Yauelmani Yokuts Myths

INTRODUCTION

The material on which this paper is based was collected in the years 1901 to 1906 as part of the work of the Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California carried on by the University of California's Department of Anthropology, which owes its existence and continued support to the interest of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst.

The Yauelmani stories given, numbers 37 to 40, are from two informants, both on Tule river reservation. The original territory of the Yauelmani was south of Tule river, apparently about Kern river in the vicinity of Bakersfield and above to Gonoilkin. Number 37 was obtained from Cow, the oldest man on the reservation, and is a somewhat fuller account of the creation, with the usual prominence of the eagle and Coyote and the episode of the diving for the earth, than any of the other Yokuts versions obtained. The antithesis between the wolf and Coyote is interesting because it reappears in other parts of California. The dignity of character attributed to the prairie falcon is also noticeable. The following fragment, number 38, from the same informant, shows Coyote as the cause of death, and is interesting because it reveals the presence among these people of the wide-spread Californian belief of the origin of the human hand as patterned upon that of the lizard. The next two stories, numbers 39 and 40, were obtained from an informant named Chalola, also an old man. The first of these two is by far the longest myth in the entire collection, and appears to consist of three more or less separate series of incidents. It is doubtful how far the joining together of these is due to the individual narrator. The first part tells how Coyote caused the absence of the sun in order to avenge himself upon the people with whom he lived. In this part of the myth he is the hero. The second portion is much more loosely put together, and consists of a string of typical Coyote episodes, his character being throughout ridiculous. A sudden transition made from Coyote to the prairie falcon, leads to the third portion of this myth, which tells of the prairie falcon's loss of his eyes in gambling and his travels. This part of the story seems to be little else than a framework for a number of songs. The second Yauelmani story obtained from this informant, number 40, is also of some length and again has the prairie falcon as its hero.

Myth 37 - THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD

At first there was water everywhere. A piece of wood (wichet, stick, wood, tree) grew up out of the water to the sky. On the tree there was a nest. Those who were inside did not see, any earth. There was only water to be seen. The eagle was the chief of them. With him were the wolf, Coyote, the panther, the prairie falcon, the hawk called po'yon, and the condor.

The eagle wanted to make the earth. He thought: "We will have to have land." Then he called k'uik'ui, a small duck. He, said to it: "Dive down and bring up earth." The duck dived, but did not reach the bottom. It died. The eagle called another kind of duck. He told it to dive. This duck went far down. It finally reached the bottom. Just as it touched the mud there it died. Then it came up again. Then the eagle and the other six saw a little dirt under its finger nail. When the eagle saw this he took the dirt from its nail. He mixed it with telis and pele seeds and ground them up. He put water with the mixture and made dough. This was in the morning. Then he set it in the water
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and it swelled and spread everywhere, going out from the middle. (These seeds when ground and mixed with water swell.)

In the evening the eagle told his companions: "Take some earth." They went down and took a little earth up in the tree with them. Early in the morning, when the morning star came, the eagle said to the wolf: "Shout." The wolf shouted and the earth disappeared, and all was water again. The eagle said: "We will make it again," for it was for this purpose that they had taken some earth with them into the nest. Then they took telis and pele seeds again, and ground them with the earth, and put the mixture into the water, and it swelled out again.

Then early next morning, when the morning star appeared, the eagle told the wolf again: "Shout!" and he shouted three times. The earth was shaken by an earthquake, but it stood. Then Coyote said: "I must shout too." He shouted and the earth shook a very little. Now it was good. Then they came out of the tree on the ground. Close to where this tree stood there was a lake. The eagle said: "We will live here." Then they had a house there and lived there.

Now every evening when the sun went down tokho (sokhon, tobacco) came there and went into the water in the lake. Coyote wanted to catch it. The eagle asked him: "How will you do it?" Coyote said: "Well, I will do it." He went off into the brush, rolled string on his thigh, and made it into a snare, which he put into the water. Tokho came, entered the water, and was caught. Coyote tried to take hold of it, but it was too hot. He could not touch it. It was like fire. Only after the sun came up was he able to take hold of it.

