THE WINDS AND THE EARTH. xci 



yImASH and MtJASH. 



North wind (YAmash) and South wind (Mi'iash) are more important to 

 the inhabitants of the Klamath highlands than any of the other winds, and 

 therefore are mentioned more frequently. Winds always appear in con- 

 nection with K'nu'ikamtch or his representative among the animals, Ske'l. 

 Thus when Ske'l visits his sister, Meadow Lark, who is married to the 

 oldest of the Thunders, he is accompanied by Kak (the Raven, or storm- 

 bird), Yamash, Tchakinksh, Yewash, ^luash, Tkalamash, and Gu'})ashtish. 

 The Thunder receives and feeds them with the blood of the people slain by 

 him. 



The conflict between Ske'l and Tchashkai on one side and the Winds 

 on the other is related on page 111 of the Texts and is purely meteorolog- 

 ical. The South Wind obscures by clouds the face of the moon, and thus 

 kills him temporarily; but when the summer sun appears in the form of 

 Ske'l both winds disappear at once to make room to an unclouded sky. 

 The hat of the dead Yamash afterwards serves to frighten the Thunders, as 

 related on the same page. Which was the southern home of Miiash is not 

 pointed out in the myths, but that of Yamash was Yamsi Mountain, which 

 is called after him. Yamash corresponds to some extent to the Kabibo- 

 nokka or Northwind of the Ojibwe Indians, and is as much an object of 

 folklore as he is. In other mythologies of America the winds ai-e the 

 blasts of monsters or big beasts; for the animism prevailing in all the 

 ancient myths requires them to be the manifestation of some living being. 



KAILA OR THE EARTH. 



The Earth is regarded by these Indians as a mysterious, shadowy 

 power of incalculable energies and influences, rather mischievous and 

 wicked than beneficial to mankind. The Indians ascribe anger and other 

 passions to it, but never personify it in clearer outlines than the ancients 

 did their ^'Epa and Tellus; and it never appears as an active deity in the 

 numerous mythic tales gathered by Mr. Curtin for the collection of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology. I know of it only through the song-lines gathered 

 by myself from individuals of both tribes. 



Among all nations of the world we find the idea, whicii is real as well 



