Date:
1907-1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico / edited by Frederick Webb Hodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    990/1000 (page 972)
    MYTHOLOGY [b. a. e. from the nethermost of the four eaves (womhs) of tlie world, the seed of men and the creatures took form and grew; even as within eggs in wai'in places w^orms quickly form and a[)pear, and, growing, soon hurst their shells and emerge, as may hajjpen, birds, tad])oles, or serpents; so men and all creatures grew manifoldly and multiplied in many kinds. Thus did tji6 lowt^nuost world cuvc ])ocoiue o\'or- lined with living things, full of unlinished creatures, crawding like reptiles one over another in black darkness, thickly crowd- ing together and treading one on another, ones[)ittingon another and doingother in- decency, in such manner that the murmur-' ings and the lamentations lu'came loud, and many amidst the growing confusioi'i sought to escape, growing wiser and more manlike. Then Poshaiyankya, the fore- most and wisest of men, arising from the nethermost sea, came among men and the living things, and, pityingthem, obtained egress from that first world cave through such a dark and narrow' jiath that some seeing somewhat, crowding after, could not follow hijn, so eager mightilydid they stri\’e one with another. Alone then did Poshaiyankya come from one cave to another into this w'orld, then, island-like, lying amidst the world waters, vast, wet, and unstable. He sought and found the Sun-father and besought him to deliver the men and the creatures from that neth- ermost world. Speaking of the Maidu myths, Dixon (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xvii, ])t. 3, 190-5) says that from present knowledge of them, the facts of most interest are the large measure of system and sequence found in the mythology of the stock; the prominence given to the “creation episode” and to the events connected with it; the strongly contrasted charac- ters of the “Creator” and the Coyote; the apparent absence of a myth of m'igra- tion, and the diversity shown within the stock ; that “ beginning wdth the cre- ation, a rather systematic chain of events leads iq> to the api>earauce of the ances- tors of the pres('iit Indians, with whose coming the mythic cycle came to a close. This mythic era seems to fall into a number of periods, wdth each of which a group or set of myths has to deal.” During th(> first era occurs the coming of Ko<ldyaiqie (Karth-namer) and Covote, the “discovery” of this world by them. and the preparation of it for the “first I_)eoi)le”; next, the “creation” of the first i)eople and the making and plant- ing of tlie germs of human beings, the Indians (in the form of small wooden figures), who w'ere to follow; third, the long period in which the first i)eople were engaged in violence and conflict, and were finally transformed into the variou.s ani- mals in the present world. During this pei'iod Barth-maker (or Earth-namer) sought to destroy Coyote, whose evil ways^ and desires antagonized his own. In this struggle Karth-namer was assisted by the Coiapieror, who destroyed many monsters and evil beings w'ho later would have endangered the life of men who should come on the scene. In the final j)eriod comes the last struga'le, wherein Karth-maker .strives in vain wdth Coyote, his defeat and flight to the Ea.st synchronously with the coming of the human race, the Indians, who sprang up from the places where the original pairs had long before been buried as small wooden figures. Dixon further says: “Nor is the creation here merely an epi- .sode—a re-creation after a del ge brought on by one cause or another—as it is in some mythologies. Here the creation is a real beginning; beyond it, behind it, there is nothing. In the beginning was only the great sea, calm and unlimited, to which, down from the clear sky, the Creator came, or on which he and Covote were floating in a canoe. Of the origin or previous place of abode of either Crea- tor or Coyote, the IMaidu knew nothing.” But Dixon adds that the Achomawi, northern neighbors of the Maidu, jnish this history much farther back, saying that at first there were but the shoreless sea and the clear sky; that a tiny cloud appeared in the sky, which, gradually increasing in size, finally attained large proportions, then condensed until it be- came the Silver-Cray Eox, the Creator; that immediately there arose a fog which in turn condensed until it became Coyote. See (\ilnwrt, Fetitih, Orenda, Religion. Tbe bibliogra])hy of the mythology of the Indians n. of Mexico is very exten- sive. Eor an excellent summary of the literature of the subject, consult Cham- berlain in Jour. Am. Folk-lore, xviii. 111, 1905, and tbecontinuous Becord of Ameri- can Ft)lk-lore published in the .eame magazine. (j. x. b. h.) Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding I of Medicine