Now, after he had held it all night, the tokho said to him: "Take me to the house." Coyote asked it: "What does tokho mean?" It said: "I am tobacco (sokhon). Give me to the prairie falcon." Coyote brought it to the house and said: "Who wants this?" The eagle did not want it. None of the seven wanted it except the prairie falcon. He said: "I will take it." Coyote asked it: "What are you good for?" The tobacco said: "I am good for many things. If there is anything you want to have, use me, and then whatever it is that you wish will be so." The prairie falcon said: "I will try it." At night he took a little of the tobacco in his mouth and blew
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out: "Pu! I want it to rain." Then it began to rain. It rained all night.

Coyote said: "We will make a woman of a deer." Then they killed a deer. They put it under a blanket of tules. It was entirely covered. When the morning star came it got up. It was a person (yokots) now. It was a woman. Coyote said: "I will sleep with her." That night he slept with her. In the morning he was dead. The woman was not hurt. The prairie falcon took a sharp water-grass (kapi). He said: "Stick it in his anus and he will get up." One of them put it in. Coyote got up hurriedly. "Ah, I was sleepy," he said. He said: "That is not good. It is not sweet. All men will die. We shall have to do it differently." Then he killed her. He left her under the blanket over night. Then he said: "To-night I will try it again." Then he slept with her. In the morning he got up early. "This is all right," he said. "This is good. We will let it be like that." This is how people came to be: deer was the mother. They made her by means of tobacco, blowing (spitting) it out while they said what they wished. But the prairie falcon ate nothing but tobacco. He lived on that. Thus the earth was made.

Myth 38 - THE ORIGIN OF DEATH

It was Coyote who brought it about that people die. He made it thus because our hands are not closed like his. He wanted our hands to be like his, but kondjodji (a lizard), said to him: "No, they must have my hand." He had five fingers and Coyote had only a fist. So now we have an open hand with five fingers. But then Coyote said: "Well, then they will have to die."

Myth 39 - COYOTE'S ADVENTURES AND THE PRAIRIE FALCON'S BLINDNESS

They were living at Kamupau (south of San Emidio, which is at the end of the San Joaquin valley). Coyote's son was the hummingbird. He gambled constantly and won from everybody. Then the eagle, the chief, said: "Coyote's son is bad. We will kill him." They went to the owl, huhuwet, to have him make
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a fire which would burn up the hummingbird. They made the jackrabbit take this fire inside himself. Next day the crow went to Coyote and said to him: "Let us hunt." When they were hunting, he said to Coyote's son: "Shoot that jackrabbit there!" When the boy was about to shoot, his father told him: "Do not miss the little white mark on his forehead." The boy shot and caused a great fire to start. Coyote called to his son: "Come," and they ran. The fire followed them rapidly, trying to overtake them. They went up on a bare white mountain in the northeast. After three days the fire stopped burning. It had burned the mountains. Then Coyote said: "I will go back to see about our property. You must stay here until I come back." Then Coyote went back to Kamupau. He arrived there at night. The crow looked and saw a fire in Coyote's house. Then he told the eagle: "Coyote is alive still. We did not kill him." In the morning they went to him. "Where have you been?" they said. Coyote said: "I was lost." The eagle told him: "It is well. Everything is as it used to be." "Very well," said Coyote. Now one day Coyote began to carry wood and lay it outside his house. For three days he worked bringing wood. Then the people began to say: "What is Coyote doing? He has been bringing wood for three days. What is it for? He must be crazy." Then Coyote went off. He traveled one night. He came to the moon. The moon said to him: "What do you want, my elder brother?" Coyote said: "I have come to see you." What for?" asked the moon. Coyote said: "I will tell you what I want. I do not want you to rise any more. Stay at home." The moon said: "Very well. But you had better go to see my brother." Then Coyote went to see his brother, the thunder. "What do you want?" he asked. Coyote said: "I will tell you." "Well, tell me," said the thunder. Coyote said: "My brother, I do not want you to appear. Stay back where I want you to." "Well, yes," said the thunder; "but you had better go to our other brother. See what he says. He will do what is right." Then Coyote went to see the sun. He went into the house. The sun did not want to see him. He turned away from him. Coyote spoke to him but he turned away as if he were angry. Three times Coyote spoke. Then the sun turned and said: "What do you want?"
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Coyote said: "I want you to stay here and not to travel." "Very well," said the sun; "is that all you want?" "Yes," said Coyote. "Very well," said the sun, "go to see our brother the night. He will tell you what he will do." Then Coyote went to where the night was, far off in the last land. When Coyote came there it was dark and he could not see. "Where are you," he said. No one answered. "Where are you?" he said. Still there was no answer. "Where are you?" he asked. Then it began to be light. "What do you want?" he was asked. "I want you not to come about but to stay here," said Coyote. "Very well; is that all?" asked the night. "Yes." Then the night asked him: "When do you want me to do this?" Coyote said: "I will shout three times. You will hear it." "Well, shout loudly," said the night, and Coyote agreed. Then he went back to Kamupau. He arrived at night. In the morning he got up early, shouted, shouted again, and shouted again three times. It remained night, foggy and drizzling, and the sun did not rise.¹People sat up, became tired, lay down again, and slept. Coyote lived well. He had much food and plenty of wood. So it was for a month. Then the people said: "What is it? Where is the sun?" "I do not know," they told each other. "Go to see Coyote," the eagle said. "Perhaps he has done it. Bring him these beads." Then the crow went. He told Coyote: "The chief sends you these. He wants you to take them. What have you done?" Coyote said: "I do not know. I cannot do anything." The crow went back. "What did he say?" the eagle asked him. "He said he could do nothing." Now none of the people had any wood. All around the houses there was water. It had rained for three months and was dark constantly and there was no sun nor moon. Then the crow came again to Coyote. "What is the matter?" he said. "There is no sun nor moon, there is nothing. The chief wants you to make it better." Coyote said: "I do not know how. Perhaps it is that they just have not come of themselves." The crow went back and said: "He says he does not

