DEATH AND ANNIHILATION—MAKING MOUNTAINS. 283 
one who passes the mound casts upon it a stone, or a string of shell-money, 
or some other offering, which pious service will secure him from the dire 
calamity of dying away from home and friends. 
Incremation is pretty general, though the Chukchansi are said to burn 
only those who die a violent death or are snake-bitten, and bury all others. 
A widow or widower is expected to mourn one year, and if they remarry 
within that time they are discountenanced. This is not saying that they do 
not sometimes nowadays, since they have become debauched by ‘civiliza- 
tion”, remarry in a week, even, occasionally; but there is good reason to 
believe that in their better days of savagery they observed this period with 
much scrupulosity. But as soon as the first dance for the dead occurs it 
releases all the mourners in the tribe from further seclusion, even if it should 
happen only a few days after some death, and then they are free to enjoy 
all the gayeties as before. 
As there has been some sharp discussion of the existence of an aborigi- 
nal belief in annihilation of the soul after death, it is worth while to adduce 
the testimony of one who should know. J. H. Bethel, who lived among 
the Chukchansi twenty-one years, and spoke their language fluently, affirms 
that this belief is very generally diffused, both among the Yokuts and the 
Mono. 
ORIGIN OF THE MOUNTAINS. 
Once there was a time when there was nothing in the world but water. 
About the place where Tulare Lake is now, there was a pole standing far 
up out of the water, and on this pole perched a hawk and a crow. First 
one of them would sit on the pole awhile, then the other would knock him 
off and sit on it himself. Thus they sat on top of the pole above the 
waters for many ages. At length they wearied of the lonesomeness, and 
they created the birds which prey on fish such as the kingfisher, eagle, 
pelican, and others. Among them was a very small duck, which dived 
down, to the bottom of the water, picked its beak full of mud, came up, 
died, and lay floating on the water. The hawk and the crow then fell 
to work and gathered from the duck’s beak the earth which it had brought 
up, and commenced making the mountains. They began at the place 
now known as Ta-hi’-cha-pa Pass, and the hawk made the east range, 
