972 



MYTHOLOGY 



[b. a. e. 



from the nethermost of the four caves 

 (womljs) of the world, the seed of men 

 and the creatures took form and grew; 

 even as within eggs in warm places worms 

 quickly form and appear, and, growing, 

 soon burst their shells and emerge, as may 

 happen, Ijirds, tadpoles, or serpents; so 

 men and all creatures grew manifoldly 

 and multiplied in many kinds. Thus did 

 the lowermost world cave become over- 

 filled with living things, full of nntinished 

 creatures, crawling like reptiles one over 

 another in black darkness, thickly crowd- 

 ing together and treading one on another, 

 one spittingon another and doingother in- 

 decency, in such manner that the murmur- 

 ings and the lamentations became loud, 

 and many amidst the growing confusion 

 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, ol)tained 

 egress from that first world cave through 

 such a dark and narrow path that some 

 seeing somewhat, crowding after, could 

 not follow him, so eager mightily did they 

 strive one with another. Alone then did 

 Poshaiyankya come from one cave to 

 another into this world, 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 mvths, Dixon 

 (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.'xvii, pt. 3, 

 1905) 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 migra- 

 .tion, and the diversity shown within the 

 stock; that "beginning with the cre- 

 ation, a rather systematic chain of events 

 leads up to the appearance of the ances- 

 tors of the present Indians, with whose 

 coming the mythic cycle came to a close. 

 This mythic era seems to fall into a 

 number of periods, with each of which 

 a group or set of myths has to deal." 

 During the first era occurs the coming of 

 Kodoyanpe (Earth-namer) and Coyote, 

 the "discovery" of this world by them, 



and the preparation of it for the "first 

 people"; next, the "creation" of the 

 first people and the making and plant- 

 ing of the germs of human beings, the 

 Indians (in the form of smalT wooden 

 figures), who were to follow; third, the 

 long period in which the first people were 

 engaged in violence and conflict, and were 

 finally transformed into the various ani- 

 mals in the present world. During this 

 period Earth - maker (or Earth-namer) 

 sought to destroy Coyote, whose evil 

 ways anfl desires antagonized his own. 

 In this struggle Earth-namer was assisted 

 by the Conqueror, who destroyed many 

 monsters and evil beings who later 

 would have endangered the life of men 

 who should come on the scene. In the 

 final period comes the last struggle, 

 wherein Earth-maker strives in vain with 

 Coyote, his defeat and flight to the East 

 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 deb ge brought 

 on by one cause or another — as it is in 

 some mythologies. Here the creation is 

 a real beginning; l)eyond 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 Coyote 

 were floating in a canoe. Of the origin 

 or previous place of al)ode of either Crea- 

 tor or Coyote, the INIaidu knew nothing." 

 But Dixon adds that the Achomawi, 

 northern neighbors of the Maidu, push 

 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 

 pro]iortions, then condensed until it be- 

 came the Silver-Gray Fox, the Creator; 

 that immediately there arose a fog which 

 in turn condensed until it became Coyote. 

 See ('ahuiiet, F('li)<]i, Orenda, Religion. 



The bibliography of the mythology of 

 the Indians n. of Mexico is very exten- 

 sive. For an excellent summary of the 

 literature of the subject, consult Cham- 

 berlain in Jour. Am. Folk-lore, xviii, 111, 

 1905, and the continuous Recordof Ameri- 

 can Folk-lore published in the same 

 magazine. (j. N. b. h.) 



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