[1. There is an obvious contradiction in causing continuous night by the absence of the night as well as of the sun and moon. Similarly in a Yurok myth, darkness, which at first was lacking in the world, was stolen from the twelve sun-moon brothers, or, in another version, results when the sun first moves across the sky instead of standing still.]
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know. He will not help. I think he does not want to. He does not wish them to come." Coyote was still living well, with plenty of wood and plenty of food. The people were in the water. The grass was high. It had rained four months now. They were without food or fire. Two months more they endured it. Then they went to Coyote again with a great quantity of beads (lilna), three sacks full. The crow gave them to Coyote. Coyote said: "What do you want? Food or wood?" The crow said: "The chief wants the weather changed. What is wrong with this world that there is no sun and no moon?" Coyote told him: "I do not know. I will try." Then he gave six sacks of beads to the eagle, double of what he had received. So he outdid the eagle. He said: "I will see what I can do." The crow took the six sacks of beads. When he gave them to the eagle, this one asked him: "What did he say?" The crow told him: "He said: 'I will try.'" Then Coyote went to the moon. For six months it had been night now, for one-half a year. The moon said: "Well, you have come." Coyote said: "Yes, I want you to travel again now." "Very well," said the moon. Then Coyote went to the thunder. "You have, come," he said. "Yes. I want you to appear again." Then he went to the sun, and told him also. "Travel again now," and the sun agreed. Then he went to the night and told him. "Come back to your place now." "Very well; when?" Coyote said: "I will shout three times. You will hear me." Then he went back. He shouted, and shouted, and shouted a third time. Soon it cleared and became light. The sun came, and people saw grass and clover, and ate. They thought much of Coyote because he had brought this about.

Soon Coyote started out again. He said: "I am going to see my son. I shall come back soon." The chief told him: "Very well, but come back at once without staying. We want you here." Coyote agreed and started. He went towards the white mountain where his son was. He went up Kern river past Bakersfield to Gonoilkin, a waterfall. There he sat and looked at the river. He saw many fish and wanted to eat them. Then he said:

epash epash epash wanil wanil wanil
(fish fish fish come come come)

