BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 145 
flesh of the coyote, there dwelt in Eel River Valley a famous coyote with 
_his two sons. In those days there came a terrible drought in that region, 
which was followed by a plague of grasshoppers, and this by a fire which 
destroyed every living thing on the face of the earth except the grasshop- 
pers. Then the coyote and his two sons eat very many grasshoppers, for that 
all flesh and all grass were consumed by the fire in the mountains; and they 
had thirst, and there was no water in all that land; but in Clear Lake there 
was water. So they started toward Clear Lake, these three coyotes, and on 
the mountain pass, as you go over into Potter Valley, one of the sons died 
of thirst, and his father buried him and heaped over him a cairn of stones. 
Then they went on to the lower end of that valley, and: as they passed 
over the mountain, going to Clear Lake the other son died, and him like- 
wise the father buried and heaped stones above him. After that he jour- 
neyed on alone to Clear Lake and came into it and drank of the waters, 
so much as never was drunk before, until he drained the lake dry. Then 
he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. As he slept there came up a man 
out of the south country and pricked him with his spear, so that the waters 
flowed forth from him and returned into the lake until it was full again, 
and the grasshoppers which he had eaten became fishes in the water, and 
thus the lake was filled with them. 
As to the legends of the huge snakes above mentioned, it is possible 
that they refer to some lingering member of a species of gigantic saurian 
now extinct. Ifso, the Indians must have been here many hundreds of 
years. 
The Tatu (Hiichnom) bury the dead with their heads to the north and 
their faces to the east, but not invariably. 
10 TC 
