AN ANCIENT TRADITION—THE COYOTE AND THE FOX. 273 
miles the ashes began slowly to disappear, and the sun shone again, but at 
first it was like blood for color. 
It is possible that this legend has reference to that tremendous out- 
pouring of lava (which must have been preceded by showers of ashes), 
which was recently described by Professor Le Conte in a paper read before 
the California Academy of Sciences. 
LEGEND OF CREATION. 
Our earth was created by the coyote and the eagle, or, rather, the 
coyote began and the eagle completed it. First, the coyote scratched it up 
with his paws out of nothingness, but the eagle complained that there were 
no mountains for him to perch on. The coyote made hills, but they were 
not high enough, so the eagle fell to work on it and scratched up great 
ridges. When he flew over them his feathers dropped down, took root, and 
became trees, and his pin-feathers became bushes and plants. But in the 
creation of animals and man the coyote and the fox participated, the first 
being an evil spirit, the other good. They quarreled as to whether they 
should let men live always or not. The coyote said, “If they want to die, 
let them die”; but the fox said, ‘If they want to come back, let them come 
back”. But nobody ever came back, for the coyote prevailed. Last of all, 
the coyote brought fire into the world, for the Indians were freezing. He 
journeyed far to the west, to a place where there was fire, stole some of it, 
and brought it home in his ears. He kindled a fire in the mountains, and 
the Indians saw the smoke of it, and went up and got fire; so they were 
warmed and comforted, and have kept it ever since. 
Following are the Pit River numerals, in Big Valley: 
One. ha-mis’. Six. ma-shuts. 
Two. hak. Seven. | haé-kuts. 
Three. | chast. Eight. | ha-ta-mé-leh 
Four. ha-tam’. Nine. mo-losch’-i-jin. 
Five. ]A-tu. Ten. mo-losch’-i. 
The word for ‘‘ nine” means “ pretty near ten”. 
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