habak tutsuat tsenil
(approach-the-fire a-plant ?)
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Soon little fish came to him. "You are no epash fish," he said and threw them back into the river. Then he called again. Soon fish came that were a little larger, but he threw them back also, saying: "You are no epash fish." He called again, and this time they came as big as his forearm. He picked them up and threw them back, telling them: "You are no epash fish." Then he called once more and they came as big as his thigh. Then he said: "Ya epash, ma epash, now they are epash fish, you are epash fish." He kept on calling and more came. He filled a large hole in the rock with them. Then he carried them to Wakhachau. He said: "I think I will cook them here. No, I think I will not. I will go down below. It is sandy here and not a good place." He went down the river to Woilo, at Bakersfield. He did not like it there and went on again down the river to Kuyo. He did not like it there and went to Pokhalin tinliu. He did not like it there either and went on to Tashlibunau, San Emidio. Now he had carried them a long way. He said: "There is plenty of wood here. I will cook." There was a big hole. In this he made his fire. Then he thought: "If I put them entirely into this they will burn." So he put their heads into the hole and covered them up, leaving only the tails sticking out lying one next to the other all around. So they cooked. He sat there. Then he said: "I have bododiwat (small black ill-smelling beetles) inside of me. I have good meat in my belly, I will mix my food. I will drink and make it salty." Then he went to a clear, bitter creek. Of that he drank. He drank too much of it. He went back to where his fish were cooking. Soon he was taken with colic. He defecated. Then he saw the bododiwat and laughed. He said: "There is my good mixed meat." He went back to where his fish were. Soon he defecated again. He laughed again at seeing the beetles. "There is that good meat. I am well now. I have put it outside of me. It will not be mixed any more." Now he was weak. He could not walk or get up. He had defecated too much. He could hardly sit up. He began to roll, and rolled like a log into the river. There he stayed until he became well. Then he got up and went where his fish were. He sat down. He said: "Well, I will eat now." He dug up the earth, took the loose tails, and threw them away,
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all around, here and there. He dug and dug, but there was nothing else there. He said: "What is the matter? Perhaps I have cooked them too much and they have gone down into the ground." He dug away but found no fish. He said: "They must have cooked so much that they went down further." He dug and dug until he was tired. He tore up the rocks and pulled them out. He got no fish, but he made a big hole. Soon batlawu (a red-headed fish-eating bird) came to Coyote. He asked: "What are you looking for?" Coyote said: "I am looking for my fish. Who took them?" Batlawu said: "I will tell you who took them." Coyote said: "I will give you half if you tell me." Batlawu told him: "You will see him soon. He is in the woods up here." It was sokhsukh (a fish-eating bird) who had stolen the fish. He had eaten them all. Coyote came to him. He said: "Give me half." Sokhsukh shook his head and vomited half the fish. Coyote ate that. Then he said: "Now I will call you and kill you." He called: "Sokhsukh!" and sokhsukh fell. Coyote tried to catch him but he escaped. Again he tried to seize him but he escaped. Soon he flew up so high that Coyote could not reach him any longer. He still followed him, looking up at him. They traveled over half the land from the hills down to the lake (Tulare lake). Then sokhsukh disappeared. Coyote could not see him any longer. Then he stopped. "It is too far to go back to the hills," he said. "I will go to the lake. I can eat tules and mud. It will be good." Then he went to the lake. He was hungry. Then he ate tule (-roots). He said: "It is well. Now I will go to see what I can find." He went. He saw many ducks. He said: "I will kill many of them. Then I shall be well off." So he started to hunt them. The ducks were calling: "en, en, en" Coyote listened, still thinking: "I will kill them and eat them." He went on again. The ducks continued to call: ("en, en, en") Coyote danced to the sound. Suddenly he danced into the water and the ducks flew up. He went on again until he found more ducks in the lake. He thought: "I will try to kill them. If I am lucky I shall kill one or two of them, and then I shall have something to eat." He approached them. The ducks heard him coming and sang: ""en, en, en" Coyote began to dance again and danced into the water. The ducks flew up.
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Coyote said: "I cannot kill them. I will let it be." Then he went on until he came north of Tulamni. There he saw a man looking into the water. He was wa'k (a bird). He had many small fish. Coyote went to him. The man asked him: "What are you doing here?" Coyote said: "Nothing. I came to see you. I want to eat of the fish you have caught." The man said: "Well, take some. There is what I have caught." Coyote ate of them. He ate them raw, bones and all. Then he said: "I will go on now." The man asked him: "Where are you going?" Coyote said: "I am going to see my son." The man said: "You will see a man below here who will give you more fish." Coyote went on down and saw a man sitting. It was wakhat, the crane. He reached him. "Hello!" he said. "Hello! Where are you going?" asked the crane. Coyote said: "I came to see you. I want to eat of the fish you are catching." "Very well," said the crane. Coyote ate. He ate them raw, he was so hungry (or, greedy). "Where are you going?" asked the crane. "I am going to see my son," said Coyote. The crane told him: "You will see another man fishing." Coyote went on. Then he saw many men fishing, batlawu and yimelan (a diving bird). Coyote said: "Hello! Are you here?" They said: "Yes." He said: "I have come to eat of your fish." They said: "Very well, there are many in there. Eat as many as you want." Then Coyote made a fire in the place and ate. He ate all he wanted. When he had enough, he said: "Why do you not go over there? There are many large fish there. I was there a long time. ago." He was lying. They said: "Show us how to catch them." Coyote said: "Very well. But show me how you make your noses red." They told him: "We put tule into the hot ashes and then put it on our noses and it makes them red." Coyote said: "It is good. I wish you would do it to me." "Very well," they said. Then they put Coyote into the ashes and glowing tules. Three or four of them held him down. He was burned in the fire and died. "Throw him away. He is no good," they said, and then went off. Coyote lay there. Next day he woke up. He said: "I have been asleep. Where did they go to?" Now his nose was white. The flesh had come off and the bone showed. Then he came to those who had done this to him. 'You have been asleep," they
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said. "Yes, I slept a little," he said. "How is it that you are red and I am white?" "You burned it too much," they said; "you are redder than we are." They had got a rock ready so that it looked like a dakhdu fish. They said: "Here is a dakhdu (a large fish with spines on its back). You have a large month, ours are little. See if you can catch it." Coyote said: "Well, I will go and see." Then they went to the place to dive. Coyote jumped in, struck the rock, and mashed his head, which was already only bones. He died again. They left him and went off. Next day Coyote got up and looked around. No one was there. He went on. He said: "Well I think I must go to the place for which I started." He went on and on but saw no one. Then he came to where there were many men. They asked him: "Where have you been?" He told them: "Oh, about the land." They asked: "Where are you going?," He said: "I am going to see my son." They said: "It is well." Then he told them: "I want to stay here for a time. I am tired." The chief said: "Very well."

Next day they began to gamble. People there gambled all the time. Now the prairie falcon had been gambling and had lost one of his eyes. "I want to win your other eye," his opponent said. The prairie falcon agreed and they played again. Then, when it was nearly sunset the prairie falcon had lost both his eyes. Then he took a sharp grass that grows on the mountains and cut out his eyes and gave them to the man who had won them. Now he sat there. Then his friend the crow came to him and said: "We had better go into the house." The prairie falcon said: "No, I will not go into the house." The crow asked Min: "What are you going to do? Will you sit here all night?" He said: "Well, I am going north. I have a relative (nusus, father's sister) there." In the middle of the night he started. He had no eyes. The crow said: "I will go with you." "Very well," he said. Then he sang a little as they started to go.

khoyu nan	return (= bad luck comes to?) me
ama, nim huwut	then my gambling
t'awe nan	beat me
dokoi nim	gambling-implements my

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So he sang and started. He went singing all the time. After a longtime he said: "Are you hungry?" The crow said: "Yes." "Where is there a bush?" "Here," said the crow. The prairie falcon felt around until he touched the bush. Suddenly he struck it and killed a rabbit. Then the crow ate. When he had finished, the prairie falcon asked him: "Do you want water?" The crow said: "Yes." The prairie falcon told him: "Turn the other way around," and the crow turned. Soon the prairie falcon said to him: "Well, now you can turn this way." The crow turned around and there was a little spring there. The prairie falcon had made it for him. Then he drank and they went on. Now they came to a village. A man said: "What is the matter with the prairie falcon? He is blind. A man holds him by the band and leads him. It is the crow, his friend." The prairie falcon sang: "Hiw�ti, yona, hiw�ti, naamtayo, lan�yo, hilal�kiyo, tawat�" They stayed at that village one night. Then they went on again. Again the prairie falcon asked his companion: "Are you hungry?" and when the crow said that he was, he did the same as before. He struck a bush and killed a rabbit and the crow cooked it and ate it. Then he asked him: "Do you want to drink?" and again made a spring for him. From there they went on again. They came to a village. The people said: "What is the matter with the prairie falcon? He is blind and his friend the crow is leading him by the hand." They asked him: "What is the matter?" He said: "I have lost my eyes gambling." The chief said: "It is too bad. Where are you going now?" He said: "I am going to my relative." The chief asked him: "Will you stay here?" He said: "Yes, for a little while." The chief said to him: "We would like you to sing." "Very well," he said. Then he sang: "Yahilulumai, yahimai lulmnai, sawawa kanama, taniyo, yapiwi piwimai, tawana tsiniyo, hilalikiyo, tawati tawat." The prairie falcon and the crow went on again from that place. They went far. Again he asked the crow: "Are you hungry?" and killed a rabbit and made water for him. He himself ate nothing. He only used tobacco. That was his food. Then they came to a village. (The same conversation is repeated). Then he sang for them: "Hilamata, hayaawiyu, lokoyowani, waatin, humuyu hile." It was at Kaweah that he sang thus. In
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the morning they went on again. The traveled far. Then they came to Chowchilla. They approached a village. (The same dialogue is repeated.) "Stay here and sing," they said and he agreed. He sang: "Hosimi, hosiwimine, wanit wilima, lananama, hosimi." That is the end. The prairie falcon stayed there.

Myth 40 - THE PRAIRIE FALCON LOSES

At Kamupau, south of San Emidio, many people lived. The eagle was the chief. Coyote was there too. He was a good talker and knew everything. The prairie falcon was there. He was fierce. The large owl, hutulu, and the small ground owl, tokowets, both of them medicine-men, were there. The panther was there. He was a good hunter. The weasel, the fox, and the magpie lived there too. These three were all gamblers. Many others lived there. Every day the hunters, the eagle, the prairie falcon and the panther, went out for rabbits. Coyote brought wood to every house. He never went hunting. When the hunters came back they called to Coyote: "Tutunusut!" That was his name. They gave him the intestines of the rabbits and he ate them. They also gave him the unborn rabbits (wasis). When Coyote received these he spoke over them and blew on them and made them larger (sukhua, to make or create by blowing). By the time he came to his house they were large rabbits. In this way he lived. The gamblers played every day at the gambling ground with the hoop and poles. Now the small black-eared rabbit, tukuyun, came from pitnani (the forks of Kern river, the country of the Shoshonean Pitanisha or T�batulabal). Coyote said: "A stranger has come." They went to him and brought him into the chief's house. He was bringing food with him, pinenuts, and puhuk, and hapu. This he gave to the eagle. Next morning he went to gamble with the fox. The rabbit won everything. He won also the weasel's beads. He won all that the magpie had. He won everything from all the gamblers. Coyote was about as an attendant. He helped them as they played and was paid for it. He did not ask to receive much. He did not expect to be made rich. In the evening they stopped playing because the rabbit had won everything. Early in the morning they began again. Now the rabbit gambled with the prairie falcon.
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The prairie falcon won everything he had. He won all that the rabbit had won the day before as well as the beads which the eagle had given him for the food which he had brought. Then the rabbit told him: "I have nothing more." But the prairie falcon said to him: "Play for your ear." The rabbit agreed. Then they played and the prairie falcon won his ear. He cut it off. "Try with the other," he said, and the rabbit consented. The n Coyote said to the rabbit: "Wait." Then he went off to the wife of the prairie falcon, who was in the house making a basket. He told her: "I want my gambling hoop. It is in the bed." The woman said: "I cannot find it." Coyote went there and found it. Then he cohabited with the woman. Then the prairie falcon began to lose. The rabbit won everything back again. He won everything that he had lost. He won everything that the prairie falcon had. Then the prairie falcon thought: "To-night I must go away and die. I have nothing left." That night he went off toward the coast. In the morning he was in the hills. He saw smoke. He went to the house there. An old woman and a girl were there. They took him in. The old woman got up and gave him acorn soup and fish to eat. Then the prairie falcon was married again. He married that girl. At night two boys came fighting. They were the girl's brothers. As they fought outside the house, the old woman went out and told them: "Be quiet. Your brother-in-law is inside. It is the prairie falcon." They laughed and fought; then they came in and ate. Then the old woman told them to go outside again. They went out. Early in the morning they went to the ocean to fish. The prairie falcon went out into the brush and set snares for rabbits. He filled two sacks with rabbits and came home while it was still morning. At night the two boys came again and ate of the rabbits. They said: "Our brother-in-law has killed game. We will eat it. He is a good hunter. In the morning we will take him with us to catch fish." Then the girl said: "Are you going fishing in the morning?" The prairie falcon said: "Yes, I will go." In the morning they went. They went in a boat out on the ocean. They caught fish and filled the boat. Then the wind blew the boat out to sea. The two boys (by sukhua, magic by blowing) then created a string with which they pulled the boat
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back to land. Next day the prairie falcon went fishing again with his brothers-in-law. They caught many fish and filled the boat. Now the wind came and blew them out to sea again. Then the prairie falcon fell into the water and drowned. The 'two boys fought in the boat because their brother-in-law was dead. When they came to land they fought again. Then they went home.

Now Coyote, another coyote who was the prairie falcon's mother's brother, knew that he was dead. He knew it because he had supernatural power (tipni). He was in the house with his wife. When the prairie falcon died he felt bad. His heart came out of his mouth, he felt so sorry. He would have died, but he caught his heart as it was in the air and put it back into his month. Then he went to where the prairie falcon's new wife was. "Where is the prairie falcon?' he asked the old woman. Then the two boys took him where the prairie falcon bad died. "Where did he fall in?" Coyote asked. "Here," they said. Then he took tobacco and dived far down into the water. He carne to seven trails. He could not tell which way to go. Then he took his tobacco and by means of it chose one trail. He followed this and came to a large communal house (gawi). There he saw a man with his knees burning. "You are burning," he said. He did riot answer. Coyote took tobacco, spoke over it, and made the person able to talk again. The prairie falcon was in the house. Only his feathers were left. Now he sang in the Tokye (Chumash) language: "Kapikh, tata, shakhshaniwash, salialama. You came, my uncle. You will die." Then Coyote sang also. He sang: "I am dead already. You know it." He meant that he should have died when he had jumped into the water, and therefore could not really die. Then he took the prairie falcon. No one was there except the old man whose knees were being burned for wood. So Coyote took the prairie falcon back with him. Then he put blue rock-paint on him as medicine and made him well again. This was through his supernatural power. He took a small sharp grass and stuck him in the anus. Then the prairie falcon got up.

The girl, the old woman, and the two boys were spiders of a species called ulumush or kolokilwi. The prairie falcon's uncle, Coyote, came from Nohomo, southwest of San Emidio.
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Myth 25 - THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD - A Wukchamni Yokuts myth told by a Yaudanchi Yokuts.

Everything was water except a very small piece of ground. On this were the eagle and Coyote. Then the turtle swam to them. They sent it to dive for the earth at the bottom of the water. The turtle barely succeeded in reaching the bottom and touching it with its foot. When it came up again, all the earth seemed washed out. Coyote looked closely at its nails. At last he found a grain of earth. Then he and the eagle took this and
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laid it down. From it they made the earth as large as it is.

From the earth they also made six men and six women. They sent these out in pairs in different directions and the people separated. After a time the eagle sent the Coyote to see what the people were doing. Coyote came back and said: "They are doing something bad. They are eating the earth. One side is already gone." The eagle said: "That is bad. Let us make something for them to eat. Let us send the dove to find something." The dove went out. It found a single grain of meal. The eagle and Coyote put this down on the ground. Then the earth became covered with seeds and fruit. Now they told the people to eat these. When the seeds were dry and ripe the people gathered them. Then the people increased and spread all over. But the water is still under the world.

INDIAN MYTHS OF SOUTH CENTRAL CALIFORNIA.

BY

A. L. KROEBER.

[1907]

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS